The date of Claudius' British campaign and the mint of Alexandria

Extract

The main outline of the events and chronology of the Claudian invasion of Britain are familiar enough, despite the loss of Tacitus' Annals for the period in question. A Roman force of four legions was assembled, along with auxiliaries, at Boulogne and crossed the channel under the command of Aulus Plautius. Dio states unambiguously that this occurred in A.D. 43. He provides no explicit information on the month, but certain assumptions can safely be made. It is inconceivable that the Romans would have attempted a crossing of a dangerous stretch of sea like the English Channel before the sailing season technically opened, on 10 March, and it is almost inconceivable that they would have ventured to transport a large army over that passage before the seas were considered safe, on 27 May. Moreover, the expeditionary force was delayed by two unforeseen factors. Suetonius tells us that the expeditionis Britannicae dies was postponed because of the illness of Galba. Also, the troops initially refused to embark from Gaul, and if Dio's account is correct, this led to a delay while Narcissus was summoned from Rome to the Gallic coast. How long these two factors might have held back the invasion cannot be known. Even after the successful landings the Claudian forces faced another hold–up. The Britons refused to engage the Romans, hoping to wear the invaders out, and Plautius had great difficulty tracking his enemy down.