-Up to this point, the island of Britannia had avoided the attention of Rome.
-The Romans hated the sea, so Britannia being an island had worked well to protect the Britons from their conquests for a long time.
-However, this is not to say that Rome didn't know about Britannia- the Greeks had already explored up there and written about it, plus they had learned about it over the course of their interactions with the Gauls.
-To the Romans, Britannia was an almost mythical realm.
-Julius Caesar, being a larger than life character himself (but still a governor (of both Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul) at this time), eventually set his sites on the mysterious island. He was probably thinking that it would suit his legendary character to try and conqueror this legendary land.
-Decided to cross over and check it out around 56 BC.
-He was interrupted, however, when the Gallic hordes of the Armorican Peninsula (modern-day Brittany, France) began to rebel.
-The Greek historian Strabo wrote that the rebellion was started because the hordes of Armorica wanted to prevent what they believed was to be the inevitable invasion of Britannia.
-These Armorican tribes were very similar to the Britannic tribes, as they traded frequently and had the same religion (Celtic paganism) and culture. Briton warriors also historically fought alongside their Armorican cousins (and maybe vice versa), so because of their entering into the Armorican rebellion they were now on Rome's radar.
-After quelling the rebellion, Caesar once again made plans to cross the English channel. However, he was distracted again by Germanic hordes crossing the Rhine into Roman lands.
-Then, after dealing with the Germanic invasion, Caesar ran into some legal trouble in Rome concerning his plans for invading Britannia.
-Rome actually had a law that made it illegal for governors to invade foreign lands unprovoked, and Caesar had many enemies in the Senate so it was unlikely that his plans would be approved.
-Another problem for Caesar was that he didn't have enough transports for his troops.
-Caesar decided to take advantage of this situation by claiming that he was just doing a "reconnaissance mission" instead of a full-scale invasion, so that way he could say that he wasn't actually invading anyone, he was just spying on some potential enemies. However, if he happened to find some cool stuff during his exploration of Britannia then maybe the Senate would vote in favor of him receiving more military support (i.e. power!!).
-As a side note, crossing the English channel was crazy for the Romans because they believed that it was actually a part of the ancient titan Oceanus (a huge body of water that circled the world (excluding the Mediterranean; the cutoff was the Pillars of Hercules (modern-day Strait of Gibraltar).
-Oceanus was also very mysterious because he never got involved in any of the drama with the other deities. He just kind of kept to himself, something the Romans felt was very mysterious...
-Anyway, Caesar sent two ships to Britannia.
-The first ship was to survey the coast.
-It eventually landed at Dubris (modern-day Dover, England).
-The second ship was to actually go and immediately make contact with the Britons.
-On this ship were Rome's tribal ambassadors, including Commius, a puppet king of the Atrebates (Gallic tribe based out of modern-day Belgium and northern France) whom Caesar had enthroned after conquering them) but well-respected by the tribes of southeast Britannia.
-However, as soon as the ships landed it looks like the Britons smelled a rat, so they decided to take these unwelcome visitors prisoner!
-This was what Caesar needed in order to have a reason for getting more troops for his protection during his "expedition"!
-55 BC- Caesar heads to Britannia.
-Had two legions (about 10,000 men) with 80 ships, in addition to 500 cavalry (who traveled separately and would end up getting lost on the way due to a storm).
-Caesar lands at Dubris, but is surprised to find that there is a horde of Britons waiting for for him to fuck him up!
-Caesar decides to try and land further up the coast instead, but everywhere he went he found Britons ready to kick his ass.
-It's worth noting that the Britons were also well-armed, as they had iron weapons and armor, chariots, etc.
-Finally, the Roman standard bearer couldn't stand it any longer, and so he decided to pull a Leeroy Jenkins and jump into the water and charge the Britons on the beach with his men! The other Roman soldiers realized what had happened, and so they too decided to do the same thing.
-Surprisingly, the Romans were actually able to establish a foothold on the beach! The Britons were no match for the Roman legions once the battle moved to relatively solid ground. Because of this, the Britons ended up fleeing.
-The Britons then tried to sue for peace, saying that they were a different group and weren't responsible for Commius and the others' capture- this was the doing of rogue warriors and not because of official tribal leaders' commands.
-Thus, a peace was immediately worked out and the Britons' hostages were given back to Rome.
-Soon after this, other groups of Britons also came to Caesar to surrender.
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