Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 09.djvu/33

Caractacus a revolt of the Iceni (Norfolk and Suffolk). Having put down this revolt, and having formally established a Roman colony at Camulodunum, he advanced once more to the west (A.D. 50). Caractacus had led the British host from the extreme south, and was now in the territory of the Ordovices (Shropshire), and somewhere in that district the final battle took place in the summer of A.D. 50. The site of the battle, like most matters connected with British history, is a subject of considerable doubt. Discussions on this point will be found in the books referred to at the end of this article. That which best suits the account given by Tacitus is the hill called Caer Caradoc, described by Camden. It is near the meeting of the Clun and Teme, and in Camden's time still retained traces of British fortification. Caractacus posted his army on a steep hill, and strengthened all possible approaches with heaps of loose stones ('in modum valli præstruit'). Between this hill and the Roman camp ran a river of unknown depth. Ostorius was dismayed at the spirit shown by the Britons; but the veterans easily forded the river. They were received by showers of darts; but at length forming a testudo, they scaled the hill, tore down the barricades of stones, and dislodged the Britons. The wife, daughter, and brothers of Caractacus fell into the hands of the Romans. Many, however, escaped to the mountains, among them Caractacus himself, who took refuge in the country of the Brigantes; but their queen, Cartismandua, delivered him to the Romans. He and his family were sent to Rome, and made to take part in a kind of triumphal parade, which defiled past Claudius and Agrippina. Crowds came from all parts of Italy to see the captive chief. His capture was declared in the senate to be as glorious as that of Syphax by Scipio, and Perses by Paulus. The undaunted bearing of Caractacus roused great admiration. He was allowed to address the emperor, whom he reminded that `the resistance he had made was a large element in his conqueror's glory; if he were now put to death he would shortly be forgotten, but that if spared he would be an imperishable monument of the Imperial clemency.' Claudius granted life to him and his family; and here all that we know of Caractacus ends, except the reflection which Zonaras records him to have made on seeing Rome: `That he wondered the Romans who possessed such palaces should envy the poor huts of the Britons.' Tradition, reproduced in the untrustworthy Welsh `Triads,' asserts that he lived some four years after his capture, and that his children, becoming christians, brought the christian faith into Britain. Some have even supposed that the Claudia of Martial's `Epigrams' (iv. 13, xi. 53) and of St. Paul's Epistle (2 Tim. iv. 21) was his daughter. The identity of the person alluded to in these passages, and her connection with Caractacus, are, however, entirely conjectural. With much more probability she has been regarded as the daughter of Cogidumnus.

[The ancient authorities for the history are Tacitus, Ann.xii. 31, 37,Hist. 3, 45; Dio Cassius, 60, 19-22;Eutrop.viii. 8; Suetonius, Claud. 17, Vesp.4; Zonaras's Χρονικόν, p. 186. A full account of the campaign of B.C. 50 will be found in Merivale's History of the Romans under the Empire, vi. 224-45, ed. 1865, and in Carte's History of England i. 100-11, ed. 1748. A full discussion of difficult points in topography and history will be found in Dr. Guest's Origines Celticæ, ii. 342. 394-400; see also Gough's Camden, iii. 3, 13;Horsley's Monumenta Britannica, i. 26-7, 31-2; Hugh's Horæ Britannicæ, pp. 19-22; Freeman's Old English History, p. 15. Caractacus, a drama composed like a Greek tragedy, with choric odes, was published in 1759 by W. Mason. A frigid poem, Caractacus, a Metrical Sketch, was published anonymously in 1832. For a discussion of the question of Claudia, see Williams's Claudia and Pudens, 1848; Guest's Orig. Celt. ii. 121; Conybeare and Howson's Life and Epistles of St.Paul, ii. 514, ed. 1862; Farrar's Life and Work of St. Paul, ii. 569; Quarterly Review, July 1858.]  CARADOC, JOHN FRANCIS,  (1762–1839), general, who exchanged the name Cradock for Caradoc in 1820, was the only son of John Cradock [q. v.], archbishop of Dublin, and was born at Dublin, when his father was bishop of Kilmore, on 12 Aug. 1762. His father's political interest was very great, and he rose quickly in the army, which he entered as a cornet in the 4th regiment of horse in 1777. In 1779 he exchanged an ensigncy in the 2nd or Coldstream guards; in 1781 he was promoted lieutenant and captain, and in 1785 to a majority in the 12th light dragoons. In 1786 he exchanged into the 13th regiment; in 1789 was promoted lieutenant-colonel, and in 1790 commanded the regiment, when it was ordered to the West Indies at the time of the Nootka Sound affair. In 1791 he returned to England on being appointed acting quartermaster-general in Ireland, but in 1793 accompanied Sir Charles Grey to the West Indies as aide-de-camp, and was appointed to command two picked battalions selected for dangerous services. At their head he served throughout the campaign in which Sir Charles Grey reduced the French West Indian islands, and was wounded at the capture of Martinique, and at its conclusion received the thanks of parliament and was promoted colonel of the