The Cantiaci or Cantii were a Belgic people living in Britain before the Roman conquest, and gave their name to a civitas of Roman Britain. They lived in the area then called Cantium, now called Kent, in south-eastern England, and spoke a Brythonic language - most likely a dialect of British with influence from Gaulish. Their capital was Durovernum Cantiacorum, now Canterbury.

They were bordered by the Regnenses to the west, and the Catuvellauni to the north.

Julius Caesar landed in Cantium in 55 and 54 BC, the first Roman expeditions to Britain. He recounts in his De Bello Gallico v. 14:

"Ex his omnibus longe sunt humanissimi qui Cantium incolunt, quae regio est maritima omnis, neque multum a Gallica differunt consuetudine."

"Of all these (British tribes), by far the most civilised are they who dwell in Kent, which is entirely a maritime region, and who differ but little from the Gauls in their customs".

Rulers

Pre-Roman Iron Age

Caesar mentions four kings, Segovax, Carvilius, Cingetorix and Taximagulus, who held power in Cantium at the time of his second expedition in 54 BC. The British leader Cassivellaunus, besieged in his stronghold north of the Thames, sent a message to these four kings to attack the Roman naval camp as a distraction. The attack failed, a chieftain called Lugotorix was captured, and Cassivellaunus was forced to seek terms.

In the century between Caesar's expeditions and the conquest under Claudius, kings in Britain began to issue coins stamped with their names. The following kings of the Cantiaci are known:

• Dubnovellaunus. May have been an ally or sub-king of Tasciovanus of the Catuvellauni, or a son of Addedomarus of the Trinovantes. Presented himself as a supplicant to Augustus ca. 7 BC.
• Vosenius, ruled until ca. 15 BC.
• Eppillus, originally king of the Atrebates. Coins indicate he became king of the Cantiaci ca. 15 BC, at the same time as his brother Verica became king of the Atrebates.
• Cunobelinus, king of the Catuvellauni who expanded his influence into Cantiaci territory.
• Adminius, son of Cunobelinus. Seems to have ruled on his father's behalf, beginning ca. 30 AD. Suetonius tells us he was exiled by Cunobelinus ca. 40 AD, leading to Caligula's aborted invasion of Britain.

Sub-Roman period

According to Nennius, Gwrangon was King of Kent in the time of Vortigern, until Vortigern took away the kingdom and gave it to Hengist; but Nennius is regarded as an untrustworthy source, and “Gwrangon seems to have been transported by the story-teller into Kent from Gwent” and “is turned into an imaginary King of Kent, secretly disposed of his realm in favour of Hengist, whose daughter Vortigern wished to marry” (Wade-Evans 1938).

References

• Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico
• Suetonius, Lives of the Twelve Caesars
• John Creighton (2000), Coins and power in Late Iron Age Britain, Cambridge University Press
• Wade-Evans, A. W. (1938), Nennius’s History of the Britons

See also

List of Celtic tribes

External links

• Cantiaci at Roman-Britain.org