Ray Mears Retraces the Roman Invasion of Britain in 43AD
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- Опубліковано 6 лют 2025
- How did Claudius' Roman army successfully invade and conquer Britain in 43AD? In this video, bushcraft and survival expert Ray Mears recounts the Claudian invasion of Britain and explores how the Roman army gained a foothold after their initial beach landings.
This clip is an extended trailer for the History Hit TV documentary 'The Roman Invasions With Ray Mears: Claudius' Conquest' 👉 access.history...
Featuring historian Dr Simon Elliot and Roman reenactor David Richardson, this video focusses on the early stages of the invasion, once the Roman commander Aulus Plautius had made a successful landing in Kent. Ray gets up close with the armour and weapons carried by a Claudian legionary, before heading to the Roman fort at Richborough, believed to be the site of the Roman marching camp from the first day of the invasion.
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Ray Mears is a national treasure
Bury him!
I grew up watching him and reading his books. Class
Are you saying he belongs in a museum?
@@Tugela60 if he can be preserved forever yes 😁
My mate met him at a book signing , says he's an absolute bellend.
Really good to see Ray Mears back. Good presentation, clear English and explanations. Thank you.
I can’t get enough of Ray Mears’s videos! Keep up the good work, Ray!
We need more Ray Mears!!!
His equipment is top notch i must say! A serious reenactor
Nice to see Ray Mears narrating this.
After reading 21 of Simon Scarrow's novels set in this time period (a few during this invasion), it's very interesting to see these places in real life.
Come on ray we need you back on tv.
as always, well organized, informative and with the latest info on new discoverys by archelogy
Thank you Mr Mears. I enjoyed this very much. From my research it appears that the Belgae tribes re-inforced their occupation in the South and East of England (Sir Barry Conliffe’s 1973 "Iron age communities in Britain”) in the 93 years between the Caesar raids in 55 and 54 BCE and the Claudian invasion in 43 CE. Some of these insular Belgae tribes had made an alliance with Claudius before his invasion to become client kingdom so he didn’t fight them, although he didn’t use their troops to help the invasion. And hou forgot the ware elephant(s).
Claudius brought those Elephants due to the memory of the mayhem the British chariots had brought on Julius Caesars legions nearly a century before.
Historians tend to completly overlook the struggle that had been raging between the old Brythonic tribes and the newer Belgic's. Before Caesar had even landed in 55BC and still being waged in 43AD.
I believe this struggle was also relocated to Ireland with the withdrawal there of numerous tribes during the 1st and 2nd centuries. The Mysterious Fir Bolg people of Iron age Ireland where actually Belgic invaders.
Just love your videos on Roman Britain ! Big thank you to all involved !! Your hard work really shows !!
Old Clavdivs. Looked like Derek Jacobi.
Love your work 👍
I really like this host (presenter) different than the others
Awesome stuff! 💪💪💪
Fascinating. Didn't know about the ear thing!
Yay, Ray Mears!
Enjoyed. Thanks!
I once read that the combined revenue from the state run mines, taxes and tribute wasn’t enough to cover what it cost to maintain the province, i don’t know why they didn’t pull out way sooner
Roman Ego? Don't forget they did think it was their Jupiter given destiny to one day rule the world and Rome's borders to keep always expanding in the end. Or maybe it is better for them to have it under their thumb and so stop the Island being used as a base for raiders and as a flee point for enemies of Rome and criminals. Or very likely the expenditures of keeping Britain where easily offset by the overall income coming in from the other more profitable Provinces of the Empire: Like Egypt or even the gold of Hispania.
@History Hit could you please make a video about the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britannia.
I can't get over that sunburn
With Colchester being the first Roman capital, the temple that stood here was called the temple of Claudius
CAMULODUNUM (Colchester) fondata dai Romani, il più grandioso e glorioso Impero della storia; Roma ha conquistato ,dominato, costruito e CIVILIZZATO; la grandezza, la potenza, la magnificenza e la GLORIA DI ROMA EST AETERNA, ROMA INVICTA ET LUX MUNDI 💪💯
very interesting!!
History is tragic, but thank the Romans for bringing all their knowledge across Europe. We wouldn't be the same today without this.
All the Greeks' knowledge you mean. 😏
@@amh9494 Which came from the Egyptians ;-)
@@katienicole6215 yeah yeah all by black people yeah. Some stuff from Egypt I'm sure but the Greek advanced many many fields independently.
Every time i wait till the very end of a tv show to see when it was made they always flash up those dreadful, uninttelligeble Roman Numerals. Surely it's easier to write 1979 instead of MCMLXXIX. 😖
Been in the UK and France,you still can see how much history they left,fascinating
Who is “Cloudyass” ffs?
800 ships invading Kent...things haven't changed!
What did they do with the 800 ships after they had landed?
For a really enjoyable read you can't really do better than follow the "Eagles of the Empire" series of books written by Simon Scarrow.
The frost, sometimes it makes the blade stick.
Stop! Too many wonderful documentaries, I can't keep up watching them all!
The beginning of 'the heart of darkness' has the Romans pondering at the mouth of the Thames: the sheer savagery who dares go in
Ah.... Norman conquest 1066? That's a pretty consequential and enormous invasion.
Wow Ray, we share the same surname 😮
who paid for the armor and how much was one suit?
Small boats crossing the chanell ! They were at it even then !😂
The Romans never left, they colony in Britain developed in to a nation.
Its like saying the Brits vacated America.@@fredfreddy2338
Hypocrite.@@fredfreddy2338
@domenicozagari2443 not sure our DNA backs that up. Mostly Celtic/Viking/Norman
1000 years of civilization could not dessaper in nothing, i am sure the dna is not correct, people twist things for they wishful thinking.@@GhostOfCorkey
You could argue that Romano culture never left but from 43AD to 410AD the Romans lost Britannia and had to regain it a number of times.
We should also put the Roman advance through Britain into context. From the initial successes of the Claudian invasion, it then took years and according to Dio Cassius 32 pitched battles to secure southern England.
It then took a further 30 years for the Romans to reach as far north as the rivers Humber and Mersey.
That's no lightning conquest. Thst was a war of attrition the likes of which the Romans had experienced nowhere else. And at no point did they ever, except for arguably Agricola's campaign control the whole island.
Ray needs SPF 45. Beware the rays, Ray.
800 ships? Unlikely, rather like D-day, ships would have gone back to Gaul to bring the next wave of troops and supplies. There seems to be an assumption that the Romans had to fight their way from the landing sites, maybe true for Ceaser but Southern tribes were more likely to cooperate with the Romans by the time of the Claudian invasion.
Why's that freind Britons would still have been savages .
5 questions Just curious
Why did the late western Roman Empires economy decline
Why was the west Roman Empire weak but the east part strong
What were the standards of morality in the late western Roman Empire and eastern Roman Empire
What were the impacts of the Germanic invasions in the late Roman Empire
What was the military like in the late Roman Empire
@@user-dx6bv2pe1s Thanks although my question about morality was more of the citizens of Rome and less of the Germanic people.
A disliplined trained Army, always wins.
Of course the invasion worked. They landed at Thanet, after that it couldn’t fail.
Trade already existed between the Britons and mainland Europe at the time of the Roman invasions. The Celtic culture had high art and in Britain expertise in refined metals which suggests the cooperation of civilization with division and mastery of skills. Denoting the people as barbarians was used to justify conquest no different than when the Polynesians were labelled as 'noble savages'.
My father was From England n mother from Scotland
Ive often wondered why latin didn't become the national language of Britannia, if they were under roman rule for hundreds of years, like it happened to gaul, hispania, lusitania
Latin did become the language of government and commerce throughout Roman Britain, largely pushing the pre-Roman Celtic languages up into Scotland and over to Wales. But then the Romans left... and in came the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Danes, etc. and their Germanic languages which developed into English. And then came the Normans, with their unique flavor of French... with its own Latin influences. I'm simplifying and generalizing for brevity's sake but that's, in broad strokes, about how it happened.
idk, the anglo saxons used the runic alphabet for hundreds of years after rome left. If romes influence was as grand as scholars claim it is idk why that would be the case.
@@_00_36 By the time people like the Saxons get to England in any numbers, it's the Dark Ages; the Romans were long gone, though plenty of Britons tried to keep Roman systems in place. The mytho-historic account holds that a Romano-British chieftain hired Saxons as muscle, to help rein in rising chaos. The story goes the Saxons got stiffed on their payment, went rampaging, and found lots of loot. The true story is probably somewhere in between, in that the Saxons were economic migrants who found a place of great natural wealth but with not much of a government.
Once Londinium fell so did Roman influence there. The Germanic tribes dominated for centuries afterwards.
Anyone else think that thumbnail looked like Sting dressed as a Roman Soldier? :D
Why are people complaining about his pronunciation of "Claudius"? It's not far from the classical pronunciation (that would sorta sound like "Cloud-ee-oos")
Greed had a lot to do with it. Convince the people at the top of the pile that they could get even more 'stuff'. Rome was good at greed
Bit like the Tory party OGB?🤣🤣
Tried to watch but to many dam commercials
It was the Fish Sauce!
I want to wear a Lion on my head
If you built your fort bigger you need less defensive earthworks per person saving time and effort.
My unpopular opinion and two cents worth. I think the fall of celtic Britain has a lot to do with the insistence of tradition holding them back and boudica sacrificing way too many villagers to the gods.
Only written record of 43 AD, Dio, says that the Romans sailed WEST from jumping off point. Speculation says the Romans left Boulogne. Due west is Roughly Eastbourne. So imo the Romans landed in the vicinity of Hailsham. Dio writes that 4 legions were involved. And 3 waves of incomers. At least one legion were ceremonial troops. Strange that the Romans fortified Pevensey levels against Saxon attacks and that Will the conk also used the area to invade England. As for first battle against the Brits, imo that happened close to Penshurst near the River Medway 51*10’52”N 0*11’39”E. Happy to discuss.
Go to Masada, on the Dead Sea and you will see why the romans won. Engineering, organization and, most important of all, perseverance.
The Romans tried - but they only conquered part of Britain. Caledonia (now Scotland) remained free from Roman domination.
One of my favourite quotes about Hadrian building the wall. "Hadrian built the wall to leave the scots to fight their mortal enemy, other scots"
The far north of England was not exactly keen on Rome either.
You should look at the influence of British culture rather how much land they conquered ans then you realise that Romans have actually succeeded ( from 43 until 410 AD)
@@user-dx6bv2pe1s Rubbish!😂
@@Simon-jr9km Pity that the quote is historically inaccurate. It was the Picts and Caledonians in the south of our country that the Romans were worried about.The Scots who came from Ireland were not dominant in this period of Scot!and's history.
oh dear, in one ear and out the other
Artillery.
Discipline and body armor.
Isn't it pronounced claw Dee ess
I'm afraid not. Clow dee oos, to put it bluntly 😀
I've always wonder "if" the Romans hadn't arrived, would the Celts have stayed battle hardened and not have succumbed to the Anglo-Saxon invasion, if so, the World would be a different place without the British empire.
What religion(s) did they have in Britain before the Romans?
Paganism
Gresham College have produced a lecture on UA-cam that tackles this topic, as well as how it adapted to roman influences. It's well worth a watch!
Important thing to note is that Romans didnt really cared what religion you believe, as long as you cause no trouble to the empire.
@@JackieWelles yes.
The druids.
Do you ever feel like you were supposed to be born 2000 years ago somewhere on the frindges of the Roman empire even though you would never make it.
What’s 60 pounds of weight in modern terms?
60 pounds
The Romans would have sailed right up to richborough probably with a readymade fort.
Lorica Hamata was the main armour not Lorica Segmentata it would have been impracticable for Roman soldiers on campaign to use Lorica Segmentata due to the time it takes to equip and the maintenance of said armour not to mention the repairing of the armour which was very skilled the armour also cost three times more to produce.
ua-cam.com/video/qkSJ-2QShKk/v-deo.html
Nearly all Roman soldiers carried their equipment with them everything they owned when marching most would take off the armour and sling it over their Sudis or stake that was used to build the camp at night , If they had to dress quickly for combat then the Lorica Segmentata would take two men for ease or one man with a struggle unlike Lorica Hamata that could be thrown on by one man very quickly.
Lorica Segmentata is mainly seen on reliefs as parade armour and we know by the time of Constantine in the 4th AD that Lorica Hamata was still in wide use even into the Byzantine era.
What about angles, saxons,jutes who invaded britain and changed it from a part of roman empire to a group of germanic kingdoms attempting to conquer the romano british/gallic kingdoms and the celtic welsh, scots, cornish and irish? What about the military invasion of normans in 1066 which crushed anglo saxon england and created a new kingdom of norman french society?
Not enough pictures and graphics. Got bored a quarter of the way through. Plus I know the story so was expecting a bit more to be fair.
What made Rome was its organisation.
It was hilarious watching Ray call him out on his BS. "It was also important to hear orders." So dry. Haha
He's a kind of Englishman that's become rarer and rarer as we've lost our culture to Americanisation.
I miss Ray on our terestrial tv.
I see way too much of that bear gryls fellow
One has done it the other is an actor
The Romans won because the legions were disciplined soldiers fighting undisciplined warriors who saw war as an individual sport.
Also the north of this island was never conquered by Rome-they did not '"win". I am from Lancashire, I consider myself British not English. I dont suck Roman...
So you are probably descended from the Irish colonists of the Lancashire Plains. Blackpool and Dublin are the same name for a reason.
Me to Lancastrian and proud .
@@johnfisk811 I was led to believe the Irish colonized further south ,Liverpool.and north Wales what I will say is blackpool wasn't even named ,by then it didn't have much population either back then .
Way too short. Thumbnail overpromises and underdelivers.
Isn't it true that the Kentish tribes invited the Romans to invade?
It took years to suppress the tribes of what is now South Wales.
The Romans never conquered Scotland (Caledonia) or Northumberland. Why they built Hadrian’s Wall to contain the Picts/Scots barbarians.
The Romans lost their 9th Legion trying, the heaviest defeat ever experienced by the Roman Legions.
Heaviest? Not by a long shot.
Why did Romans invade Britain? Answer: Empires need to keep conquering to survive. Britain was the easiest territory to subdue. Hence the choice.
They almost lost it in ad61
That beach didn't exist in roman times.
Britain was and still is influenced by Rome so much,
First the Romans called us British (before that we we called Albion's) and they called Britain. Britain (before that. It was Albion ) plus the symbol of Britain Britannia even wears a Roman helmet,
Plus the very first currency in Britain had Roman emperor's on,
The very first coinage in Britain was Celtic and it certainly didn't have Roman Emperors on it.
No , 'Britannia' was the Latin take on what the Romans heard the locals call their island. One can glean what the original Brythonic - speaking Britons called these isles by looking at the direct linguistic descendant of the Brythonic language once spoken over the vast majority of Britain - that language is Welsh.The Welsh language word for Britain is 'Prydain' _Prydain_ pronounced _Prud_ ( rhyming with 'thud' ) and _ine_ ( rhyming with wine).
Why! they did not. You mixed up tenses: perhaps they WERE WINNING. But now…
Southerners invited them over and when they left they paid germans to protect them
CLOUD-IUS ??? Just say Claudius.
They traded. Then realized it was a way to make money. They got a bunch of money and left when trouble from social issues in their empire failed.
Boudicca.
Claudius not cloudius get it right m8 for goodness sake.
CLOUDius ???? It is CLAUDius
Because they didn't lose.
Don’t think they conquered Scotland? 🤓🏴
I was a Roman soldier in a past life. It was shit. Ask me anything!
im scotti ! na romani takin ma haggis an tablet!!!..🤡
Because they weren't Woke!
Stupid comparing it to the Normandy landings
@@fredfreddy2338 25:67 "Julius Cesar was a bit like that Eisenhower bloke - he wanted everyone to go and run up them beaches and bash everyone..."
Technically they didnt conquer Britain. They only conquered England
They really conquered the Welsh, England didn't exist as a country then.
At the time of Claudius' invasion there was no "England". That name came later. interesting that the Romans' Latin word "Britannia"
survived and evolved into the English word "Britain"..
Correct. The Romans named Britain. They also named Scotland Caledonia although before the Romans Albion was made up of Celtic tribes. I used the words Britain and Scotland for context tbh. Nevertheless the Romans did find northern Albion somewhat troublesome.
WTF is Cloudeeass. Ray Merrs lolol...
They didn't. They only conquered the soft southerners, then had to build Hadrian's Wall to stop getting kickings from the Scots.
why did they build hadrians wall in the middle of northumbria to stop people that lived in Ireland?
Visited a while ago
With enough effort the Romans could have conquered modern Scotland but the Picts proves better fighters than the southern Celts and the trouble wasn’t really worth the land gain
First comment…..
Briton warriors, not British.
No British. There was a High King.
Your constant reference to a Roman conquest of 'Britain' is re-imagined history from the perspective of the English. You don't say the Romans conquered Europe, why is that? You don't say the Romans conquered Africa, why not? Answer: because they didn't conquer all of Europe, nor did they conquer all of Africa. The Romans failed to conquer ALL the Celtic tribes of Albion. They only defeated the tribes of Southern Britain and of the lands that eventually became England, and to a lesser extent, the lands that eventually became Wales and, for a short time, the Lowlands of Scotland. These re-imagined and selective histories give a grossly inaccurate picture of Roman Britain, and your 'history' is therefore unhelpful to those who are looking for a reasonably accurate account of what happened in those times.
Brigante and proud
Ehhh no England and wales NOT SCOTLAND. GET IT RIGHT.