At the end of our previous installment, the defeated Briton leader, Caratacus, had been betrayed by the Brigantes, and handed over to Rome. However, the rebellious Silures do not seem to have been deterred by the loss of their leader, and continued to resist Roman occupation and engage in hit-and-run guerilla attacks on Roman forces. Such was the tribe’s resistance, that Scapula declared that they would be either exterminated or enslaved and forcibly removed from their lands. But again, this merely served to reinforce their resolve, and they continued to be a bothersome thorn in the side of the Roman Governor and to oppose Rome’s occupation throughout the Claudian period.

Rebellion: Britannia is a game about rebellions in Roman Britain, and concentrates largely on the Claudian period, which ran from 43CE to 69CE. Over the course of a quarter of a century, there were at least 5 major rebellions that the invading Roman forces had to deal with, including Boudicca’s revolt, which is certainly the most widely known.

After Julius Caesar’s initial expedition to Britain in 55BCE, almost an entire century would pass before Rome eventually chose to stage an invasion of the British Isles. Emperor Augustus considered an invasion, but failed Roman efforts to subdue the German tribes, and the disastrous defeat at Teutoburg in 9CE, led to him cautioning Rome to restrict its lands to those “within its present frontiers” (Tacitus, Annals, I.11),  advice which his successor, Tiberius, chose to follow.