Romans in Sussex - Level 2 - Maps & Timelines

Timelines - 100BC > AD43 - The Late Iron Age

During the 100 years or so before the Roman invasion, there were many tribes in southern Britain. Most of Sussex was part of a tribe called the Atrebates, who were ruled by a king called Commius in the mid 1st century BC.


Key Dates
Sussex	50 BC	Commius flees to Britain. Commius was a Gaulish leader who established himself as the ruler of the Atrebates tribe in central southern Britain.
	c.20 BC	Commius succeeded by Tincomarus.
	c.AD 7	Tincomarus flees to Rome. Succeeded by Epillus.
	c.AD 8-9	Verica becomes king. Most of the kingdom of the Atrebates passed to this pro-Roman king.
	AD 42	Verica flees to Rome. He went the Emperor Claudius to ask for support against the expansion of the Catuvellauni tribe.

Britain:	55 & 54 BC	Julius Caesar makes two military expeditions to Britain.
	AD 25	Catuvellaunian expansion. The British Kingdom of the Catuvellauni began to expand southwards into the territory of the Atrebates.
	AD 40	Abortive attempt by the Emperor Caligula to invade Britain.

Rome:	58 - 51 BC	Julius Caesar conquers Gaul.
	27 BC	Augustus made Emperor. After a struggle for power, Octavian becomes the first Emperor of Rome. He takes the name Augustus.
	14 AD	Augustus dies. Tiberius is the new Emperor.
	AD 37	Gaius Caligula becomes Emperor.
	AD 41	Caligula murdered and Claudius made Emperor.