The Cassi were a tribe of
Iron Age Britain
The British Iron Age is a conventional name used in the archaeology of Great Britain, referring to the prehistoric and protohistoric phases of the Iron Age culture of the main island and the smaller islands, typically excluding prehistoric Ir ...
in the first century BCE. They are known only from a brief mention in the writings of
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...
. They may have been one of the four tribes of Kent, represented in Caesar by references to the "four kings of that region" and in the archaeological record by distinct pottery assemblages.
During Julius Caesar's second invasion of Britain in 54 BCE, following Caesar's military success and restoration of King
Mandubracius to power over the
Trinovantes, opposition to the Romans coalesced around the figure of
Cassivellaunus which led to divided loyalties among the Britons, as Caesar records. Emissaries of five
British tribes, including the Cassi (the others being the
Ancalites, the
Segontiaci, the
Cenimagni and the
Bibroci), arrived at the Roman camp to treat for peace, and agreed to reveal details of Cassivellaunus' stronghold. Caesar besieged him there and brought him to terms. When Caesar left Britain he took
hostages from the Britons, although which tribes were compelled to give any is not specified.
The archaeologists Graham Webster and Barry Cunliffe both agree that nothing more is known about them, but it has been suggested that between Caesar's second invasion and the
invasion of Claudius in AD 43 that the Cassi along with other tribes such as the
Ancalites and
Bibroci merged to form the
Catuvellauni, and that
Cassivellaunus may have been a member of the Cassi tribe.
See also
*
Iron Age tribes in Britain
*
Cantiaci
The Cantiaci or Cantii were an Iron Age Celtic people living in Britain before the Roman conquest, and gave their name to a '' civitas'' of Roman Britain. They lived in the area now called Kent, in south-eastern England. Their capital was ''Dur ...
*
Catuvellauni
References
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Celtic Britons
Tribes involved in Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain
Historical Celtic peoples