CARVING OUT NEW TERRITORY

The Roman invasion of Britain in AD 43 wasn’t the empire’s first foray onto British soil. Almost a century earlier, Julius Caesar made two expeditions to the mysterious, tribal island. The first, in 55 BC, couldn’t genuinely be described as an invasion. Commanding just two legions, Caesar hoped to score a major propaganda victory by crossing the Channel, even if he painted the expedition as a mere act of revenge against the Gaul-supporting Britons. “In almost all the wars with the Gauls,” he would later write, “succours had been furnished to our