Baring-Gould’s sources: Wilson in his Anglican Martyrology. Authority: — The Acts of S. Pudens, S. Praxedes, and S. Pudentiana.] Ninety-seven years after the second invasion of Britain by Julius Caesar, the Emperor Claudius, at the instigation of a British exile named Beric, determined upon invading the island; and he directed the senator Aulus Plautius to bring ■S'. Claudia.

■ffi it under the Imperial dominion. The Britons, under Caradog (Caractacus), one of the sons of Cnnobelin, made a vigorous resistance to the invaders; but Plautius, by the aid of light-armed German auxiliaries, drove the natives over the Thames; and the Emperor, who himself paid a short visit to Britain, gained a victory, and received the submission of the Cantii, Atrebates, Regni, and Trinobantes, the tribes inhabiting the south-east comer of the island. Claudius then hastened back to Rome to enjoy a pompous triumph, and the title of Britannicus, while he left the work of conquest to be pursued by his lieutenants, Plautius and Flavius Vespasian. The work, indeed, was scarcely begun. Vespasian had to fight no less than thirty battles before he subdued the Belgse and the Durotriges, two nations which occupied the limited territory now forming the counties of Hampshire and Dorset with the Isle of Wight. In one of these battles he nearly lost his life, and was saved only by the devoted courage of his son Titus, the future conqueror of Jerusalem.

In the meantime, Caractacus, and the Britons to the north of the Thames, opposed to the invaders a resistance equally obstinate; and, at the end of five years, the able Plautius, although constantly victorious in the field, was compelled to leave to his successor, Ostorius Scapula, the task of bringing the Silures under subjection. At last, however, after Caractacus had maintained the unequal contest for three years longer, he was defeated by Ostorius in a great battle at the place now called Caer-Caradoc, in Shropshire. The wife and daughter of the British prince were captured; his brothers surrendered themselves; and, finally, he himself was betrayed by his stepmother, Queen Cartismandua,1 into the hands of the victor, who sent his illustrious prisoners in chains to Rome. 1 Her British name was Aregwedd Foeddog. Great was the interest felt in Italy, and in the metropolis of the world, in gazing upon the man who had for nine years held at bay the arms and the ablest generals of the empire. Caractacus, in his adversity, bore himself with a dignity and composure which no way abated even in the presence of the Emperor. Claudius, on his part, touched with compassion, ordered the fallen prince and his family to be set at liberty; and even, as some conceive, restored one of the royal brothers to a certain degree of authority in the conquered portion of his native country. It is added, that Caractacus, on traversing the imperial city after his release, and viewing its splendour and extent, could not forbear exclaiming, — “ Why, when possessed of such magnificence as this, do ye covet my humble cottage in Eritain ?”

Caractacus and his family were captured in a.d. 51. According to Welsh accounts, along with Caractacus was taken Bran ab Llyr, his father, who was detained in Rome for seven years as hostage for his son. There he embraced Christianity, and he is regarded as the first to introduce the Christian faith into Eritain, to which he returned in a.d. 58, bringing with him three or four teachers, Hid, Cyndaf, Arwystli Hen,1 and Mawan; and through their instru mentality the gospel was first preached in this country. But the classic historians say nothing of the father of Caractacus being brought to Rome; Dion Cassius says that Caractacus was the son of Cunobelin, who died before the war commenced, and Tacitus, who mentions the capture, or surrender, of the several members of the family of Caractacus, describes their appearance before Claudius, and says nothing of Bran.

1 On March 15th I said that no Western traditions confirmed the Greek statement that Aristobulus, disciple of S. Paul, preached the Gospel in Britain. In the Welsh Triads Ilid and Cyndaf are said to have been “ Men of Israel/’ or Christian Jews, but Arwystli to have been “ a man of Italy,” or a Roman. It is not impossible that he may have been Aristobulus. He is said to have died at Glastonbury, a.d. 99. Nevertheless the Welsh statements may not be incorrect. Cunobelin may have been the grandfather of Caractacus, and Bran may have been taken and sent to Rome after Caractacus, and there retained as hostage. According to tradition, one of the daughters of Caractacus, named after her baptism Claudia, no doubt in honour of the Emperor, who had treated the family with so great generosity, was retained in Rome as hostage along with Bran, and married the noble Senator Aulus Pudens. She is mentioned in 2 Tim. iv. 21, as a Christian woman, sending her salutations to Timothy from Rome. Some think she was the daughter of the British prince, Cogidnbnus, an ally of Rome, who took the name of his imperial patron, Tiberius Claudius, but the balance of probability is that she was the daughter of Caractacus. The family of Bran “ the blessed ” was regarded by the ancient Welsh as one of the three great holy families of Britain. Eigen, a daughter of Caradog, is recorded as the first female saint among the Britons.1 Cyllin, a son of Caradog, is also called a saint. Claudia is not mentioned in the Welsh records, but that is not surprising, as she was very young when taken to Rome, and did not return to Britain, but remained at Rome. Cyllin, the son of Caradog, was the grandfather of Lleurwg, the Lucius of later tradition, who obtained Christian teachers from Rome.

That Claudius should retain some of the family of Caractacus as hostages in Rome is most probable, for the Silures, undismayed by the loss of their heroic king, maintained the contest for freedom with unabated determination, and Ostorius, worn out with labour and disappointment, died before he was able to effect the subjugation of that nation. Under his two next successors, the Romans did little more than hold their ground in the island, which, it is even said, 1 8he married Sarllog, lord ot Caer Sarllog, or Old Sarum. that the Emperor Nero had, at onetime, serious thoughts of abandoning altogether, as a conquest not worth the expense of his retention.

In the Second Epistle to S. Timothy, Pudens is mentioned in the same verse as Claudia, and at that time they were certainly married. She and Pudens received S. Peter into their house, and were either baptized by him or by S. Paul, probably by the latter. The intimate relations with the family into which he was brought may have been the occasion of his sending Aristobulus and other missionaries with Bran to Britain. This must have been about a.d. 63; whereas Bran’s return to Britain, supposing him to have been taken at the same time as Caractacus, would have been in 58. But it is probable that Bran became hostage after the release of Caractacus, in which case the seven years of his residence in Rome may have closed in 63. It is hardly likely that Christianity had made sufficient way among the Gentiles in Rome so early as 51-58 as to reach the British hostages. Claudia and Pudens were the parents of Novatus, Timotheus, Praxedes and Pudentiana, all of whom are numbered with the saints. After a long life, spent in the exercise of Christian virtues, she died at her husband’s villa at Sabinum in Umbria, at the beginning of the 2nd cent. Her body was translated to Rome by her sons, and laid in the tomb of Pudens, beside her husband.