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Historical person

Aulus Plautius

6 BCE–57

Aulus Plautius was a Roman senator and general best known for commanding the invasion of Britain ordered by Emperor Claudius in AD 43. He had previously held high office and military command, probably including the governorship of Pannonia. In Britain his army defeated resistance led by Caratacus and Togodumnus, crossed major rivers in the south-east and secured the position from which Claudius could make a brief ceremonial appearance and accept the submission of local rulers.

After the initial conquest, Plautius remained as the first governor of the new Roman province of Britain and oversaw the difficult transition from invasion to occupation. Roman forces expanded their control while establishing forts, roads and alliances that supported further campaigning. On returning to Rome, Plautius received an ovation, an unusual military honour, with Claudius accompanying him during part of the ceremony. The details of his later life are sparse, but his command laid the foundation for nearly four centuries of Roman rule in Britain.

In Michael Arnold’s The River Warriors, the Roman invasion of Britain is under way. Aulus Plautius’s legions advance inland through forest, marsh and rivers, assisted by British leaders who expect alliance with Rome to strengthen their own position. In Simon Scarrow’s When the Eagle Hunts, A Druid faction captures the wife and children of the Roman commander Aulus Plautius and threatens to execute them unless its demands are met. Aulus Plautius is treated fictionally in Simon Scarrow’s The Eagle’s Conquest, Douglas Jackson’s Claudius, Henry Treece’s Legions of the Eagle, Henry Treece’s The Dark Island, and Michael Arnold’s The Hemlock Throne.

Periods

Periods linked to Aulus Plautius

Roman Britain43–410 CE

Series

Historical novels and book series featuring Aulus Plautius (6 series)

Eagles of the Empire in Order

by Simon Scarrow 24 books 4.5(104,359)

The Eagles of the Empire series follows Roman soldiers Macro and Cato from the reign of Claudius into that of Nero. Their service takes them through the invasion and occupation of Britain, Mediterranean piracy, revolt, imperial court intrigue and Rome’s eastern wars, combining military campaigning with the politics…

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Claudius Series in Order

by Robert Graves 2 books 4.4(7,473)

The Claudius Series is Robert Graves’s two-volume fictional memoir of the Roman emperor Claudius and the Julio-Claudian dynasty. I, Claudius follows the imperial family from Augustus to Caligula through Claudius’s wary, observant voice, while Claudius the God covers his own reign and the forces that undermine it. Together…

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Roman Trilogy in Order

by Douglas Jackson 2 books 4.1(4,924)

The Roman Trilogy follows Rufus, a young slave whose skill with animals brings him from the gladiatorial world into the dangerous centre of imperial power. In Caligula he becomes keeper of the emperor’s elephant and is caught among the conspiracies surrounding a ruler feared for cruelty and unpredictability.…

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Savage Isle in Order

by Michael Arnold 3 books 4.1(206)

The Savage Isle series begins in AD 42, as the death of Cunobeline fractures the political order of southern Britain and Emperor Claudius prepares a Roman invasion. Cullen, an orphan of the Atrebates captured by the Catuvellauni, grows from vulnerable outsider into a warrior whose fate is tied…

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Roman Britain in Order

by Henry Treece 3 books 3.9(132)

The Roman Britain series presents the island at three moments of political rupture. Legions of the Eagle begins with Claudius’s invasion and the resistance associated with Caratacus. The Eagles Have Flown moves to the fifth century, when the legions and central government have disappeared. The Queen’s Brooch returns…

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Celtic Tetralogy in Order

by Henry Treece 4 books 3.9(373)

The Celtic Tetralogy follows Britain through four major transformations: Bronze Age migration, Roman invasion, the Boudican Revolt and the struggle for power after Roman withdrawal. The books were not published in narrative order, but together they form Treece’s sustained reconstruction of an island repeatedly remade by conquest, resistance…

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Standalone books

Standalone books featuring Aulus Plautius (1 book)