[00:01.609]Not once but twice, Julius Caesar's plans were sabotaged
[00:07.022]by that perennial secret weapon of the British, the weather.
[00:10.775]On the first go-round in 55 BC, a cavalry transport which had already missed the high tide and got itself four days late,
[00:19.148]Finally got going only to run directly into a storm and be blown right back to Gaul.
[00:29.137]A century later, Claudius, the club-foot stammerer,
[00:32.756]On the face of it, the most unlikely conqueror of all, was determined to get it right.
[00:39.277]If it was going to be done at all Claudius reckoned, it had to be done in such massive force that
[00:44.585]there was no chance of repeating the embarrassments of Julius.
[00:49.026]So Claudius's invasion force was immense, some 40,000 troops.
[00:54.668]The kind of army which could barely be conceived of, much less，encountered in Iron Age Britain.
[01:02.536]Claudius did succeed where Julius Caesar had failed, through a brilliant strategy of carrot and stick.
[01:13.953]Yes, he would seize the largely undefended oppida or towns and strike at the heart of the British aristocracy
[01:20.997]its places of status, prestige and worship.
[01:26.232]But for those chieftains, sensible enough to reach for the olive branch rather than the battle javelin
[01:32.210]Claudius had another plan.
[01:34.415]Give them, or rather their sons
[01:36.149]a trip to Rome, and a taste of the dolce vita, and just watch their resistance melt.
[01:46.296]While they were in Rome, many of them must have begun to notice that life for your average patrician was well, exceptionally sweet.