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The Cantiaci or Cantii were a Celtic or Belgic people living in Britain before the Roman conquest, and gave their name to a civitas of Roman Britain. They lived in the area then called Cantium, now called Kent, in south-eastern England, and spoke a Brythonic language - most likely a dialect of British with influence from Gaulish. Their capital was Durovernum Cantiacorum, now Canterbury. Julius Caesar landed in Cantium in 55 and 54 BC, the first Roman expeditions to Britain. He recounts in his De Bello Gallico v. 14: "Ex his omnibus longe sunt humanissimi qui Cantium incolunt, quae regio est maritima omnis, neque multum a Gallica differunt consuetudine." "Of all these (British tribes), by far the most civilised are they who dwell in Kent, which is entirely a maritime region, and who differ but little from the Gauls in their customs".
Pre-Roman Iron Age Caesar mentions four kings, Segovax, Carvilius, Cingetorix(Briton) and Taximagulus, who held power in Cantium at the time of his second expedition in 54 BC. The British leader Cassivellaunus, besieged in his stronghold north of the Thames, sent a message to these four kings to attack the Roman naval camp as a distraction. The attack failed, a chieftain called Lugotorix was captured, and Cassivellaunus was forced to seek terms. In the century between Caesar's expeditions and the conquest under Claudius, kings in Britain began to issue coins stamped with their names. The following kings of the Cantiaci are known: Sub-Roman period According to Nennius, Gwrangon was King of Kent in the time of Vortigern, until Vortigern took away the kingdom and gave it to Hengist; but Nennius is regarded as an untrustworthy source, and “Gwrangon seems to have been transported by the story-teller into Kent from Gwent” and “is turned into an imaginary King of Kent, secretly disposed of his realm in favour of Hengist, whose daughter Vortigern wished to marry” (Wade-Evans 1938). See also List of Celtic tribes | ||||||||
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