Ancient history Cartimandua

Question: Discuss about the Ancient history for Cartimandua. Answer: Introduction Cartimandua was the female ruler of a tribe called Brigantes during the time of a Roman emperors organized conquest of Britain. Cartimandua was considered to be a strong ally to the Roman Empire and was described as the queen of the Brigantes in the Annals by the Roman historian named Tacitus. There has been the record of a few number of female leaders in the Roman empire, who were as fierce and strong as Cartimandua. Cartimandua plays a significant role in the capture of Britain by the Romans and hence was known as a strong ally to the Roman empire. The report analyzes the portrayal of Cartimandua in the ancient history and modern perspective based on a number of factors (Highham, 2013). Ancient history analysis In the ancient history, Cartimandua has been described in a negative role due to her personality. As she was loyal to the Roman Empire, she betrayed Caratacus, a British resistance leader, which in turn led to his capture. Caratacus initially sought the protection from Cartimandua, before being betrayed by her. She has been portrayed as an anti-social character in the Roman history due to a large number of negative activities of which she was a part of. She was criticized heavily for her self-indulgence in sexual impropriety of rejecting her husband for a common soldier (Hanson, 2012). She has been defined to be a bad person in the ancient history also because of her betrayal to all of her relatives. Cartimandua seized her brother and relatives to have the full control of the tribe and to support the Roman empire. She betrayed and divorced her husband to replace him with the common soldier named Vellocatus, who was the armor-bearer of Venutius. So all the ancient history mentions of Cartimandua by Tacitus is evil and anti-social (Haselgrove, 2015). Modern perspective analysis Even if Cartimandua has been portrayed in a bad manner in the ancient history, she has been described as a strong and formidable leader in a number of modern perspective version of the Roman history. For example, Barbara Erskine describes Cartimandua as a young princess who went through a lot of twist and turns along with a number of tragedies to become one of the strongest queens in the Roman history. Barbara Erskine wrote a novel named, Daughters of Fire and portrayed Cartimandua as a strong and independent lady, who carved out a success path for herself through a war between Rome and Britain along with a society dominated by the males. She has been portrayed as a feminist and a role model for the display of her courage and her determination to be victorious in all wars fought (Hartley, 2013). George Shipway also described Cartimandua as one of the most important character in his novel Imperial governor, which is based on the success of a Roman general, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus who overcame a number of revolts to maintain the strength of the Roman Empire. Cartimandua has been portrayed as the ally and lover of the Roman general, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus and has been considered to have an important role in the success of the Roman general (Pham, 2014). In almost all of the modern novels, Cartimandua has been portrayed as a shining example of feminism and women empowerment during the Roman Empires quest to capture Britain. She has been compared with other strong female leaders like Boudicca, who was known to be the queen of the Iceni tribe. Conclusion Though both the ancient history and books describe Cartimandua as a fierce leader and also the queen of the Brigantes tribe. The ancient history stresses on her character, whereas the modern depictions describe her achievements. The ancient history portrays Cartimandua portrays her as very self-indulged, greedy and power-hungry. The modern depictions however have described the queen as a strong and formidable leader, who faced many tragedies to find success in a male-dominated society (Arch, 2015). References Arch, D., 2015. The Star Crossed Queen. Hanson, W., 2012. Britain, Roman conquest of (4396). The Encyclopedia of War. Hartley, B.R., 2013. Some problems of the Roman military occupation of the north of England. Northern History. Haselgrove, C., 2015. Cartimandua's capital? The late Iron Age royal site at Stanwick, North Yorkshire; fieldwork and analysis 19812011. Highham, N.J., 2013. Brigantia revisited. Northern History. Pham, M.V., 2014. Hadrian's Wall: A Study in Function.