Cartimandua, Venutius, and the Brigantian crisis

Tacitus traces the immediate occasion for invasion to conflict within the Brigantian royal house. Cartimandua maintained good relations with Rome, while her former consort Venutius opposed Roman expansion. Their dispute may have supplied a pretext rather than the underlying cause of imperial advance. Cartimandua and Boudica are unusual in Roman accounts as women exercising formal political authority, probably derived from aristocratic lineage. Cartimandua is also associated with the massive bank-and-ditch enclosure at Stanwick in North Yorkshire.