[Sidenote: Cessation of British coinage in certain districts which had belonged to the sons of Commius.]
With the sons of Commius the British coinage in the districts which they had ruled, with the sole exception of Kent, came to an end.[1493] It may be that the inhabitants had begun, like the Gauls with whom they traded, to use only Roman money; but, as the coinage of Kent continued, the more probable explanation would seem to be that they were no longer able to make head against the King of the Catuvellauni.[1494]
Tincommius and Dubnovellaunus were not the only British [Sidenote: Relations of Cunobeline with Rome.] princes who paid their respects to the emperor. ‘In our time,’ says Strabo, ‘various British chieftains gained the friendship of Augustus Caesar by sending embassies and performing services; placed votive offerings in the Capitol; and made almost the whole island familiar to the Romans.’[1495] Among them, we can hardly doubt, was Cunobeline, whose coins, like those of his father, testify that Roman mythology had already taken root on British soil,[1496] and who, according to Geoffrey of Monmouth,[1497] voluntarily paid tribute to Rome. If there is any truth in Geoffrey’s statement, the tribute must have been the price paid for moral support. During the reign of Tiberius, who adhered to the conservative and moderate policy of his stepfather, the relations of Cunobeline and of Britain with Rome apparently remained unchanged: history only relates that some soldiers of Germanicus, who had been shipwrecked on the British coast, were sent back by British princes.[1498] It can hardly be doubted, however, that the conquest of Britain was contemplated by Roman statesmen as inevitable: to leave independent the Celtic island which was so near the conquered Celtic mainland [Sidenote: His exiled son, Adminius, takes refuge with Caligula.] was unnatural, and could not be permanently safe.[1499] The latter part of Cunobeline’s reign was clouded by domestic quarrels; and in A.D. 40, when he was an old man, his son Adminius,[1500] whom he had driven into exile, threw himself on the mercy of Caligula, who was at the time in Gaul, and offered to surrender his father’s kingdom. The feather-pated emperor sent messengers to Rome, who were charged to announce to the Senate in the temple of Mars the submission of the whole island;[1501] but the magniloquent and mendacious message testifies not only to his vanity but to the fame of Cunobeline.