C. 55, and is described in his fourth book of the Gallic
War, c. 20, &c. He landed on the coast of Kent, either at Deal or
between Sandgate and Hythe. His second expedition was in the following
year B.C. 54, which is described in the fifth book, c. 8 &c. He
crossed the Thamesis (Thames) in face of the forces of Cassivelaunus,
whose territories were bounded on the south by the Thames.
There has been some discussion on the place where Caesar crossed the
Thames. Camden (p. 882, ed. Gibson) fixes the place at Cowey Stakes
near Oatlands on the Thames, opposite to the place where the Wey joins
the Thames. Bede, who wrote at the beginning of the eighth century,
speaks of stakes in the bed of the river at that place, which so far
corresponds to Caesar's description, who says that the enemy had
protected the ford with stakes on the banks and across the bed of the
river. Certain stakes still exist there, which are the subject of a
paper in the Archaeologia, 1735, by Mr. Samuel Gale. The stakes are as
hard as ebony; and it is evident from the exterior grain that the
stakes were the entire bodies of young oak trees. Caesar places the
ford eighty miles from the coast of Kent where he landed, which
distance agrees very well with the position of Oatlands, as Camden
remarks.
Cassivelaunus had been appointed Commander-in-chief of all the British
forces. This is the king whom Plutarch means.
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