Cartimandua
or CARTISMANDUA, queen of the Brigantes in Britain, about A. D. 50, in which year she treacherously delivered up to the Romans Caractacus, who had come to seek her protection. By this act of treachery towards her own countrymen, she won the favour of the Romans, and increased her power. Hence, says Tacitus, arose wealth and luxury, and Cartimandua repudiated her own husband Venutius to share her bed and throne with Vellocatus, the arm-bearer of her husband. This threw her state into a civil war, a portion of her people supporting Venutius against the adulterer. Venutius collected an army of auxiliaries, defeated the Brigantes, and reduced Cartimandua to the last extremity. She solicited the aid of the Romans, who rescued her from her danger; but Venutius remained in possession of her kingdom, A. D. 69. (Tac. Ann. 12.36, 40, Hist. iii 45.)
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.