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KeyFacts:
King of the Catuvellauni
Died: post AD 63 near Glastonbury, Somerset
KeyWords:
Arviragus
Caratacus
Catuvellauni Tribe
Emperor Claudius
Roman Invasion of Britain
Twelve Hides
Glastonbury Abbey
Cadbury Castle
King Arthur
Geoffrey of Monmouth
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A personage who has come to our attention in the writings of Juvenal, who mentions him in connection with resistance to Roman conquest and authority. Geoffrey of Monmouth refers to him as the son of King Cassivellaunus (Caswallon) of the Catuvellaui tribe (from Hertfordshire). He became a British king and his brother was killed sometime during Claudius' invasion (AD 43). He has been linked with Caratacus, but more interestingly, he is said by the interpolators of William of Malmesbury's "De Antiquitate Glastoniensis Ecclesiae" to be the king who granted 12 hides of land around Glastonbury to Joseph of Arimathea and his band of followers, when they brought Christianity to Britain for the first time in AD 63.
Some scholars think that it may have been Arviragus and his people who occupied the ancient hillfort, located in the county of Somerset, known as Cadbury Castle (which would later come to be associated with King Arthur), and used it as a base for their resistance against the Romans.
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