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The Significance and Importance of Kent in Ancient Britain

© David White

To Julius Caesar, it was Cantium. Caesar wasn't there too many times, so perhaps he can be forgiven. In none of his many voluminous writings, however, does he record the name that the Kentish people gave to themselves. Nonetheless, as with many things Caesar did, the name stuck. Today, Kent it is.

When Caesar arrived, Cantium as he called it had been developing since Paleolithic times, although true expansion didn't take place until Neolithic times, when the Medway megaliths were built. As with many other areas of Britain, Kent flourished during the Bronze Age, especially since it was a coastal land and could absorb traders from other lands.

Caesar would have been very familiar with some relatively later inhabitants of Kent called the Belgae. These people lived in southeastern England and in Gaul but didn't manage to acquit themselves well enough with the sword to resist Roman occupation and domination. Before Caesar arrived, though, they distinguished themselves on both sides of the English Channel, making many advances in technology and culture.

One of the main features of the Roman era, of course, was the remarkable Roman ingenuity in engineering. The Roman Road is the stuff of legend: arrow-straight, durable, and easily built. Watling Street survives to this day an example of a Roman road that has been cannibalized into a modern throughway.

The Saxon brothers Hengist and Horsa landed in Pegwell Bay in the 5th Century, at the invitation of Vortigern, the High-King. Vortigern's problem at the time was that he was having a hard time keeping the lands he ruled over free from Pictish influence. He hoped that the "friendly" Germanics would enable him to retake what he thought was rightly his and then shake hands and return to their homeland, money in tow and good deeds in their heart. This is not at all what happened, of course; to Vortigern's great consternation, Hengist decided he liked the place too much to leave and make a right nice career for himself in his new home.

When the Jutes arrived, also in the 5th Century, they found Kent to their liking. They stayed quite awhile, actually, and formed the land in their image. They called it Cantia and then Cent. The capital of the area was Canterbury.

Canterbury's status as the Kentish capital is significant because that is where Augustine went to press his Christian teachings, in the early Dark Ages. The reception to Augustine and his followers was so positive, in fact, that the Romans established a cathedral there.

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