CARACTACUS or (better) CARATACUS, the Latin form of the Celtic Caradoc (fl. A.D. 5o), British chieftain of the tribe of Catuvellauni, a son of Cunobelinus, king of the Trino bantes. He led the native resistance against Aulus Plautus (A.D. , and after being defeated, probably at Wallingford, and afterwards at Colchester, he withdrew into South Wales. He was finally defeated by Ostorius Scapula in A.D. 5o, somewhere in Shropshire, perhaps at Caer Caradock, where there are remains of an old camp. Caractacus and his family were captured and taken to Rome, where the Emperor Claudius granted them life.
See Tae. Ann. xii. 31, 37, Hist. 3, 45 ; Dio Cassius, lx., 19-22 ; E. Guest, Origines Celticae (1883) .