Explanation: Under the reign of the Emperor Claudius, the Roman Empire conquered Britannia. It was actually a short and relatively bloodless affair - many of the Briton kings were all-but-vassals of Rome by this point anyway, but a few resisted and were crushed by the Roman Legions. One of them, Caratacus, was brought to Rome to be displayed in Triumph, a military parade, and then executed, as was traditional.

Caratacus had an opportunity to speak to the Emperor Claudius, and objected to the whole affair - having seen the glory of the city of Rome, with towering stone buildings and magnificent architecture, Caratacus said, he could not fathom why the Romans desired their simple homes so badly.

Claudius regarded this as an at least passable point, and so opted to spare Caratacus instead, and gave him a villa, a stipend, and slaves to maintain him - in Italy, of course, too far from Britannia for Caratacus to cause trouble in the newly conquered province!