History ArtisticLicenseHistory / Britannia

* Aulus Plautius' wife Hemple is fictitious. In history, his actual wife was Pomponia Graecina.

* The writers seem to have gone for the AsLongAsItSoundsForeign route, because aside from maybe Antedia, none of the Britons have period-appropriate names. Their names are a mixture of anachronistic Gaelic names (like Ossian and Phelan - technically Celtic, but only very distantly related to the Brythonic names that the historical southern British Celts would have sported), foreign words (like Amena and Divis, which come from ''Latin'' of all things), and just plain random-sounding names (like Quane or Willa). The worst example might be Lindon, who sports a centuries-posterior Old English name despite the fact he is not a even a Briton.

* Some of the mentioned black characters, like Antonius, are legionaries, something that at the time and place would depend on very specifical circumstances that don't seem to apply here. At the time the series is set, non-Italic natives could only be ''auxilia'' troops or ''socii'' allies, never legionaries themselves (and even Italic themselves were only included since 90 BC, when they literally went to war for the right of being considered Roman citizens). ''Auxilia'' were eventually awarded Roman citizenship after 25 years in the Roman army, which they automatically passed to their children, but this is seemingly not the case with Antonius: he doesn't mention his father was a veteran whenever he speaks about his origin, and his talk with Veran suggests he joined the legions by his own devices, which at the time would have been impossible.

* In the series, Roman citizens are apparently expected to abandon their native deities and worship the Roman gods, as a plot point is made out of Antonius having always been secretly worshipping Bomazi despite being now a Roman soldier. In real life, Romans could hardly care less about what gods their people prayed to, as it was their belief that all the people in the world worshipped the same gods under different names (''interpretatio romana''). In fact, foreign theonyms like Mithras were very popular among Roman soldiers at the time the series is set.

* The "arrangement" between Lindon and Amena is said to be the druids' idea in order to strengthen the bonds between the Cantii and the "Bretons" in Gaul. There are two problems with this: at that point in time the peninsula of Armorica had been part of the Roman province of Gallia Lugdunensis for decades, and it wouldn't be called Brittany for another four centuries, when Britons from the island of Great Britain began to emigrate there.

* The Romans have Czech hedgehog style traps surrounding their camp, 1895 whole years before they were invented. Amusingly enough, those traps were designed to stopping tanks and vehicles, not infantry, so ancient Romans would have probably not found any real usage for them.

* All the Britannian characters, either main or secondary, are fictitious, and some of them are stand-ins for historical figures. Queen Antedia replaces the historical king Cogidubnus, while King Pelennor and Kerra do the same for Togodumnus and Caratacus, the Catuvellani chieftains who ruled over the Cantii at the time (like Pelennor, Togodumnus died during the Roman invasion, and like Kerra, Caratacus inherited his job in the resistence).

Besides the obvious fact that the druids didn’t have any real magic, there are some places were the series takes some rather huge liberties with the historical facts. When asked if his story would enrage pedants, ''Series/{{Britannia}}'''s creator Jez Butterworth actually responded that "I actually hope it does."

Besides the obvious fact that the druids didn’t have any real magic, there are some places were the series takes some rather huge liberties with the historical facts. When asked if his story would enrage pedants, ''Britannia'' creator Jez Butterworth actually responded that "I actually hope it does."

* Plautius claims to not even know the names of the local tribes in the area where he landed. In reality, the pretext for the invasion was to re-instate Verica, an exiled king of the Atrebates tribe, so he should have been well aware of the political situation on the island.

* The writers seem to have gone for the AsLongAsItSoundsForeign route, because aside from maybe Antedia, none of the Britons have period-appropriate names. Their names are a mixture of anachronistic Gaelic names (like Ossian and Phelan - technically Celtic, but only very distantly related to the Brythonic names that the historical southern British Celts would have sported), foreign words (like Amena and Divis, which come from ''Latin'' of all things), literary references (Pelennor, a word created by Creator/JRRTolkien) and just plain random-sounding names (like Quane or Willa). The worst example might be Lindon, who sports a centuries-posterior Old English name despite the fact he is not a even a Briton.

Besides the obvious fact that the Druids didn’t have any real magic, there are some places were the series takes liberties with the historical facts.

* Pre-Roman Britannia being a FeministFantasy WorldOfActionGirls is an exaggerated and greatly idealized view of what we know for sure about it and the roles women occupied on it. While it is true that Celtic women had a great share of independency, could occupy political and religious positions, and stepped into the battlefield with a frequency unheard of in most other cultures of its age, this was actually heavily dependant on the tribe in question and not as extreme and well established as the series shows.

* The writers seem to have gone for the AsLongAsItSoundsForeign route, because none of the Britons have period-appropriate names. The Celtic characters have a bizarre mixture of modern Gaelic and non-Celtic names, and while the Gaelic ones (like Ossian and Phelan) are technically Celtic, they're only very distantly related to the Brythonic names that the historical southern British Celts would have sported.

* In the series, Roman citizens are apparently expected to abandon their native deities and worship the Roman gods, as a plot point is made out of Antonius having always been secretly worshipping Bomazi despite being now a Roman soldier. In real life, Romans could hardly care less about what gods their people prayed to, as it was their belief that all the people in the world worshipped the same gods under different names (''interpretatio romana'').
* Lokka is an alternative rendering of the name of the Norse god Loki, not a Celtic "Earth Demon", which is also a mythological concept fully invented by the show.

* All the Britannian characters, either main or secondary, are fictitious, and some of them are stand-ins for historical characters. Queen Antedia replaces the historical king Cogidumnus, while King Pelennor does the same for Caratacus, the Catuvellani chieftain who ruled over the Cantii at the time.

* Pre-Roman Britannia being a FeministFantasy WorldOfActionGirls is an exaggerated and greatly idealized view of what we know for sure about it and the roles women occupied on it. While it is true that Celtic women had a great share of independency, could occupy political and religious positions, and stepped into the battlefield with a frequency unheard of in most other cultures of its age, this was actually heavily dependant on the tribe in question and not as regularized as the series shows.

* Antonius claims that the god of the Numidians is Bomazi. In fact, Bomazi has nothing to do with the Kingdom of Numidia: it is the ancestor god in the mythology of the Bushongo people, which is located in Central Africa, a place the Roman empire never get remotely near of. For a Numidian deity, the goddess Tanit would have been more adequate.
* Lokka is an alternative rendering of the name of the Norse god Loki, not a Celtic “Earth Demon” (a mythological concept invented by the show).

* The Romans have Czech Hedgehog style tank traps surrounding their camp, 1895 years before they were invented.

* Pre-Roman Britannia being a FeministFantasy WorldOfActionGirls is a modern and greatly exaggerated view of what we know for sure about it and the roles women occupied on it. While it is true that many Celtic women lived independent lives, were queens and priestesses, and stepped into the battlefield with a frequency unheard of in most other cultures of its age, this was actually heavily dependant on the tribe in question, and in any case not as common and regularized as the series shows.

* None of the Britons have period-appropriate names. The writers seemed to go for the AsLongAsItSoundsForeign route.

* Antonius claims that the god of the Numidians is Bomazi. In fact, Bomazi is the ancestor-god in the mythology of the Kuba Kingdom in Central Africa. For a Numidian deity, the goddess Tanit or the god Baal would have been more adequate.

* The Celtic characters have a bizarre mixture of modern Gaelic and non-Celtic names. While the Gaelic names like Ossian and Phelan are technically Celtic, they're only very distantly related to the Brythonic names that the historical southern British Celts would have sported.

* Plautius reminds Lucius of an incident in which they were both involved while serving in Egypt, and mentions Cairo. While the area was already home to various cities and settlements, Cairo wouldn’d get that name until the 10th century AD.
* Plautius claims to not even know the names of the local tribes in the area where he landed. In reality, the pretext for the invasion was to re-instate Verica, an exiled king of the Atrebates tribe, so he would have been well aware of the political situation on the island.

* It can be inferred that the Roman officer Vespasian is meant to be the historical would-be emperor Vespasian, who actually served in Britannia as an officer under Aulus Plautius. However, his ''Britannia'' version dies there and never becomes nothing.

* Pre-Roman Britannia being a FeministFantasy WorldOfActionGirls is a modern and greatly exaggerated view of what we know for sure about it and the roles women occupied on it. While it is true that many Celtic women lived independent lifes, were queens and priestesses, and stepped into the battlefield with a frequency unheard of in most other cultures of its age, this was actually heavily dependant on the tribe in question, and in any case not as common and regularized as the series shows.
* The Celts use runes. Nevermind that the runes were a ''Germanic'' writing system and did not arrive to Britannia until the Anglo-Saxon migrations, 400 years after the events of the show. If the runes were around in 43 AD (the earliest known inscriptions are from the 2nd century), they would have been limited to the area around Denmark or to Germanic mercenaries.

* Antonius claims that the god of the Numidians is Bomazi. In fact Bomazi is the ancestor-god in the mythology of the Kuba Kingdom in Central Africa.