About 43 years after the birth of Christ, Claudius, the Roman Emperor, sent Plautius, a preator, across Europe to conquer the Britons.  This would prove to be rather more difficult than was first envisaged.  Tacitus, a Roman historian at that time, records that “powerful armies were set in motion” however, Plautius pushed his conquest until he arrived at the banks of the River Severn. The Roman army needed to establish a communication post on the banks of the Severn while it conducted war in South Wales.  The area on which Gloucester now stands was seen to be the most suitable and a fort was built in an area now known as Kingsholm.

In the year AD 45, Plautius married a British woman by the name of Gladys. After the marriage her name was changed to Pomponia. She was a princess of Sliures, a tribe of South Wales and sister of Caradoc, better known as Caractacus, and since Gloucester stood between Siluria (South Wales) and Roman Briton, this would be the logical place to conduct the wedding.   About three or four years later, at the end of his military service, Plautius returned to Rome with his wife and was replaced by Ostorius Scapula.  Tacitus reveals in his Annals 13:32 that in AD 57 Pomponia was accused of foreign superstitions i/e being a member of the Christian faith.  It is also interesting to note that Tacitus gives mention of the wedding. Pomponia died in about AD 83.

The Encyclopedia Americana says of Caractacus (English Caradoc) that he was a British chieftain and after many battles against the Romans established himself in South Wales among the Silures, taking every opportunity of harassing the invaders. Indeed, Caractacus was a thorn in the side of Rome during the four years Plautius was Preator.  It may well have been that the marriage of Plautius to Pomponia was, at first, political in order to forge an alliance.  Whatever, it did not work.

At the marriage of Plautius to Pomponia was an officer of the Roman army by the name of Rufus Pudens Pudenta.  Pudens, as we shall call him, was second in command of the Roman forces in Britian and a friend of the Spanish poet Martial.  At the wedding he meet a young woman by the name of Claudia.  She was the daughter of Caractacus and niece to Pomponia and although only a teenager at the time, Claudia Rufina was beautiful and well educated.  Several volumes of her poetry and hymns are known to be in existence as late as the 13th century.

It is not known that Pudens married Claudia in the Gloucestershire area or in Rome, but given the nature of the times it is more than likely he did.  Martial writes of his friend Pudens the following. “Oh Rufus, my friend Pudens marries the foreigner Claudia” and “ Claudia Rufina has sprung from the azure Britons, how come she has the feeling of a Latin maid? Thanks to the gods, she has born many children to her holy husband.” From this there is absolutely no question that Claudia was British. One of the children mentioned by Martial was a son by the name of Linus.

It is now we can make the connection with the Apostle Paul in his second letter to Timothy 4:21.  Quote, “Make every effort to come before winter.  Greetings to you from Ebulus, Pudens, Linus, Claudia and all the brothers and sisters.”