HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAPTER I. BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. From B.c. 55. to A.D. 409. ABOUT fifty-five years before the birth of our blessed Saviour, Julius Cæsar, who at that time commanded the Roman armies in Gaul, resolved on attempting the conquest of the country now called England. Its name at that time was Britannia. The Romans had become masters of a great part of the world then known; and the ambition of Cæsar made him desirous of such glory as could be gained in the opinion of his countrymen, by adding another province to their empire. It is thus that God brings to pass his own gracious purposes, by the very schemes in which men engage for their own selfish ends. The extent of the Roman empire was very favourable to the spreading of that holy faith which was then about to be preached: inasmuch as it made distant nations acquainted with each other's language, and introduced the customs of civilized life where they had been before unknown. When we look back, therefore, on this invasion of the Romans, we may regard it as one means by which God began to break up the cruel superstition which then prevailed in this island, and secretly prepared the way for his great design, of planting one branch of his holy Church in this favoured country. At the time of Cæsar's invasion, England was inhabited by rude and warlike tribes, who were governed in a great degree by priests, called Druids. Their religious rites, remarkable for the veneration of the misletoe, were chiefly practised in the groves of oak that then covered the country; and were abominable for the cruelty with which prisoners taken in war were burnt at their sacred places in vast cases or frames of basket-work. The Druids also possessed temples of rude and gigantic construction, ruins of which still remain in different parts of England. One of the most famous of these is Stonehenge, which stands on Salisbury Plain. It is composed of vast masses of rock, placed in circles; within it is an altar, and around it, for some distance, are barrows or mounds of earth, to mark the spots where chieftains or warriors have been buried. Trained to disregard danger and resist attack, the rude inhabitants of Britain opposed the landing of Cæsar with great courage, They were generally defeated in their engagements with the disciplined Romans, but the country could not properly be called a Roman province before the time of Agricola, who was sent here by the Emperor Vespasian. This commander succeeded in subduing the southern division of the island, about one hundred and thirty years after the first invasion of Cæsar, and eighty-four years after the birth of Jesus Christ. During the latter part of that period of struggle, Caractăcus and Boadicea are recorded as persons who gave proof of the manliness and energy of the British character. Caractăcus, king of the Silures', after a noble resistance to the Romans, was taken prisoner in battle, A.D. 50. Being sent to Rome, and observing the splendour of that city, he exclaimed, "How could a people possessed of such magnificence at home envy me a humble cottage in Britain?” When brought in chains before Claudius, he disdained to yield to the abject despair which was usual in captives; and the emperor was so struck by the manly demeanour of the British king, that he at once restored him to liberty. Boadicea, queen of the Icēni 2, had received the deepest outrage at the hands of the Roman governor. By an impassioned statement of her wrongs, she succeeded in kindling in her people the indignation against their tyrants which burnt in her own bosom; and leading them forth to battle, she defeated the Romans with great slaughter in Essex. She was, however, afterwards conquered by Suetonius Paulinus in the reign of the Emperor Nero, A.D. 61, and put an end to her life by poison. 1 The Silures inhabited Radnorshire, Glamorganshire, and the adjoining counties. 2 The Icēni, Norfolk, Suffolk, &c. From the time of Agricola, who penetrated even to the highlands of Scotland, (then called by the Romans Caledonia,) the country was governed by that people for about three hundred and sixty years, and the Britons acquired the arts and habits of civilized life. London (Londinium) is said to have been already a city of some beauty and extent. The province of Britain was visited by several Roman emperors, and more than one of its prefects assumed the titles of Cæsar and Augustus. Hadrian came hither to repel the Caledonians, who had made inroads into the more fertile country of the south; and under his order the line of garrisons which Agricola had established (A.D. 79) between the river Tyne (Tina Fl.) and the Solway Firth (Ituna Est. was completed into a continuous wall, and called Vallum Hadriani. Agricola had constructed another line of garrisons, in A.D. 81, which was made into a continuous fortification in the reign of Antoninus Pius, A.D. 140, under the name of Vallum Antonini. It extended from the Firth of Forth (Boderia Est.) to the Firth of Clyde (Clota Est.). The Vallum Severīnum, which was only a few yards distant from that of Hadrian, was built, A.D. 210, by Septimius Sevērus. That emperor had come to Britain with his sons Caracalla and Geta to strengthen his frontier, and soon after the completion of his great work, died at Eborăcum (York). Constantius, the father of Constantine the Great, breathed his last in the same city. His illustrious son, the first Christian emperor, was born in this island. It is generally believed that Helěna, the mother of Constantine, was a British lady. These and the following facts are sufficient to show the importance and civilization of Britain under its Roman rulers. At the time their sway over the island terminated, Britannia (that is, England and part of Scotland,) comprised five Provincial Divisions, which had gradually assumed that form. These were: 1. Britannia Prima, or that part of England which is south of Gloucestershire and the river Thames (Taměsis Fl.). 2. Flavia Cæsariensis, which included the country between the German Ocean on the east, and the Severn (Sabrina Est.) and Dee (Deva Fl.) rivers on the west, 3 Known as "the Picts' Wall." |