54 B.C. Distribution of Inhabitants 11 feature was the employment of war-chariots, with which their warriors did not charge among the ranks, but galloped along the front of the enemy's lines, and, when they perceived a weak place, flung themselves into it and fought on foot. Meanwhile, the charioteers awaited at a convenient distance the result of the conflict, and, if their comrades were defeated, were ready to take them up and either make a retreat or seek a fresh point for attack. Druids. The religion of the Britons, which Cæsar tells us had been adopted by the continental Celts, was Druidism. The Druids were an order of priests who exercised a paramount influence over their followers. 'They taught the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, which, they believed, had a tendency to inspire men with courage by making them indifferent to death. They also devoted much thought to astronomy, to the magnitude of the universe and of the earth, to the nature of things, to the power and prerogatives of the immortal gods; and their learning they taught to the young men.' Some of their rites were utterly barbarous, and they did not scruple to offer human sacrifices. The influence that Druidism exercised over its followers was immense, for it is thought that it was under the direction of its votaries that the tremendous undertaking of collecting and placing in position the huge blocks of stone which form the mighty monument of Stonehenge and other similar works was carried out. Cæsar made no scientific distinction between the races of Britain; but modern research has decided that, speaking generally, the distribution of Brythons, Goidels, and Ivernians was as follows:-Except Ethnology the south-eastern counties, inhabited by the Belgæ, the great of Britain. part of southern Britain was occupied by Celts of the Brythonic type, who touched the southern shores of the Bristol Channel, occupied a wedge of country between North and South Wales, afterwards known as Powys, the district between the Dee and Morecambe Bay, and extended northward across the friths as far as Loch Earn. This left South and North Wales, Belgæ. Brythons. the Lake district, the Western Lowlands, and the low-lying lands north of the Forth in the hands of the Goidels, who also occupied Goidels. Ivernians. the islands of Mona and Man, and all that part of the British isles which was not in the hands of the Ivernians. It is impossible to say how far the Ivernians existed as an independent people. It is probable, however, that the pressure of the Brythons on the Goidelic Celts had led to a fusion of the latter with the Ivernians. A century later Tacitus mentions that in his day the Silures of South Wales presented an appearance different from that of the other Britons, and speaks of the olive tincture of their skin and the natural curl of their hair as distinguishing them from the ruddyhaired Celts north of the Wall. From this it is probable that the inhabitants of South Wales had received a large infusion of Ivernian blood. North of the Firth of Clyde and the Tay, it is probable that the Goidels had not established themselves more than along the Eastern Lowlands, and that the Highlands, so far as they were inhabited at all, were still in the hands of an Ivernian population. The conclusions arrived at from time to time with regard to the difficult but interesting question of the distribution of the early inhabitants of Britain depend upon a variety of evidence. This is supplied by archæology, ethnology, place-names and inscriptions; and the deductions drawn are liable to modification from time to time, as further information makes possible a more exact approximation to the truth. CHAPTER II BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS Roman Conquest of Britain-Introduction of Roman Civilisation-Causes of the Withdrawal of the Romans. Third vasion. AFTER Cæsar's invasion, Britain was left in peace by the Romans, partly because their attention was absorbed by the civil wars which preceded the establishment of the Empire, partly because after the restoration of tranquillity it was the policy of Augustus and Tiberius not to engage in wars of aggression. For nearly a century a Roman force was not seen in Britain, and during this interval the Britons made much progress in the arts of peace. Trade with Gaul flourished, and the coins of this period give evidence of the ingenuity and wealth of the inhabitants. However, in the year 43, Tiberius Claudius (41-54 A.D.), the fourth Emperor, determined to annex Britain, and sent Aulus Roman InPlautius to effect its subjugation. Plautius found the chief power in the hands of the children of Cunobelinus, who appears to have been a grandson of Cassivellaunus and to have succeeded to his position. The names of his sons were Togodumnus and Caractacus. Aulus Aulus Plautius, who had serving under him the famous Vespasian and his son Titus, defeated the islanders in a battle in which Togodumnus was killed; and thereupon Caractacus betook himself to the Silures, who lived among the mountains and moorlands of South Wales, and who were probably largely Ivernians. This success led the way to the conquest of the south-eastern portion of the island, and Claudius himself came over to be present at the reduction of Camulodunum (Colchester), where Ostorius Scapula, the next governor, founded a Roman Ostorius Scapula. colony. His next step was to march against Caractacus, who had been taken as king by the warlike Silures. Him he defeated and sent prisoner to Rome; but he was unable to effect the subjugation of the mountaineers, and had to content himself for the present with bridling their territory with a line of forts stretching from the Usk to the Dee, the Plautius. Paullinus. chief of which were Caerleon and Chester. The next governor, Suetonius Paullinus, made an attack upon the island of Mona, now called Anglesea, Suetonius then the headquarters of the Druids, whom the Romans rightly regarded as the centre of national resistance. In the battle which ensued the Britons fought with unexampled fury, even the women mingling in the fray, and the Druids themselves struck terror into the soldiers by the violence of their imprecations; but at length Roman discipline carried the day, the Druids were massacred, and the sacred altars and groves were burnt to the ground. Meanwhile the unaccustomed exactions of the Roman tax-collectors had roused the resentment of the high-spirited Celts. Moreover, they were indignant at the monstrous treatment received by Boadicea and her daughters, in spite of the fact that they had been specially commended to the kind treatment of the Romans by her husband, the late king of the Iceni. Accordingly, the Britons took advantage of the governor's absence in Mona Boadicea. to break out into open revolt. Camulodunum was stormed, and it is said that 70,000 Romans fell victims to the vengeance of the infuriated Britons. Suetonius, however, was prompt to return; against the trained skill of the legions the valour of the Britons only served to swell the number of the slain; and though numbers of the rebels continued under arms, the new province was saved to the Empire. Boadicea, scorning to fall into the hands of her oppressors, saved herself by suicide. Revolt of The next important governor of Britain was Agricola, an old officer of Suetonius, and the father-in-law of the historian Tacitus, who has handed down to us a valuable narrative of his career. On his arrival Agricola. he found that his immediate predecessor, Frontinus, had subjugated the Silures. So he turned his attention to their neighbours the Ordovices, a Brythonic race who lived in what is now Central Wales; and after conquering them he passed on to attack Mona. By causing his auxiliary soldiers to swim across the straits he appears to have surprised the defenders, and the surrender of the island immediately followed. Agricola,' says Tacitus, was an excellent ruler'; he was well acquainted with past events, and knew that conquest, while it loads the vanquished with injury and oppression, can never be secure and permanent.' He determined, therefore, to remove the seeds of future hostility. For this purpose he reformed abuses in the army; made promotion strictly a matter of merit; arranged that the forced contributions to the maintenance of the army should be as little irksome as possible,' and was so successful that after his time the Britons are described as 'willingly supplying the army with new levies, paying their tribute without a murinur, and performing all the services of government Battle of with alacrity, provided they had no reason to complain of oppression. When injured their resentment was quick, sudden, and impatient; they were conquered, not broken; reduced to obedience, not reduced to slavery.' Agricola also encouraged and even aided the Britons to erect temples, courts of justice, and commodious dwelling-houses; he encouraged the use of Latin, and in fact did all he could to Romanise the natives. The Brigantes, who occupied the territory north of the Humber, having been already conquered, Agricola carried the Roman arms across the Cheviots, and even across the Tay; but though he Mons Graupius. beat the Caledonians at the battle of Mons Graupius, between the Tay and the Islay, he contented himself with fixing the Roman frontier between the Firths of Forth and Clyde, and Agricola's in 81 defended it by erecting a series of forts. Agricola was of opinion that a conquest of Ireland would have been both useful and easy, but was recalled before he had time to carry his plan into effect. In 121, while on a visit to Britain, the Emperor Hadrian gave orders for the building of a stone wall from the mouth of the Eden to that of the Tyne. This fortification was strengthened Hadrian's by succeeding commanders till ultimately it consisted of Forts. Wall. a stone wall to the north, an earthwork to the south, and a series of forts between them. Towns. South of this line of demarcation the Romans set themselves the task of creating a civilised Britain, as they had already created a civilised Gaul and a civilised Spain. In the first place they secured a complete military ascendancy by occupying all the old duns or natural fortifications which had already been selected by the Britons, and fortifying Roman them after their own fashion, selecting the most important of them as sites of future towns, and connecting these by a series of first-rate military roads. Of the towns the most noteworthy are London, situated at the lowest point on the Thames where the river is sufficiently narrow to be bridged, and where there was also a firm bank suitable for unlading merchandise; York, at the junction of the Foss and the Ouse, the centre of the great plain of the north; Lincoln, on the highest point of the low ridge that bounds the Trent valley towards the east; Chester, which commands the lowest crossing-place of the Dee; Uriconium, on the Severn; Caerleon-upon-Usk; and Bath, even then celebrated for its hot springs. The main trunk roads were four in number. First, the Watling Street, which, setting out from Dover, crossed the Thames at London, and then turning north-west, made its way to Chester along a line not very different from that followed in our own day by the London and North-Western Military |