equestrian order. The British bards were closely connected with the Druids. They sung the genealogies of their princes, and possessed lyric poetry as well as epic and didactic, accompanying their songs with an instrument called the chrotta. § 5. The southeast parts of Britain had already before the age of Cæsar made the first and most requisite step toward a civil settlement; and the Britons, by tillage and agriculture, had there increased to a great multitude. The other inhabitants of the island still maintained themselves by pasture: they were clothed with skins of beasts: they dwelt in round huts constructed of wood or reeds, which they reared in the forests and marshes with which the country was covered: they shifted easily their habitation when actuated either by the hopes of plunder or the fear of an enemy: the convenience of feeding their cattle was even a sufficient motive for removing their seats; and, as they were ignorant of all the refinements of life, their wants and their possessions were equally scanty and Jimited.* and a The Britons tattooed their bodies and stained them blue and green with woad; customs which were long retained by the Picts. They wore checkered mantles like the Gauls or Scottish highlanders; the waist was circled with a girdle, and metal chains adorned the breast. The hair and mustache were suffered to grow, ring was worn on the middle finger, after the fashion of the Gauls. Their arms were a small shield, javelins, and a pointless sword. They fought from chariots (esseda, covini) having scythes affixed to the axles. The warrior drove the chariot, and was attended by a servant who carried his weapons. The dexterity of the charioteers excited the admiration of the Romans. They would urge their horses at full speed down the steepest hills or along the edge of precipices, and check and turn them in full career. Sometimes they would run along the pole, or seat themselves on the yoke, and instantly, if necessary, regain the chariot. Frequently after breaking the enemy's ranks they would leap down and fight on foot; meanwhile the chariots were withdrawn from the fray, and posted in such a manner as to afford a secure retreat in case of need; thus enabling them to combine the rapid evolutions of cavalry with the steady firmness of infantry. The Britons had no fortresses, and their towns, if such a name can be applied to mere clusters of huts, were defended by their position in the centre of almost impenetrable forests, and by being surrounded with a deep ditch, and a fence or wall of felled trees. § 6. The Britons were divided into many small nations or tribes; * Cæsar's story of their having their wives in common probably arose from some misconception respecting their method of dwelling together in small societies, as the custom is not mentioned by Diodorus Siculus. B.C. 55, 54. CESAR'S INVASIONS. 7 and being a military people, whose chief property was their arms and their cattle, it was impossible, after they had acquired a relish for liberty, for their princes or chieftains to establish any despotic authority over them. Their governments, though monarchical, were free, as well as those of all the Celtic nations; and the common people seem to have enjoyed more liberty among them than among the nations of Gaul from whom they were descended. Each state was divided into factions within itself; it was agitated with jealousy or animosity against the neighboring states: and, while the arts of peace were yet unknown, wars were the chief occupation, and formed the chief object of ambition, among the people. The British tribes with whom the Romans became acquainted by Cæsar's invasion were mainly the following, though their precise boundaries can not, of course, be laid down:.. The Canti, under four princes, inhabited Kent. The Trinobantes were seated to the north of the Thames, and between that river and the Stour, in the present counties of Middlesex and Essex, having London, already a place of considerable trade, for their capital. The Cenimagni, perhaps the same as the Iceni of Tacitus, dwelt in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire. The Segontiaci inhabited parts of Hants and Berks. The Ancalites and Bibroci inhabited parts of Berks and Wilts. The position of the Cassi is uncertain. § 7. Cæsar, taking advantage of a short interval in his Gallic wars, invaded Britain with two legions in the year B.C. 55. The natives, informed of his intention, were sensible of the unequal contest, and endeavored to appease him by submissions, which, however, retarded not the execution of his design. After some resistance, he landed, as is supposed, at Deal;† and having obtained several advantages over the Britons, and obliged them to promise hostages for their future obedience, he was constrained, by the necessity of his affairs and the approach of winter, to withdraw his forces into Gaul. The Britons, relieved from the terror of his arms, neglected the performance of their stipulations; and that haughty conqueror resolved next summer (B.c. 54) to chastise them for this breach of treaty. He landed, apparently at the same spot, and unopposed, with above 20,000 men, and pitched his camp a little above Sandwich, near Richborough; and though he found a more regular resistance from the Britons, who had united under Cassivelaunus, or Caswallon, one of their petty princes, he discomfited them in every action. He advanced into the country * The Cantii derived their name from the Celtic Caint, or open country. † See Notes and Illustrations (A). and passed the Thames in the face of the enemy at a ford, probably in the neighborhood of Kingston, in spite of the piles which Caswallon had caused to be driven into the bed of the river, considerable remains of which are said to have existed in the time of Beda, seven centuries later. The valiant defense of Caswallon was frustrated by the treacherous submission of the Trinobantes and other tribes. Cæsar took and burned his forest fortress at Verulamium, the modern St. Albans; established his own ally, Mandubratius, in the sovereignty of the Trinobantes; and having obliged the inhabitants to make him new submissions, he returned with his army into Gaul, and left the authority of the Romans more nominal than real in this island. § 8. The civil wars which ensued, and which prepared the way for the establishment of monarchy in Rome, saved the Britons from the yoke which was ready to be imposed upon them. Augustus, apprehensive lest the same unlimited extent of dominion, which had subverted the republic, might also overwhelm the empire, recommended it to his successors never to enlarge the territories of the Romans; and Tiberius, jealous of the fame which might be acquired by his generals, made this advice of Augustus a pretense for his inactivity. Almost a century elapsed before a Roman force again appeared in Britain; but the natives during this period kept up some intercourse with Rome, though on a completely independent footing. Hence, as well as through their commerce with Gaul, where the Roman power had been completely established, they appear to have derived some tincture of Roman civilization; and the coins of Cynobelin, the Cymbeline of Shakspeare, and a successor of Caswallon, as well as those of Tasciovanus, probably his father, display the influence of Roman art, and a knowledge of the Latin alphabet. The mad sallies of Caligula, in which he menaced Britain with an invasion, served only Gold Coin of Cynobelin or Cunobelinus. Obverse: [C]AMV (Camulodunum); ear of corn. Reverse: OVNO (Cunobelinus); horse to right. to expose himself and the empire to ridicule; but at length a British exile named Beric instigated the Emperor Claudius to undertake the reduction of the island, and Aulus Plautius was dispatched thither at the head of four legions, together with Gallic auxiliaries, A.D. 43. The first great victory and the honor of a triumph was achieved by Cn. Osidius Geta. Vespasian, the future emperor, likewise distinguished himself in this campaign, and at the head of the second legion fought thirty battles, took twenty places, and subdued the Isle of Wight. Claudius himself, finding A.D. 43-62. CONQUEST OF MONA. 9 matters sufficiently prepared for his reception, made a journey into Britain and received the submission of several British states, the Cantii, Atrebates, Regni, and Trinobantes, whom their possessions and more cultivated manner of life rendered willing to purchase peace at the expense of their liberty. Claudius entered the city of Camulodunum (either Maldon or Colchester), where a colony of veterans was subsequently established, and the southeastern parts of Britain were gradually moulded into a Roman province. Aureus of Emperor Claudius. Obverse: TL. CLAVD.CAESAR AVG. P'M. TRP. VIIII "IMP. inscribed DE BRITANN (De Britannis). § 9. The other Britons, under the command of Caractacus, or Caradoc, a son of Cynobelin, still maintained an obstinate resistance, and the Romans made little progress against them till Ostorius Scapula was sent over to command the Roman armies (A.D. 47). Under this commander, Roman camps were established on the Avon and Severn; the Iceni* were reduced after a desperate and brilliant struggle; the league of the Brigantest was surprised and dispersed by the rapid march of Ostorius, and the Roman eagles pervaded the greater part of Britain. But the Silures and Ordovicest still held out, and it was not till after many years of warfare that Caer Caradoc, the residence of the British leader, seated on a hill in Shropshire near the confluence of the Coln and Teme, was captured by the Romans, and with it his wife and family. Caradoc himself sought shelter at the court of his step-mother Cartismandua, queen of the Brigantes, whom he had formerly befriended, but by whom he was basely and treacherously surrendered to the Romans (A.D. 51). Caradoc was conveyed to Rome, where his magnanimous behavior procured him better treatment than those conquerors usually bestowed on captive princes. But even after the capture of their leader the Silures still held out, and offered so determined a resistance that Ostorius is said to have died of vexation. § 10. The Romans seem to have done little toward the farther subjugation of the island till the appointment of Suetonius Paulinus to the command, in the reign of Nero, A.D. 59. After two years of peaceful administration, he resolved on reducing the island * People of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire. Probably, as already stated, the Cenimagni. + People between the Humber and the Tyne. The Silures inhabited South Wales; the Ordovices North Wales. of Mona, or Anglesey, the chief seat of the Druids, which afforded a shelter to the disaffected Britons. The strait was crossed by the infantry in shallow vessels, while the cavalry either waded or swam. The Britons endeavored to obstruct their landing on this sacred island, both by the force of their arms and the terror of their religion. The women and priests were intermingled with the soldiers upon the shore; and running about with flaming torches in their hands, and tossing their disheveled hair, they struck greater terror into the astonished Romans by their howlings, cries, and execrations than the real danger from the armed forces was able to inspire. But Suetonius, exhorting his troops to disregard the menaces of a superstition which they despised, impelled them to the attack, drove the Britons off the field, burned the Druids in the same fires which those priests had prepared for their captive enemies, destroyed all the consecrated groves and altars; and, having thus triumphed over the religion of the Britons, he thought his future progress would be easy in reducing the people to subjection. But he was disappointed in his expectations. The Britons, taking advantage of his absence, were all in arms; and, headed by Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, whose daughter had been defiled and herself scourged with rods by the Roman tribunes, had already attacked with success several settlements of their insulting conquerors. Suetonius hastened to the protection of London, which was already a flourishing Roman colony; but he found on his arrival that it would be requisite for the general safety to abandon that place to the merciless fury of the enemy. London was reduced to ashes; such of the inhabitants as remained in it were cruelly massacred; the Romans and all strangers, to the number of 70,000, were every where put to the sword without distinction; and the Britons, by rendering the war thus bloody, seemed determined to cut off all hopes of peace or composition with the enemy. But this cruelty was revenged by Suetonius in a great and decisive battle (A.D. 62), where 80,000 of the Britons are said to have perished; and Boadicea herself, rather than fall into the hands of the enraged victor, put an end to her own life by poison. Nero soon after recalled Suetonius from a government where, by suffering and inflicting so many severities, he was judged unfit for composing the angry and alarmed minds of the inhabitants. § 11. After some interval Cerealis received the command from Vespasian (A.D. 71), and by his bravery propagated the terror of the Roman arms. Julius Frontinus succeeded Cerealis both in authority and reputation; but the general who finally established the dominion of the Romans in this island was Julius Agricola, who governed it seven years (A.D. 78–85), in the reigns of Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian, and distinguished himself in that scene of action. |