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HISTORY OF ENGLAND IN EPOCHS.

INTRODUCTION.

ROMAN INVASION AND OCCUPATION OF BRITAIN, EMBRACING A PERIOD
FROM B.C. 55 To A.D. 448.

THE Britons were a portion of that great Celtic race which formed the first stratum of European population. Centuries before the Christian era, Phoenician navigators traded with the inhabitants of Britain, giving such commodities as salt, earthenware, and copper, in exchange for the produce of the tin-mines of Cornwall.

Fifty-five years B.C., Julius Cæsar, the great Roman general, landed on the coast of Britain, in the neighbourhood of Deal. The natives offered a vigorous resistance, and the galleys bearing the Roman cavalry having been scattered by a tempest, Cæsar deemed it wise to postpone further attempts till the next spring, when he again made a descent at the same spot. On this occasion he was encountered by the valour and rude skill of Cassibelanus, at the head of the warlike tribe of the Cassii. Cæsar, although he penetrated a considerable way into the interior, made no permanent conquest of the island.

During 97 years the Britons were left undisturbed, till A.D. 43, when Claudius (fourth Roman emperor) sent Aulus Plautius to conquer the island. He was succeeded by Ostorius Scapula,

who found a resolute antagonist in Caractacus, king or chief of the warlike tribe of the Silures. Caractacus was defeated, and sent captive to Rome, but was afterwards liberated by Claudius.

A.D. 57.—Suetonius Paulinus, sent by Nero (sixth Roman emperor) to take the command, discovered that a spirit of resistance and independence was kept alive by the Celtic priests,

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