HISTORICAL READER. (ENGLAND.) PART I. FROM THE ROMAN INVASION TO THE 1. THE ROMAN CONQUEST. [The natives whom the Romans found in Britain were Celts, of the same race as the inhabitants of Gaul. They were then in an uncivilized state, dwelling in caves and mud houses, and dyeing their bodies to give them a fierce aspect in battle.] 1. The Britons had long remained in a rude but independent state, when Cæsar, having overrun all Gaul by his victories, first cast his eye on their island. He was not 'allured either by its riches or its renown; but being ambitious of carrying the Roman arms into a new world, then mostly unknown, he took advantage of a short interval in his Gaulic wars, and made an invasion on Britain. The natives, informed of his intention, were sensible of the unequal contest, and endeavoured to 'appease him by submissions; which, however, re- 55 tarded not the execution of his design. After some B.C. resistance, he landed, as is supposed, at Deal;1 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. 2. The Britons, relieved from the terror of his arms, neglected the performance of their stipulations; and that haughty conqueror resolved next summer to chastise them for this breach of treaty. He landed with a greater force; and though he found a more regular resistance from 54 the Britons, who had united under Cassivelaunus, one B.C. of their petty princes, he 'discomfited them in every action. He advanced into the country; passed the Thames in the face of the enemy; took and burned the capital of Cassivelaunus; established his ally, Mandubratius, in the sovereignty of the Trinobantes;2 and having obliged the inhabitants to make him new submissions, he again returned with his army into Gaul, and left the authority of the Romans more nominal than real in this island. 4 3. The general who finally established the 'dominion of the Romans in this island was Julius Agricola,3 who governed it in the reigns of Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian, and distinguished himself in that scene of 78 action. This great commander formed a regular plan A.D. for subduing Britain and rendering the acquisition useful to the conquerors. He carried his victorious arms northwards, defeated the Britons in every encounter, pierced into the inaccessible forests and mountains of Caledonia, reduced every state to subjection in the southern parts of the island, and chased before him all the men of fiercer and more 'intractable spirit, who deemed war and death itself less intolerable than servitude under the victors. He even defeated them in a decisive action which 84 they fought under Galgacus, their leader; and having A.D. fixed a chain of garrisons between the friths of Clyde and Forth, he thereby cut off the barren parts of the island, and secured the Roman province from the incursions of the barbarous inhabitants. |