Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/401

Rh conjectured with some probability to have been Verulamium (St Albans). Cassivellaunus now sued for peace, and after receiving hostages and fixing the amount of the tribute Coesar left the country before the end of the summer. No garrison was left behind to secure the .Roman conquests, which were thus practically relinquished. For nearly a hundred years after this date the history of Britain is almost a blank. The Emperor Claudius, on his accession to the empire in 41 A.D., determined to carry out Augustus s intention of exacting the- British tribute ; accord ingly (43 A.D.) Aulus Plautius was sent to Britain with a force of four legions, and having landed without opposition, he advanced to the northern side of the Thames, and there awaited the emperor s arrival. Plautius was soon joined by Claudius, who at once led his army against the Britons, over whom he gained a complete victory, immediately after which he returned to Rome, leaving Plautius to secure his conquests. The war was now carried on in the west between the Roman general Vespasian, who afterwards became emperor, and the Silurian chief Caractacus (Caradoc). After a struggle of nine years Caractacus at length, in 51 A.D., met with a decisive defeat at the hands of P. Ostorius Scapula. Having fled for refuge to Cartismandua, queen of the Brigantes (a tribe occupying the district between the Tyne and the Humber), he was betrayed by her to the Romans, by whom he was taken to be led in triumph through the streets of Rome. Ten years after this Boadicea, queen of the Iceui, a tribe occupying the present counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, took advantage of the absence in Mona (Anglesey) of the Roman prefect, Suetonius Paullinus, to excite her people to revolt. The Roman colony of Camulodunum (Colchester) was taken and sacked, and the rebellion soon seemed seriously to threaten the Roman power. Suetonius, however, hastened up from the west, and in a single battle, fought near London, inflicted a decisive defeat on the Britons, following up his victory by a massacre in which 80,000 Britons are said to have perished. Boadicea poisoned herself to avoid falling into the hands of the Romans. The spirit of insurrection was now completely crushed ; a milder policy was adopted by the successors of Suetonius, and Roman civilization began rapidly to spread over the country. The next event of importance is the arrival of Agricola as governor of Britain in year 78. Agricola s first task was to complete the subjection of the Ordovices (North Wales), and this having been speedily accomplished, he adopted, with great success, a policy of conciliation. He encouraged education and building, and succeeded in introducing Roman dress and manners among the Britons. This, says Tacitus, they in their ignorance called civiliza tion, though it was but a part of their slavery. In 79 Agricola attacked the Brigantes, and reduced the country betwen the Humber and the Tyne. During five years he continued to advance further north, and in 84 he defeated a Caledonian chieftain, named Galgacus, in a great battle, the site of which it is impossible to fix, but it was probably not far from the eastern coast of Scotland at some place north of the Tay. Agricola was now recalled to Rome, and no attempt was made to maintain the con quests north of the line of forts which he had built between the Forth and the Clyde. The remainder of the period of the Roman occupation is for the most part uneventful. In 120 the Emperor ] [adrian visited the country, and built a rampart between the Tyne and the Solway Frith, in order to check the inroads of the northern tribes. In 139 a wall, called the wall of Antonine, in honour of the emperor Antoninus Pius, was built by the prefect Lollius Urbicus along the line of Agricola s forts between the Forth and the Clyde. In 207 the Emperor Severus came to Britain in order to lead in person an expedition against the Caledonian tribes. He advanced far into Caledonia, driving the enemy before him but never meeting them in a pitched battle. No substantial advantage was gained in this desultory war, which cost the lives of 50,000 Roman soldiers. Severus built a new wall along the line of Hadrian s rampart, and died at York in 211. The Roman empire was now in a state of decay, and its weakness offered great temptations to distant officials to seize the supreme power for themselves. About 287 the title of emperor was assumed by a man of low birth named Carausius, a native of Menapia (the district between the Scheldt and the Meuse), who had been appointed to the command of the fleet stationed in the English Channel for the purpose of protecting the coasts of Britain and Gaul from the Frisian pirates, and whose conduct in that position had been such as to draw from the emperor Maximian an order for his death. After a successful reign of seven years, in the course of which his independence was acknowledged by Maximian, Carausius was assassinated by his chief officer Allectus, who in his turn usurped the imperial title during three years, at the end of which Britain was regained for Rome by Constantius Chlorus (296). Constantius afterwards led an expedition into Caledonia, and died at York in 306. Soon after this date the Picts and Scots begin to be heard of as invading the Roman province from the north. The Scots, who occupied the western part of Caledonia, belonged to the Gaelic branch of the Celtic family, and had crossed over from Ireland, bringing with them the name which was afterwards bestowed on their new home. The question as to the origin and the language cf the Picts is one which has been long under discussion, and still seems far from a definitive settlement. The Picts are now, however, generally admitted to have been a Celtic race, and the evidence of language, as far as can be judged from the very few Pictish words, chiefly proper names, which have been preserved to us, seems to indicate the Cymric rather than the Gaelic as the branch to which they belonged. (For further information on this point see Garnett, Philological Essays, and Skene, The Four Ancient Books of Wales. Garnett holds the view that the Picts were a Cymric race ; Skene believes them to have belonged to the Gaelic branch of the Celtic family.) In 367 the Picts and Scots overran the whole country as far south as London. Theodosius, father of the emperor of that name, was sent against them., and in two campaigns he succeeded in driving them back beyond the wall of Antonine. The district thus regained between the walls of Hadrian and of Antonine was named Valentia, in honour of the reigning emperor Valentinian. This, however, was only a momentary check, and the new province was soon lost. In 383 the title of emperor was assumed by Maximus, a native of Spain, who had served under Theodosius in the Pictish wars. Maximus took a large army of Romans and Britons into Gaul and was recognized by Theodosius and Valentinian as sole emperor over Britain, Gaul, and Spain. Five years later he invaded Italy, but was taken and beheaded at Aquileia in 388. The army never returned to Britain, which was thus left weaker than ever. In 396 a single legion was sent by Stilicho, and the Picts were once more driven back. In 407 three successive emperors Marcus, Gratian, and Constantine were set up in Britain, the last of whom followed the example set by Maximus, and carried the army into Gaul, leaving Britain again helpless against the northern invaders. In 410 the Roman occupation of Britain was formally terminated by a letter addressed by the emperor Honorius to the cities 