Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/189

 i6« ' THE HISTORY. Book I.' lequent iniurre&ion. But the former has been fo negligently copied by the perfons who tranfmitted it to Camden, that it cannot be depended upon at all with regard to the year of its date. This appears at once from the glaring abfurdrty of it in giving the appellation of Emperor to Vefpafian and to "Titiis in the fame infcription ,7 . And this equally appears from the confideration of this certain fadl, That in the year 76 the Ceangi of Chelhire had not yet been attacked by the Romans at all. In the fum- mer of 78, when Agricola affumed the command oi 1 the troops within the ifland, the whole range of our north-weftern coajft, including North- Wales and extending tq Scotland, was yet un* iubdued by the' Roman arms. The moft foutherly of thefe Bri- tons, the Ordovices of North-Wales, had been previously aN tacked by Suetonius Paulinus ; but all the more northerly Bri- tons were firft attacked by Agricola, Having totally reduced the former in the autumn of 78, Agricola equally reduced the latter in the fummer of 79* This therefore is the higheft date to which any Chefhire infcription can poffibly refer, as the county was firft attacked and firft conquered in this year. And this is alfo the Ioweft to which any infcription concerning Vefpafian can be poffibly reduced, as he died upon the twenty-fourth of June in this year. And to this the original infcription muft Xiave actually referred, and muft have been thus written, imp* cves*. .V1HL t. VESP. V1L coss. . jEarlythen in the campaign of y^ when Agricola led his troops to the conqueft of Laricafliire, the main body appears to have advanced by the way of Warrington ". The inhabitants jof the northrwefterri region of Cheshire, the hardy Ceangi or herdfmen of the Carnabii, were fecure in the prote&ion of their wiarfhesy: jand had hot yet fubmitted to the Roman arms. But Agricblkipurfued them to the laft retreat of their marflies and the banks, of .the- Merfey, there attacked and defeated them near "Norton^ and fiibdued the whole country. This being fuccefsfuliy performed, the army muft have natu- rally, forded the Merfey at the {hallow near Warrington, have
 * otered:the; country of th$ Siftuntii, and have taken the Britifh
 * . . fortrels