Page:Public School History of England and Canada (1892).djvu/10

 hundred years later, came the Greeks from Massilia or Marseilles, in France. It was about this time that the name “Britannia” was given to the island of Great Britain.

2. Roman Conquest.—At last, in the year 55 B.C., a great Roman general, Julius Caesar, came across the Channel from France (then called Gaul), with an army, and defeated the Britons who had gathered on the coast to keep him from landing. He soon returned to Gaul, but came back the next year, and once more defeated the Britons. Again he left the island—this time to return no more.

When Caesar visited Britain he found the people on the southern coast fairly civilized. They had war-chariots, and fought with spears, axes and pikes. They wore ornaments of gold and silver, and clad themselves in mantles and tunics of cloth such as were worn by the people on the opposite coast of Gaul. In fact, these Britons along the southern coast kept up a trade with their neighbors, the Gauls, who were at this time much more civilized than the people of Britain living inland. The latter were a very savage and rude people, dwelling in wretched huts, or in caves in the earth. They dressed in skins of beasts, their food being milk and meat, and further north, roots, leaves, and nuts. The more savage wore no clothing, but stained their bodies and limbs somewhat in the same fashion as the North American Indians do. Their religion was Druidism, and the oak was their sacred tree, under which they worshipped and offered up sacrifices. These sacrifices were often human beings, who were burnt in large cages of wicker work at the command of the Druids, or priests, who had great influence over the people and made their laws.

The Romans, who were to play an important part in the history of Britain, came from Italy and had for their chief city, Rome. They were a very stern and hard people, and at the time when Caesar visited Britain, had conquered nearly all the known world. But they made good laws and forced the people they subdued to obey them.

After Caesar left Britain, the Romans made no further efforts to conquer it until 43, A.D., when their Emperor Claudius came with an army, and after much fighting took possession of the south of the island. The British chief, Caractacus, fought bravely against