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Rh With the battle of the Grampians, and the rout of Galgacus and the Caledonian army, Agricola's military career virtually closed, although he remained in his province a few months after this signal victory. If we may give implicit credence to one so nearly connected with him, Agricola may rank with Cicero, as an exception to the ordinary class of Roman provincial governors. Never relaxing in vigilance, and only once taken unawares by the enemy, he restored discipline in the camp, and explored the estuaries and forests on his route. "Many states, hitherto independent, gave hostages, and laid aside their animosities. Garrisons and forts were established among them with a skill and diligence with which no newly-acquired part of Britain had before been treated."

The civilising power of Rome furnishes the brightest chapter in her annals. It was by her institutions, far more than by her arms, that the nations of the empire melted away into the Roman name and people. "Wheresoever the Roman conquers he inhabits," is a very just observation of Seneca; and he might have added that wherever he inhabited, at least in the northern and western provinces, he disseminated the arts of peace and the boon of a refined and uniform language. It could not escape a sagacious and humane proconsul that territory acquired by war would be best maintained by introducing a taste and a demand for the luxuries of the conqueror, and not the luxuries only, but greater skill in agriculture and new systems for conducting public business. "In order," says