A history of England from the first invasion by the Romans (to the Revolution in 1688).

Cæsar twice invades Britain-The British Tribes-Their Manners-
Religion-Government-Gradual Conquest of Britain by the Romans
-Its State under. the Emperors-Conversion of the Natives to Chris-
tianity-The Romans abandon the Island.

Ir is to the pen of a Roman general that we are indebted .c. for our first acquaintance with the history of Britain. 55. Julius Cæsar, in the short space of three years, had conducted his victorious legions from the foot of the Alps to the mouth of the Rhine. From the coast of the Morini he could descry the white cliffs of the neighbouring island: and the conqueror of Gaul aspired to the glory of adding Britain to the dominions of Rome. The inability or refusal of the Gallic mariners to acquaint him with the number of the inhabitants, their manner of warfare, and their political institutions; and the prudence or timidity of Volusenus, who had been sent to procure information, but returned without venturing to communicate with the natives, served only to irritate his curiosity and to inflame his ambition. The Britons, by lending aid to his enemies, the Veneti, supplied him with a decent pretext for hostilities; and on the twenty-sixth of August, in the fifty-fifth year before the Christian era Cæsar sailed from Calais, with the infantry of two legions. To cross the strait was only the work of a few hours: but, when he saw the opposite heights crowned with multitudes of armed men, he altered his course,

VOL. I.

and steering along the shore, cast anchor before the spot which is now occupied by the town of Deal. The natives carefully followed the motions of the fleet, urging their horses into the waves, and, by their gestures and shouts, bidding defiance to the invaders. The appearance of the naked barbarians, and a superstitious fear of offending the gods of this unknown world, spread a temporary alarm among the Romans: but after a short pause, the standard-bearer of the tenth legion, calling on his comrades to follow him, leaped with his eagle into the sea detachments instantly poured from the nearest boats; the beach, after a short struggle, was gained; and the untaught valour of the natives yielded to the arms and the discipline of their enemies.

If the Romans were pre-eminent in the art of war, they were greatly deficient in nautical science. On the fourth night after their arrival, the violence of the wind augmented the usual swell of the waves at a spring tide; the ships, that had been hauled on shore, were filled with water; those which rode at anchor were driven out to sea; and a squadron, employed to bring the cavalry from Gaul, was entirely dispersed. The British chieftains, who had come to the camp to solicit peace, observed the consternation excited by these untoward events, and, having retired separately under different pretexts, concealed themselves, with their forces, in the neighbouring woods. Cæsar was not aware of their design, till he heard that the seventh legion, which had been sent out to forage, was surrounded and overwhelmed by a hostile multitude. The timely arrival of the rest of the army rescued the survivors from utter destruction: but the Britons, steady in their plan, despatched messengers to the neighbouring tribes, to represent the small number of the invaders, and inculcate the necessity of intimidating future adventurers by exterminating the present.. A general assault was soon made on the Roman camp; and, though it proved unsuccessful, it taught Cæsar to reflect on the evident danger of his

situation, if the inclemency of the weather should interrupt his communication with Gaul, and confine him, during the winter, to a foreign shore, without supplies or provisions. To save his reputation, he gladly accepted an illusory promise of submission from a few of the natives, and hastened back with his army to Gaul, after a short absence of three weeks. It is manifest that he had little reason to boast of the success of this expedition⚫ and on that account he affects in his Commentaries to represent it as undertaken for the sole purpose of discovery. But at Rome it was hailed as the forerunner of the most splendid victories; the mere invasion of Britain was magnified into the conquest of a new world; and a thanksgiving of twenty days was decreed by the senate to the immortal gods *.

54.

The ensuing winter was spent by each party in the a. c. most active preparations. In spring the Roman army, consisting of five legions and two thousand cavalry, sailed from the coast of Gaul in a fleet of more than eight hundred ships. At the sight of this immense armament stretching across the channel, the Britons retired with precipitation to the woods; and the invaders landed without opposition on the very same spot which they had occupied the preceding year. Cæsar immediately marched in pursuit of the natives, but was recalled the next day by news of the disaster which had befallen his fleet. A storm had risen in the night, in which forty vessels were totally lost, and many others driven on shore. To guard against similar accidents, he ordered the remainder to be dragged above the reach of the tide, and to be surrounded with a fortification of earth. In this laborious task ten days were employed, after which the invaders resumed their march towards the interior of the country. Each day was marked by some partial

Cæs. de Bel. Gal. iv. 20-36. Dio, xxxix. 120. Cæsar, in his letters, described the island as of immense extent-another world: ahum orbem terrarum. Eumen. Paneg. p. 174. Of his success, Lucan says plainly: Territa quæsitis ostendit terga Britannis. Luc. ii. 572.

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A history of England from the first invasion by the Romans (to the ...