CARACTACUS.

OSTORIUS SCAPULA found that his predecessor's victories had left him much to do. There had been an interval of inaction between the departure of one commander and the arrival of another, and the Britons had availed themselves of it to invade the country of the tribes friendly to Rome. Though it was very late in the year, Ostorius at once set about the construction of a line of forts, which was to keep the hostile tribes in check. Tacitus, the only authority that we have to follow, is here very obscure. He speaks of the Severn as one of the limits of this line. The other is uncertain; but it has been guessed to be the Nen. Anyhow the proceedings of Ostorius seems to have offended the Iceni, a powerful people in the east of the island, which had hitherto been friendly. The Iceni were followed into rebellion by several dependent tribes. Ostorius acted with the old Roman energy. The main body of the legions was elsewhere, but he attacked the enemy's camp. with his force of cavalry and friendly Britons, and carried it by storm. The besieged were entangled

I Tacitus does not give us a hint of where this took place.

in their own defences, and made a desperate resistance; but the Roman discipline could not be resisted. The last being thus reduced to submission, Ostorius at once marched to the extreme west to attack the Cangi, who are supposed to have inhabited the peninsula of Carnarvonshire. He had nearly reached the coast which faces Ireland," when he was called north by disturbances among the Brigantes, a powerful people occupying what is now Lancashire and Yorkshire. The Brigantes quieted, he was called southward again by a movement of the Silures under King Caradoc. It is rather puzzling to be told that the Roman general, to keep them in check, founded the colony of Camalodunum (Colchester). A military station in the east could not exercise a very direct influence on a turbulent tribe in the west. Anyhow the general found it necessary to take the field and to march against the Silures. Caradoc did not await the He did not suppose that

I

attack in his own country.

his rude levies could be a match for the Roman troops; but he hoped much from being able to choose the field of battle, and he chose it in the territories of his neighbours on the north, the Ordovices.2

The scene of the final conflict it is impossible to

A Roman colony was a military settlement. Lands belonging to the conquered were assigned to soldiers who had served their time with the legions. These veterans seem to have dwelt in the town and to have cultivated; perhaps permitted the former owners to cultivate on certain conditions the farms which had been made over to them. "The colony," says Tacitus, was meant to act as a shelter in case of a rebellion, and as a way of te iching the subject people respect for Roman laws." We shall see how Camalodunum fulfilled these duties.

2 The Ordovices are located in North Wales and the western part of the neighbouring English counties.

ORATION ON THE BATTLE-FIELD.

41

identify. Tacitus tells us that the British king chose a place where advance and retreat alike would be difficult for the Romans and comparatively easy for his own men, that this place was on a lofty hill, the easier slopes of which were fortified with ramparts of stone, and that a river of uncertain depth, i.e., it may be conjectured, with no regular ford, flowed in front.1 The chiefs of the various tribes which had furnished contingents to the army encouraged their men to make a brave struggle for freedom. The king himself hurried from line to line protesting that the result of the day would be either to set Britain free or to fasten its chains for ever. He appealed to the memory of those who a hundred years before had driven back the dictator Cæsar, and to whose valour they owed it that they were still free, and could still call their wives and their children their own. The Britons answered the appeal with wild shouts of applause, and swore by all that was most sacred to them not to give way.

So formidable was the aspect of the enthusiastic multitude of the frowning hill-tops, the rampart, and the river, that Ostorius was inclined to manœuvre. But his troops insisted upon being at once led to the attack. This was a kind of disobedience which Roman generals were not inclined to resist, and Ostorius gave the signal for advance. He had, however, surveyed the ground, and knew where the attack

.

1 Dean Merivale gives a doubtful preference to Coxall Knoll, near Lent wardine, on the Teme, among many places for which the distinction of being the scene of the great battle has been claimed. Earthworks are still to be seen upon the hill.

could be most easily and profitably delivered. The river was easily crossed. We have seen the Roman legionaries surmounting much. more formidable obstacles. The assailants suffered most when they came to the rampart. For some time they stood exposed to the shower of missiles which the Britons. poured upon them. Here the loss in killed and wounded was considerable. But it was not long before they formed a testudo, and under its shelter tore down the rude defence of uncemented stones. The Britons could not hold their own in a hand-tohand struggle with the well-armed legionaries. They retreated to the heights, but both the heavy and the light-armed troops followed them. Both were better equipped for battle than themselves. The skirmishers had artillery of longer range; the legionaries were protected by breast-plates and helmets, and were powerfully armed with swords and javelins of the best temper. Even the light arms of native allies of the enemy were more serviceable than anything that the patriots possessed. Victory did not long remain doubtful. Caradoc's wife and daughter were captured, and his brothers yielded themselves prisoners.

The king himself escaped for a time, and took refuge with Cartismandua, Queen of the Brigantes. She put him in chains, and delivered him to the Romans.

It is impossible to assign to their proper years the various events of the war which came to an end with the capture of Caradoc; but we know that he had

1 See description of this formation on p. 23.

2 It is probable that many of the British weapons were of bronze.

CARADOC IN ROME.

43

held out for eight years against the power of Rome.1 His fame as a national champion had spread not only over Britain and Gaul, but even into Italy. All were anxious to see this brave chieftain, and none more so than the Emperor himself. Caradoc was sent to Rome, and a great spectacle was made out of the exhibition of the famous prisoner. The populace thronged the Field of Mars; the Prætorians, or household troops, were drawn up in arms in front of their camp, and a tribunal was erected in the midst of the array, with the standard behind, and two thrones in front, on which sat Claudius and the Empress Agrippina. Military etiquette was shocked to see a woman seated before the standards, but Agrippina held herself, not without reason, to be the true ruler of Rome. To this spot the procession made its way. In front came the vassals of the captive king. Behind these were carried the collars of gold and other decorations and spoils which he had himself won in earlier wars from British rivals. Then came his brothers, his daughter and his wife, and, last of all, Caradoc himself. All his companions prostrated themselves on the ground; the king alone stood erect. permitted to deliver has Tacitus, but how much belongs to the historian, how much to the king, it is impossible to determine :

The speech which he was been thus reported by

"Had my moderation in prosperity been equal to my noble birth and fortune, I should have entered this city as your friend rather than as your prisoner; and you would not have disclaimed to welcome as

' It was in A.D. 43 that Claudius crossed over into Britain, and in 50 that Caradoc was taken prisoner.