was thus not only the actual power of the free tribes beyond their borders, but the contagious example of their liberty that the conquerors feared. Here are to be found the motives for the long campaigns, so wasteful both of treasure and life, which they fought for the possession of the barren mountains of Northern Scotland.

As my subject is the history of the southern part of the island, I will pass very briefly over the remaining campaigns of Agricola. In 83 he crossed the Forth, as he had crossed the Clyde, and gained some successes, not, however, without meeting with at least one heavy loss in a night attack on one of his legions. In the following summer he pushed further to the northward and westward, till he met the confederated hosts of the Caledonians at a spot now known, it is believed, as Murdoch Moor, near the southern spurs of the Grampians. The Caledonians were commanded by a chieftain whose name is given in the Latinized form of Calgacus. Tacitus puts into his mouth a splendid piece of invective against the tyranny and greed of Rome, while he attributes to Agricola a noble and dignified defence of the empire exercised by his country. A fierce battle occurred, in which the natives displayed a desperate valour, but were unable to make head against the superior arms and discipline of their antagonists, and suffered a total defeat. As many as ten thousand were left dead on the field of battle. The Romans lost three hundred and sixty, among whom there was only one officer of rank.

I Murdoch Moor is in Aberfoyle parish in Perthshire.

RECALL OF AGRICOLA.

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This great victory brought the career of Agricola to a close. He was recalled by the Emperor Domitian, whose jealousy had been roused by his successes, and left the island before the end of the year (84).

VIII.

THE ROMAN WALLS.

FOR more than thirty years after the recall of Agricola the history of Britain is almost a blank. We know that the successor of Agricola was one Sallustius Lucullus, and that Domitian, in a fit of jealousy, put him to death because he had allowed his own name to be given a new pattern of spearhead. But the most important passage that bears on the subject occurs in Tacitus' brief review of the period between the death of Galba and the death of Domitian. Britain," he says, "was thoroughly conquered, and immediately left to itself." The "thorough conquest" refers, of course, to the campaign of Agricola. The word which I have translated by "left to itself," has been variously interpreted. Perhaps this phrase is too strong, as "abandoned" certainly would

Suetonius, who tells the story, calls him "legate of Britain." Legatus, in its strict use, meant an officer who assisted the governor of a province. But Tacitus and other writers of the Empire use it as equivalent to governor, and so I take it in this passage.

SOUTHERN BRITIAN.

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be. Tacitus probably does not mean more than that after the vigorous action of Agricola the efforts of Rome slackened, and the new conquests were neglected. An allusion in Juvenal completes our scanty knowledge. One of the Emperor Domitian's flatterers says to him: "You will take prisoner some king, and Arviragus the Briton shall be struck down from his chariot." It would be safe to infer that Arviragus was an enemy of Rome at some time during Domitian's reign, but certainly after the recall of Agricola, ie., some time between 84 and 96. But we know nothing

else about him. It is not till the reign of Hadrian (117-138) that Britain really reappears in history.

We find now that Southern Britain, roughly speaking the England of to-day, with which my story is especially concerned,1 has been thoroughly subjugated. Whatever disturbances occur hereafter in this part of the island until the time when the Romans leave it for good come, not from the native tribes, but from the legions themselves. Works of peace were briskly

But in later times, when Britain becomes England, the Lowlands of Scotland as far as the Firth of Forth are included.

carried on, roads constructed, towns built and enlarged, lands reclaimed from the sea. The main business of the Roman armies was to protect the province from the still unconquered tribes of the north. This was chiefly done by the construction of huge walls across the island at places where its breadth is least.

If we look into the map, we see that one such place is marked almost exactly by the fifty-fifth parallel of

N. latitude. The Solway Firth is at the western end; Newcastle-on-Tyne at the eastern. It was here that the first wall was built-an enormous work, exceeding in magnitude anything of the kind that the Romans constructed elsewhere, and so showing the value which they set on the province which it was intended to protect. It must not be supposed, however, that this huge fortification was finished at once. The work of completing and strengthening it seems to have been going