force consisted of the 7th and 10th legions, about 10,000 men; a body of horse was to have followed, but was delayed by bad weather.

Ambassadors come from the Britons to Cæsar and a peace is concluded, August 30.

The Roman fleet greatly damaged by the high tides, on the same night.

The foraging parties of the Romans are assailed, and their camp unsuccessfully attacked by the Britons.

Cæsar, after losing many men in action with the Britons, accepts a promise of hostages, and retires to Gaul about September 20.

Cæsar having sent an account of his expedition to Rome, a twenty days' festival is in consequence decreed. Two only of the British states send the promised hostages.

Cæsar would appear to have retired somewhat precipitately from the island, as Xiphilinus, in recording the speech which Dio Cassius ascribes to Bunduica (Boudicea) makes her speak of their ancestors having "driven far away that Julius Cæsar."

B.C. 54. Cæsar builds a fleet of light vessels, which he employs in a second invasion of Britain.

Sails from Itius Portus in May, having been detained 23 days by bad weather, and lands unopposed in Britain. His army now comprised 25,000 foot and 2,000 horse, and required a fleet of 800 ships for its transport.

Cassivellaunus, as generalissimo of the Britons, collects a force to oppose the Romans.

The Roman fleet damaged by a storm.

A party of the Romans defeated, and the tribune Laberius killed, near the river Stour, in Kent.

Britons harass Cæsar's march.

Cæsar crosses the Tamesis (Thames).

The

"Cæsar attempting to pass a large river of Britain,"

says Polyænus", "Casolaulus, king of the Britons, obstructed him with many horsemen and chariots. Cæsar had in his train a very large elephant, an animal hitherto unseen by the Britons. Having armed him with scales of iron, and put a large tower upon him, and placed therein archers and slingers, he ordered them to enter the stream. The Britons were amazed on beholding a beast till then unseen, and of an extraordinary nature. As to the horses what need we write of them, since even among the Greeks horses flee at seeing an elephant though without harness; but thus towered and armed, and casting darts and slinging, they could not endure even to look upon the sight: the Britons therefore fled with their horses and chariots. Thus the Romans passed the river without molestation, having terrified the enemy by a single animal.”

The tribes of the eastern and central parts of Britain come to terms with Cæsar d.

Cæsar takes the capital of Cassivellaunus (afterwards Verulamium, now St. Alban's).

Cassivellaunus incites the tribes in Cantium (Kent) to attack the Roman camp.

Cassivellaunus is defeated, and surrenders.

Cæsar returns to Gaul before the end of September. B.C. 51. Commius, the former dependant of Cæsar, having taken arms against the Romans and been defeated, flees for refuge to Britain.

B.C. 44. Cæsar is slain in the Senate-house, March 15. Octavianus, his nephew, succeeds to his power, and, after a time, takes the style of Augustus and Emperor.

The written history of Britain ceases with the second

• A Greek author of the second century, who wrote a book on gems in War."

"Strata

d These were the Trinobantes, Cenimagni, Ancalites, Bibroci, Segontiaci, and Cassi, dwelling in the district from the Thames to the Wash, and westward as far as Hampshire, Berkshire, and Oxfordshire. The Trinobantes, whose king Imanuantius had been killed by Cassivellaunus, were the first to abandon the confederacy.

с

withdrawal of Cæsar, and only recommences with the preparations of Augustus for a fresh invasion about 20 years after; but the want is partially supplied by the information afforded by coins that have been discovered. From these we learn the names of several British princes in the interval, of whom the one with the widest rule appears to have been Tasciovanus. He governed the central and the eastern districts; and it is conjectured that his son was Cunobelin, whose capital occupied the site on which was afterwards planted the Roman colony of Camulodunum (Colchester).

The coins of these rulers are of gold, and both in their devices and style of art evidence a degree of civilization very unlike what might be expected if Cæsar's description of Britain were considered to apply to the whole country, instead of being restricted to the small part that fell under his personal observation.

B.C. 34. Augustus proceeds to Gaul with the view of invading Britain, but is stopped by a revolt of some of the Gaulish tribes.

B.C. 26. Augustus having resumed his preparations, the Britons send him ambassadors and tribute.

A.D. 1. The received commencement of the Christian era. A.D. 14. Augustus dies, August 19. He is succeeded by Tiberius.

A.D. 16. Some Roman soldiers, shipwrecked on the shore of Britain, are protected and sent back by the chiefs.

A.D. 32. Our Lord is crucified.

A.D. 37. Death of Tiberius, March 26. Caligula succeeds.

A.D. 40. Caligula, prevailed on by a fugitive Briton',

According to the ordinary computation. Ussher and other writers place the birth of Our Lord four years earlier.

This man's name is variously given: Adminius, son of Cinobellinus, king of Britain, by Suetonius, and Minocynobellinus, son of the king of the Britons, by Paulus Orosius, a much later writer.

prepares to invade the island, but proceeds no further than the coast of Gaul.

66

Caius, arriving at the ocean," says Dio Cassius, "as though intending to war in Britain, and drawing up all his troops along the beach, went on board a trireme, and having launched out a little distance from the land, returned again. And shortly after this, sitting on a lofty throne, and giving a signal to the soldiers as if for battle, and exciting them by his trumpeters, he then suddenly ordered them to gather up sea shells. And having taken such booty, for it would seem that he wanted spoils for the pomp of triumphal honours, he was as highly elated as though he had subdued the very ocean, gave considerable largesses to his soldiers, and carried these shells to Rome that he might exhibit his spoils to the citizens." A.D. 41. Caligula is assassinated, January 24. CLAUDIUS succeeds.

A.D. 43. Bericus, a fugitive whose surrender had been demanded, persuades Claudius to undertake the conquest of Britain.

Aulus Plautius invades the island, and defeats the Britons.

Vespasian (afterwards emperor) sent to Britain.

Claudius visits the island, captures the principal town of Cunobelin, (afterwards Camulodunum, now Colchester, in Essex,) and after sixteen days' residence in Britain returns to Rome.

A.D. 44. Claudius celebrates the "conquest of Britain" by a triumph at Rome, and, with his son, assumes the surname of Britannicus.

A.D. 47. Aulus Plautius and Vespasian reduce the southern part of Britain, and obtain tribute from the more distant tribes

8 The Orcades were among the number, according to Eutropius (a comparatively late writer), but Tacitus asserts on the contrary that they were first discovered and subjugated by Agricola. See A.D. 84.

The Picts are subdued.

Apocryphal date of the martyrdom of Simon Zelotes in Britain h

A.D. 50. Ostorius Scapula extends the conquests of his predecessors, builds a chain of forts between the rivers Nen and Severn, ravages both the west and the north, and defeats Caractacus, the king of the Silures k.

Caractacus is treacherously delivered up to the Romans, but being sent to the emperor is by him set at liberty.

Ostorius is unsuccessful against the Silures, and dies. Valens and a Roman legion defeated by the Silures. A.D. 51. Aulus Didius sent to command in Britain.

Venusius, at the head of the Brigantes, maintains the war.

A.D. 54. Claudius dies, Oct. 13. Nero succeeds. A.D. 57. Veranius succeeds Aulus Didius as proprætor, but dies shortly after.

A.D. 58. Suetonius Paulinus sent to govern Britain; Agricola serves under him.

A.D. 61. The Britons, oppressed by Catus Decianus, the procurator, and by Seneca', revolt.

Boudicea, the widow of Prasutagus, king of the Iceni, heads the Britons.

Xiphilinus, after recounting certain prodigies by which he says this event was heralded, adds, "She, however, who chiefly excited and urged them to fight

h Given in the spurious Synopsis of Dorotheus, a 6th century production. The country of the Cangií and the Brigantes, now Somersetshire and Yorkshire, and the more northern counties.

The people of South Wales, Herefordshire, and Monmouthshire. Caractacus is believed to have been a son of Cunobelin, driven out from Essex by the Romans, and then chosen as their leader by the Silures. Welsh tradition, however, claims him for a Silurian, and ascribes to his father Bran the introduction of Christianity into Britain, he having been carried prisoner with his son to Rome, and there converted by the preaching of St. Paul.

"Seneca, having lent them, against their will, a thousand myriads of money in expectation of interest, suddenly and violently called in his loan.' (Xiphilinus.) There seems little doubt that this was Lucius Annæus Seneca, the philosopher, who was put to death by Nero in the year following this revolt.