DEATH OF OSTORIUS.

47

Worn out by the incessant activity of the enemy and by the misconduct of his own officers-two cohorts were lost through the greed of their commanding officers for plunder-Ostorius died. The Britons rejoiced to think that if he had not fallen on the field, the war had certainly brought him to his end.

Ostorius was succeeded by Didius Gallus, who was contented on the whole to maintain the Roman dominion as he had found it. Little of importance took place, but it is to be noticed that the leader of the Britons was now Venutius, the husband of that Queen Cartismandua who had betrayed King Caradoc. Didius Gallus surrendered his government in 57, and was succeeded by another aged officer, Quintus Veranius, who died within a year of his coming into Britain. In the following year Nero, whose jealousy had probably had something to do with the appointment of inefficient commanders, sent one of the best soldiers of the time, Suetonius Paulinus, to take up the command.2

The chronology of these successive governors is uncertain, but we may conjecturally state their terms of office as follows:

:

1 Veranius had held office under Caligula forty years before.

2 "No one," says Tacitus, speaking of a time ten years later, "had

in these days a greater military reputation than Suetonius.”

VI.

BOADICEA.

No details have been preserved for us of the campaigns which Suetonius Paulinus carried on during the first two years of his government (A.D. 59-60), but we are told in general terms that they were very successful. What we know is, that in his third year he felt that the work of conquest had been so well done that he could venture to attack Mona (the modern Anglesey), the stronghold of Druid worship, and, we may venture to say, of British independence. To do this in safety he must have subjugated the Silures, so long the obstinate enemies of Rome, who would otherwise have threatened his rear. The real danger, of which he seems to have had no foreboding, came, we shall see, from the opposite side of the island.

The legions which he had at his command were four in number-the Second, the Ninth, the Fourteenth, and the Twentieth. Of these the Second was probably stationed in the valleys of the Severn and the Wye, the Ninth among the Iceni, and the Twentieth on the borders of the Brigantes, who were still independent.

The Fourteenth was under the

SUBJUGATION OF MONA.

49

general's immediate command, and having been employed during his campaigns in the west, was now to complete its work by the subjugation of Mona.

The infantry of the legion was ferried over the channel that divides Mona from the mainland in flatbottomed boats; the cavalry crossed by fording or swimming. The sight that met their eyes as they approached the land was strange and terrible enough to strike them, hardy soldiers as they were, with astonishment. A vast multitude of armed men lined the shore. Women robed in black, with their long hair streaming dishevelled behind them, ran wildly, torch in hand, among the ranks, while the Druid priests, with their white robes and chaplets of oak, stood lifting their hands to the skies, and pouring out curses upon the invaders. For some moments the assailants halted in dismay, while the Britons showered missiles upon them. themselves. What was there to fear in an army of priests and women? Probably the defenders of Mona had little real strength. Certainly they made but little resistance. The Druids were slaughtered, and their bodies thrown into the flames of their own altars; the groves, where hideous rites of human. sacrifice had been practised, were cut down.

Then they recovered

Suetonius was thus employed when tidings reached him of a native rising in the east of the island,

The Menai Straits are now a deep channel where the tide runs rapidly. There is nothing like a ford, and to swim across would be a feat requiring exceptional strength. Tacitus' words--and Tacitus may generally be trusted when he speaks of British matters are so precise, that we are driven to suppose a great alteration in the character of the channel since his time.

followed by dreadful outrages. The rebellion had been provoked by the greed and wickedness of the Roman officials. Prasutagus, king of the Iceni, hoping to secure for his family at least a portion of his vast wealth, had divided it by will between the Emperor and his two daughters. He was cruelly disappointed. The rapacity of the Romans, which had been kept in check during his life, broke out without restraint on his death. His kingdom was overrun, his very palace plundered. His queen, Boadicea, was cruelly scourged; his daughters outraged. Nor did his people escape. The nobles were stripped of their property, while the humbler class was harassed by the sudden calling in of money lent on mortgage.2 The people flew to arms, and were joined by the Trinobantes and other smaller tribes. The first object of their attack was the colony of Camalodunum. The veteran soldiers who were its inhabitants were lawless, oppressive, and cruel. The temple of the deified Claudius, which was its chief building, was regarded with especial dislike by the Britons as a sign of their slavery. A new kind of extortion had been invented in the college of priests that was attached to it. Wealthy natives were elected into it, and found their property wasted in its costly worship. Even the

This was a common practice at Rome. Tacitus tells us that his father-in-law, Agricola, did the same thing, and ridicules the delight which Domitian displayed at the compliment. "His mind was so blinded and perverted by flattery, that he did not know that it is only a bad emperor whom a good father names in his will."

2 Dio Cassius mentions the name of the philosopher Seneca as thus suddenly demanding the money which he had lent on mortgage. But Dio is very bitter against Seneca, whom he elsewhere accuses of vice and extravagance very inconsistent with his professions.

CAPTURE OF CAMALODUNUM.

51

Fortified

safety of the place had been neglected. towns are always inconvenient places of residence, and Camalodunum had been left without walls.

Even

There had been, it was said, warnings of the coming disaster. The image of victory fell to the ground in such a posture that it looked like one that had fled from the enemy and stumbled in his flight. Strange sounds of wailing was heard in the council chamber and the theatre of the colony, and strange sights seen on the shore and in the river. The colonists begged for help from the Procurator, or Civil Governor, of the province. He sent them two hundred men, and these but half armed. The regular garrison of the colony was small. then common precautions were not taken. If the non-combatants had been sent away, and the town hastily fortified with a ditch and rampart, it might still have been saved. Neither the one thing nor the other was done. There was no one to take the lead and order vigorous measures, while those who sympathised with the revolt hindered all action. The only strong place in the town was the Temple of Claudius; to this, when the storm of invasion burst upon them, the colonists fled. It held out for two days, and then was taken by storm. Petilius Cerialis, a brilliant soldier, but capable of making great mistakes, hurried up with the Ninth Legion. The victorious Britons turned upon him, and cut his infantry to pieces. Cerialis himself, with his cavalry, contrived to make his way back to his camp, which was probably near the Wash. The Civil Governor, whose rapacity had had much to do with the revolt, escaped