I. wear their chains with the lefs reluctance, if the CHA P. profpect and example of freedom were on every fide removed from before their eyes. But the fuperior merit of Agricola foon occafioned his removal from the government of Britain; and for ever difappointed this rational, though extenfive fcheme of conqueft. Before his departure, the prudent general had provided for fecurity as well as for dominion. He had obferved, that the island is almoft divided into two unequal parts by the oppofite gulfs, or, as they are now called, the friths of Scotland. Acrofs. the narrow interval of about forty miles, he had drawn a line of military stations, which was afterwards fortified in the reign of Antoninus Pius, by a turf rampart erected on foundations of ftone". This wall of Antoninus, at a small diftance beyond the modern cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, was fixed as the limit of the Roman province. The native Caledonians preferved in the northern extremity of the island their wild independence, for which they were not lefs indebted to their poverty than to their valour, Their incurfions were frequently repelled and chaftifed; but their country was never fubdued". The masters of the fairest and moft wealthy climates of the globe turned with contempt from 10 See Horsley's Britannia Romania, l.i. c.10. "The poet Buchanan celebrates, with elegance and spirit (see his Sylvæ, v.), the unviolated independence of his native country. But if the fingle testimony of Richard of Cirencester was sufficient to create a Roman province of Vefpafian to the north of the wall, that independence would be reduced within very narrow limits. I. Conqueft of Dacia ; the fecond CHA P. gloomy hills affailed by the winter tempeft, fromt lakes concealed in a blue mift, and from cold and lonely heaths, over which the deer of the foreft were chafed by a troop of naked barbarians "2. Such was the ftate of the Roman frontiers, and fuch the maxims of Imperial policy from the exception. death of Auguftus to the acceffion of Trajan. That virtuous and active prince had received the education of a foldier, and poffeffed the talents of a general. The peaceful fyftem of his predeceffors was interrupted by scenes of war and conqueft; and the legions, after a long interval, beheld a military emperor at their head. The first exploits of Trajan were against the Dacians, the most warlike of men, who dwelt beyond the Danube, and who, during the reign of Domitian, had infulted with impunity the majesty of Rome14. To the ftrength and fierceness of barbarians, they added a contempt for life, which was derived from a warm perfuafion of the immortality and tranfmigration of the foul 1. Decebalus, the Dacian king, approved himself a rival not unworthy of Trajan; nor did he despair of his own and the public fortune, till, by the confeffion of his enemies, he had exhaufted every refource both of valour and policy. This 15 12 See Appian (in Proæm.) and the uniform imagery of Offian's Poems, which, according to every hypothefis, were composed by a native Caledonian. 13 See Pliny's Panegyric, which feems founded on facts. 4 Dion Caffius, 1. lxvii. 15 Herodotus, 1. iv. c. 94. Julian in the Cæfars, with Spanheim's obfervations. 16 Plin. Epift. viii. 9. memo. I. memorable war, with a very short fufpenfion of c HA P. hoftilities, lafted five years; and as the Emperor could exert, without controul, the whole force of the state, it was terminated by an abfolute fubmiffion of the barbarians". The new province of Dacia, which formed a fecond exception to the precept of Auguftus, was about thirteen hundred miles in circumference. Its natural boundaries were the Niefter, the Teyfs, or Tibifcus, the Lower Danube, and the Euxine Sea. The veftiges of a military road may still be traced from the banks of the Danube to the neighbourhood of Bender, a place famous in modern hiftory, and the actual frontier of the Turkish and Ruffian empires 18. in the east. Trajan was ambitious of fame; and as long Conquests as mankind fhall continue to bestow more liberal of Trajan applause on their destroyers than on their benefactors, the thirst of military glory will ever be the vice of the moft exalted characters. The praises of Alexander, tranfmitted by a fucceffion of poets and hiftorians, had kindled a dangerous emulation in the mind of Trajan. Like him the Roman Emperor undertook an expedition against the nations of the eaft, but he lamented with a figh, that his advanced age fcarcely left him any hopes of equalling the renown of the fon of Philip". Yet the fuccefs of Trajan, however tran Julian in Cæfaribus. 17 Dion Caffius, 1. lxviii. p. 1123. 1131. Eutropius, viii. 2. 6. Aurelius Victor in Epitome. 18 See a Memoir of M. d'Anville, on the Province of Dacia, in the Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxviii. p. 444—468. 19 Trajan's fentiments are represented in a very just and lively manner in the Cæfars of Julian. fient, I. CHA P. fient, was rapid and fpecious. The degenerate Parthians, broken by inteftine difcord, fled before his arms. He defcended the river Tigris in triumph, from the mountains of Armenia to the Perfian gulph. He enjoyed the honour of being the first, as he was the laft, of the Roman generals, who ever navigated that remote fea. His fleets ravaged the coafts of Arabia; and Trajan vainly flattered himself that he was approaching towards the confines of India 20. Every day the astonished fenate received the intelligence of new names and new nations, that acknowledged his fway. They were informed that the kings of Bofphorus, Colchos, Iberia, Albania, Ofrhoene, and even the Parthian monarch himfelf, had accepted their diadems from the hands of the Emperor; that the independent tribes of the Median and Carducian hills had implored his protection; and that the rich countries of Armenia, Mefopotamia, and Affyria, were reduced into the ftate of provinces ". But the death of Trajan foon clouded the splendid profpect; and it was juftly to be dreaded, that fo many distant nations would throw off the unaccustomed yoke, when they were no longer reftrained by the powerful hand which had impofed it. Refigned It was an ancient tradition, that when the by his fuc- Capitol was founded by one of the Roman kings, drian. the god Terminus (who prefided over bound ceffor Ha 20 Eutropius and Sextus Rufus have endeavoured to perpetuate the illufion. See a very fenfible differtation of M. Freret in the Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxi. p.55. 21 Dion Caffius, 1.lxviii.; and the Abbreviators. 10 aries, I. aries, and was reprefented according to the CHA P. fashion of that age by a large ftone) alone, among all the inferior deities, refused to yield his place to Jupiter himself. A favourable inference was drawn from his obftinacy, which was interpreted by the augurs as a fure prefage that the boundaries of the Roman power would never recede 22. During many ages, the prediction, as it is ufual, contributed to its own accomplishment. But though Terminus had refifted the majefty of Jupiter, he fubmitted to the authority of the Emperor Hadrian23. The refignation of all the eastern conquefts of Trajan was the first measure of his reign. He reftored to the Parthians the election of an independent fovereign, withdrew the Roman garrifons from the provinces of Armenia, Mefopotamia, and Affyria, and, in compliance with the precept of Auguftus, once more established the Euphrates as the frontier of the empire 24. Cenfure, which arraigns the public actions and the private motives of princes, has afcribed to envy, a conduct, which might be attributed to the prudence and moderation of Hadrian. The various character of that Emperor, capable, by turns, of the meaneft and the most generous fentiments, may afford fome 12 Ovid. Faft. 1. ii. ver. 667. See Livy, and Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus, under the reign of Tarquin. 23 St. Auguftin is highly delighted with the proof of the weakness of Terminus, and the vanity of the Augurs. See De Civitate Dei, iv. 29. 24 See the Auguftan History, p. 5. Jerome's Chronicle, and all the Epitomisers. It is fomewhat surprising, that this memorable event should be omitted by Dion, or rather by Xiphilin. colour |