Claudius, of which I shall soon have to speak.' The policy of Tiberius was to contract rather than to extend the limits of the Empire, and during his reign no attention was paid to a country so remote.2

There are occasional allusions to Britain and the Britons in the Augustan poets, and it may be interesting to bring them together. Virgil, in his first Eclogue (B. C. 40), speaks of the Britons, "utterly divided from the rest of the world," as a remote tribe which his exile might visit. (Professor Conington, however, thinks that he regards them as “a Roman province to which settlers might conceivably be sent." This, however, is very doubtful.) In the second Georgic (B.C. 36 ?) they are mentioned as the picturesque, outlandish figures embroidered on the curtain of the theatre. In Tibullus (54-18 B.C.), if the Panegyric on Messalla be his, we hear of the "Britons not yet subdued by Roman arms" as future objects of that general's valour. In Propertius (51-15) they are classed with the Parthians as enemies of Rome. Ovid mentions them with epithets connected with the sea, but says nothing more. The allusions of Horace are more significant. In the seventh epode, probably one of the earliest of his poems, and attributed to the year 40 B.C., we hear of the "unsubdued Briton," mentioned in connection with the Parthians. In Odes i. 21, the poet prays that hunger and pestilence may be warded off from the Roman ruler and his people, and sent to "the Parthians and Britons." In i. 35, Augustus is "about to march against the far-off Britons." In Odes iii. 4, they appear as "the Britons savage to strangers," whom the poet, safe in the protection of the Muses, is to visit. But in the next ode the benignant godhead (praeseus Divus) of Augustus, is said to be proved by his having added "the Britons and the terrible Parthians to the Empire." The exaggeration seems to be the same in both cases. The Parthians gave back, as a matter of policy or friendship, the spoils which they had taken at the defeat of Crassus. This arrangement the Roman poets describe by such phrases as "tearing down the Roman standards from the Parthian shrines." Strabo, who lived in the reign of Augustus and Tiberius, says of the Britons that "some of their princes sought by embassies and other attentions to conciliate the friendship of Augustus, made offerings in the Capitol, and put their whole island under the protection of Rome." The impression gained from the whole of these references is something like that stated in the text.

2 The single reference to Britain under the reign of this prince is that the chiefs of the island sent back to Germanicus some of the shipwrecked soldiers (this was in A.D. 16).

CALIGULA'S WHIMS.

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Tiberius' successor, Caligula, made a pretence of subduing the island, but the story of his proceedings, as it is told by Suetonius and Dio Cassius, is so ludicrous as to be scarcely credible. It runs thus:

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:

Caligula, who was unquestionably a madman, conceived a sudden whim of making a campaign against the Germans. While he was in camp he was visited by Adminius, one of the sons of the British King Cunobelin, who had been exiled by his father, and who hoped to be restored by Roman help. Caligula at once sent a boastful despatch to Rome, declaring that the whole island had been surrendered to him. His next fancy was to obtain some material tokens of his conquest. Accordingly he drew up his army, complete with horse, foot, and the artillery of catapults and machines, on the Gallic shore of the Channel. No one could even guess at his intention, when he suddenly gave the order that the soldiers were to fill their helmets and pockets with shells. "These," he said, "are the spoils of the ocean, and are due to the Capitol and the Palatine," whither he accordingly sent them, with directions that they should be laid up among the treasures of the Empire. There was more sense in the erection of a lofty tower on the coast, which was to serve as a lighthouse, as well as to be a local memorial of his victories. These and these only were the results of what Tacitus calls "the absurdity of the expeditions of Caligula." The tranquillity of Britain, however, was not to last much longer. As usual it was a pretender who invited the interference of Rome.

The "Cymbeline" of Shakespeare.

In A.D. 43 one Bericus applied to the Emperor Claudius for help. At the same time his extradition was demanded of Rome by his enemies at home. The Emperor determined to avail himself of the opportunity. The demand of the British envoy for the surrender of the fugitive was refused, and Aulus Plautius, who had been Consul fourteen years before, and then held a command in Gaul, was entrusted with the care of the proposed expedition. Four legions, the Second, the Ninth, the Fourteenth, and the Twentieth, were chosen for this service. The soldiers were exceedingly unwilling to go. Britain seemed to them to lie beyond the boundaries of the world, and they positively refused to proceed. Claudius sent his freedman Narcissus to remonstrate with them. Narcissus mounted the tribunal, and sought to address the troops. But they interrupted him with cries of Io Saturnalia! They meant that it was no holidaytime when, as during the festival of Saturn in December, a slave might play the part of a master. After this, however, they returned to their obedience. The force, which, as the legions now had numerous auxiliaries attached to them, may be reckoned at about forty thousand, was divided into three parts. The passage across the Channel was long and difficult, the transports being more than once driven back by adverse winds; but the landing was effected without any opposition from the natives. The arrival of the army, we are told, was unexpected; but we have seen

We have no information as to who this Bericus was, but the name 'Veric" appears on some British coins, and it is probable that, as Dean Merivale suggests, that the two may be the same.

before, in the second expedition of Cæsar, that the Britons did not feel themselves able to resist the landing of a really powerful force.

King Cunobelin had died in the interval between 46 and 43, and his power was divided between his sons, Caractacus (Caradoc) and Togidumnus. These princes, who were in command of the united British force, were successively defeated by Plautius in the marshes and forests to which they had retired. The account of the campaign now becomes very obscure. Plautius received the submission of part of the tribe of the "Boduni," supposed to be the same as the Dobuni who inhabited what is now known as Gloucestershire. This seems difficult to believe, and it is impossible to identify the river mentioned as that which Plautius reached, after passing through the country of the Dobuni, with the Severn. Possibly the Medway may be meant. Whatever was the river in question, the Romans crossed it unexpectedly, thanks to the skill of the Batavian cavalry in swimming. The enemy abandoned their position, and an officer, who afterwards became famous, Vespasian, was sent in pursuit of them. The Britons fell back upon the Thames. Crossing it themselves somewhere in its course between London and the sea, they awaited the invaders in the confidence that this obstacle at least would prove too formidable for the enemy. Batavian cavalry again showed their skill and courage, while other troops crossed the river "a little further up by means of bridges," a statement which we must interpret, it would seem, of London, as the Thames. has never been bridged below that point. Here, how

The

ever, a reverse was suffered. The pursuit of the flying Britons was pushed too far; the Romans were entangled in what are now known as the Essex Marshes, and lost many of their number.

Togidumnus had been slain in one of these engagements. The Britons, however, showed no disposition to submit, and Plautius felt, or pretended to feel, some doubt as to the result. He sent, as he had been instructed to send, should any emergency arise, for Claudius himself. The Emperor started from Rome without delay as soon as the summons reached him. The forces which he was to take with him were in readiness, and included a troop of war elephants. He sailed from Ostia to Marseilles, traversed the length of Gaul overland or by navigable rivers, crossed over to Britain, and effected a junction with the army of Plautius, which was awaiting his arrival on the banks of the Thames. Suetonius declares that the Emperor fought no battle, and, indeed, saw no blood shed; but Suetonius is always disposed to depreciate the Julian or hereditary emperors, and it is safer to take Dio Cassius as our authority. Dio relates that Claudius crossed the Thames with the combined forces, vanquished the Britons, who had gathered a great force to resist him, and captured Camalodunum,1 the capital town of Cunobelin and his dynasty. The neighbouring tribes gave in their submission, and Claudius within a few days returned to Rome (from which he was absent scarcely six months), and celebrated his

1 Camalodunum may be identified with the modern Colchester, i.e., Coloniacastra. But it must be remembered that a British oppidum was an extensive enclosure, large enough to contain pasture for the cattle which it was intended to protect.