SEVERUS VISITS BRITAIN.

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British legions maintained their high reputation. At one moment it seemed likely that Severus would be defeated. But he rallied his troops, and the day ended with a decisive victory for him. Albinus was captured and put to death. He was the first, as we shall see, of a long line of pretenders to the throne, who mostly came to a violent end.

Early in 208 Severus himself visited the island The northern tribes had continued to trouble the peace of the settled province, and he was resolved to punish them, and not sorry, at the same time, to

employ his army and the two young princes, his sons, in active service. He marched accordingly northwards, and reached, it is said, the very extremity of the island. The natives did not attempt to meet him in the field, but they laid ambuscades, and harassed the rear and flanks of his army. The hardships and difficulties of the expedition were enormous. We can imagine what a place the Highlands of Scotland. must have been for a regular army to traverse when there were no roads, and the country was largely covered with forest. The labours of the march, and of

the works in the way of bridges and causeways that had to be constructed, the wet and the cold, for the expedition was prolonged into the winter, caused a terrible mortality among the troops. When at last the Caledonians begged for peace, delivering up some of their arms and yielding a portion of their territory, Severus had lost as many as fifty thousand men. And he had gained nothing. No sooner was the legion withdrawn to the south than the native tribes again rebelled. Severus, who was then at Eboracum (York) swore that he would exterminate them, and began to prepare for a new expedition. He did not live to fulfil this purpose. He had suffered greatly from illness during the expedition, and his malady now increased upon him, being aggravated, it is said, by the ill behaviour of his son, Caracalla. He died at Eboracum in 210. The permanent memorial that he left behind him of his stay in Britain was the strengthening of the Vallum Antonini by a second wall. We may assign to this period the height of the Roman dominion in Britain. Its extent and the provinces into which it was subdivided are exhibited in Map I.

THE TYRANTS.

THE middle of the third century was a period of great depression in the Roman Empire, and the reign. of Gallienus (260-268) marks its lowest point. This prince had been associated by his father, Valerian, in the Empire. In 260 Valerian was conquered and put to death by the Parthian king, Sapor, and his death was the signal for frightful disorders. A number of pretenders, to whom the historians of the next century gave the name of "The Thirty Tyrants," I started up in various provinces of the East and West. Several of these usurpers rose to power in Gaul, and these seem to have included Britain in the dominions which they acquired and lost in rapid succession. The rise of the first of these, Latinius Postumus, dates indeed from before the fall of Valerian. He had been appointed by that emperor to defend the Rhine frontier, had taken offence at some slight, and proclaimed his independence. This he maintained for nine years. In 267 he was overthrown by one Laelianus. Lae

The original "Thirty Tyrants" were a committee of thirty members which ruled at Athens when the democratic government of that State was for a time (404 B.C.) changed into an oligarchy.

lianus was slain by his own soldiers in the same year. Victorinus, who succeeded him, fell a victim to private vengeance in the year following. His mother, Victoria, succeeded him in his power, but handed it over first to one Marius, an armourer, and then, when Marius had gone the way of his predecessors, to Caius Tetricus. After Tetricus had held power for three years, Aurelian, a vigorous soldier, worthy of the best days of Rome, conquered him. It seems indeed that Tetricus was not unwilling to be conquered, and that he betrayed his army to his opponent. It is certain that his fate was very different from that commonly reserved for unsuccessful usurpers. He and his son were exhibited indeed in Aurelian's triumph, but they were afterwards treated with kindness and even distinction. The father lived to an advanced age in retirement; the son was promoted to high offices in the state. It is certain, however, that during their period of power the island ceased to be part of the Roman Empire. Many of their coins have been found, and those of Tetricus are very common among Romano-British remains.

Britain, recovered by Aurelian, did not remain long in its allegiance. For some time its southern and eastern shores, as well as the northern shore of Gaul, had been exposed to the ravages of pirates, who issued from the harbours of the North Sea, and pos sibly even of the Baltic-the first-comers of the swarms of invaders who, under the names of Franks, Saxons, Danes, and Normans, were to work such a change on the face of Northern and Western Europe, and even to make themselves felt as far as Constanti