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BRITAIN IN THE ROMAN POETS 135 



triumplial games of Claudius in a mock attack on an 

 imitation Camolodunum set up in the field of Mars.^* 



Grandeur and wildness of scenery were to most of the 

 Romans merely untidy obstructions to comfort and 

 conquest. Xor did they see romance and poetry in the 

 deeds wrought in that desolate isle. There was material 

 for poetry in the splendour, treachery and fall of 

 Cartismandua,^^ the defiance of Caratacus,^^ and the 

 struggle and death of Boudicca.^' But it was material 

 which the Eoman poets would hardly care to mould into 

 poetry in the shadow or glare of the Imperial throne. 



The first reference to Britain in Roman poetry gives 

 a good idea of the utter ignorance about it that prevailed 

 just before Caesar's invasion. 



Nam quid Brittanni caelum differre putamus 

 Et quod in Aegypto est qua mundi claudicat axis ? " 

 (For what difference may we suppose exists between the climate of 



Britain and that of Egypt, where the pole of heaven slants askew? 



(Munro's trans.) 



There is something thrilling in Julius Caesar's dash 

 across an unknown sea into an unknown land. No poet 

 mentions that exploit except Lucan. 



Territa quaesitis ostendit terga Britannis." 

 (He first sought out the Britons, then fled in terror before them.) 

 Lucan vainly attempts to make a heroic figure of 

 Pompey, and so dwarfs and distorts the deeds of Caesar. 



Twenty years after the invasion of Julius, Horace can 

 still, as far as the tangible results of the campaigns are 



34. Elton, p. 298. 



35. Tac. Ann. xii., 36 and 40. 



36. Tac. Ann. xii., 33—37. 



37. Ann, xiv., 31, 35, 37. [On the form see p. 115 footnote 7.] 



38. Lucr. vi.,1104; see reff. in Munro's not«, which show that it was 

 thought that at Britain (as being so far North) the height of the sky from 

 the ground was greater, and in Egypt and Ethpiopia less, than in Italy. 



39. Lucan Phars, ii., 572. 



