BRITAIN IN THE ROMAN POETS 137 



Te fontium qui celat origines 

 Nilusque et Ister, te rapidus Tigris, 

 Te beluosus qui remotis 

 Obstrepit Oceanus Britannis, 

 Te non pauentis funera Galliae 

 Dura«que tellus audit Hiberia«." 



(You the Nile obeys that hides its sources, and the Danube, and 

 the rapid Tigris, and the monster haunted ocean which roars against 

 the shores of distant Britain, and the Gaul that has no fear of death, 

 and the land of hardy Iberia.) 



As far as the reference to Britain is concerned, this is a 

 romantic and poetical way of stating that embassies were 

 sent by some of the British princes to Augustus, with 

 presents and assurances of friendship, ^^ and in one or two 

 cases with a request for protection. It is unfortunate that 

 the empire-building of Claudius, and indeed of all the 

 Emperors, is either exaggerated by the poets in terms of 

 servile flattery or disparaged with the malice of personal 

 dislike. 



Seneca was banished in 41 a.d., and failed, even by the 

 most fulsome flattery, to obtain his recall. After the death 

 of the Emperor in 54 a.d., he vented his pent-up wrath 

 against him in a bitter satire, the 'ATroKoAo/cT^vTwcrts, 

 a travesty in prose and verse of the supposed deification 

 of Claudius. Seneca scoffs at his policy in enfranchising 

 the provinces. The thought of Greeks, Gauls, Spaniards 

 and Britons clad in the toga moves him to mirth.*^ His 

 scornful contempt of the Britons who had suffered under 

 his authority is no less bitter than his hatred of the 

 Emperor. *9 



Here is the description of the choral dirge sung at 



46. Hor. Odes IV., 14, 45. 



47. Strabo, 4, 5, 3. 



48. Chap. 3 (cp. Tac. Ann. xi., 23, 25). 



49. Die Cassius XII., 2. 



