140 BRITAIN IN THE ROMAN POETS 



victory for wliicli the Emperor would be glad to liold a 

 cheap and gaudy triumpli. 



A fisherman brings to Domitian an enormous turbot, 

 and Veiento reads from it omens of success : — 



Omen habes, inquit, magni clarique triumph! : 

 Regem aliquem capies, aut de temone Britanno 

 Excidet Aruiragus, peregrina est belua/^ 



("You have an omen," he says, "of a great and splendid triumph ; 

 you will take captive some chieftain, or Arviragus will fall from the 

 pole of his chariot. It is a foreign monster.") 



There is one point to which no reference has been made 

 ■ — the influence of the Romans on the social condition of 

 Britain during all these years of conquest and rule. The 

 impression that we get from Roman poetry is merely that 

 of a savage and worrying foe. If we had no hints from 

 other sources, archaeological and literaiy/" of the increasing 

 culture of the Britons, we should think that such remarks 

 as the following were entirely ironical : — 



Nunc totus Graias nostrasque habet orbis Athenas 

 Gallia causidicos docuit facunda Britannos. 

 De conducendo loquitur iam rhetore Thule.^' 



(And now the whole world enjoys the culture of Greece and 

 Rome. Glib Gaul has taught the Britons to be pleaders ; now Thule 

 talks of engaging a professor of rhetoric.) 



Dicitur et nostros cantare Britannica uersus 

 Quid prodest ? Nescit sacculus ista meus." 



(It is said that even Britain recites my verses. What's the good 

 of that? It does not affect my purse.) 



Statins, whose Siluae were written about 95 a.d., 

 contrasts the simple beginnings of Roman cities in central 

 Britain with the elaboration of life and building in his 



56. Juv. iv., 125. 



57. e.g. Tac. Agr. 21. 



58. Juv. XV., 110. 



59. Martial vi., 3, 3. 



