15 
in the rampart which ran between the Clyde and the Forth. But 
nothing can be more certain than that,—whatever may have been 
the numbers and strength of the Roman fortresses in the Low- 
lands,—this province never experienced the same lasting peace 
which its more southern neighbours enjoyed. It was always an 
outpost, exposed to the first attack, and frequently ravaged by 
foes who yet did not dare to pass the second line of defence. The 
conquest of Britain by the Romans may be illustrated by comparing 
it with the British conquest of India. Now that India has peace- 
fully accepted our rule, there is not the same occasion .as there 
used to be to mass large bodies of troops throughout the country. 
On the north-west frontier, however, strong and frequent garrisons 
must still be kept, to hold in check the restless tribes beyond the 
border, much as in old times Cumberland bristled with Roman 
camps. ‘The parallel might be pushed still further if we imagine 
Afghanistan to be held—as some think it should be—by British 
troops as a remote defence against Russian invasion. The further 
province would be an outpost to British India, much as Valentia 
was to Roman Britain. It would still be liable to be overrun by 
waves of warfare; but though they might break through the first 
barrier, they would be spent before they beat upon the real frontier 
of the empire. 
As a fact we know that this outlying province was being con- 
tinually invaded, notwithstanding the defence afforded by the more 
northern Wall. After the peaceful reigns of the Antonines it was 
so constantly attacked that in A.D. 208 the Emperor Severus had 
to undertake its reconquest, and even his famous expedition was 
not entirely successful. In the middle of the 4th century it was 
again entirely lost to the Roman power ; so much so, that when it 
was reconquered by Theodosius in 367 it was treated as though 
it were a new province, and the new name of Valentia was bestowed 
upon it in honour of the reigning Emperor Valens. Fifteen years 
afterward, in 383, the British Emperor Maximus had again to 
repress the incursions of the Picts and Scots who had ravaged the 
new province ; and before the end of the century, “Stilicho once 
more drove back the invading tribes and recovered the territory 
