21 



known of Britain is that its inhabitants were engaged in a perpetual turmoil of 

 quarrels amongst themselves. The Emperor Claudius invaded Britain a. d. 43, 

 and found many petty states at war with each other. Tacitus mentions 64 Brit- 

 ish tribes, and Appian increases the number to 400. The conquest was finally 

 completed by Julius Frontinus (a.d. 70), and thus a period of only 37 years was 

 engaged in the conquest, of which the last 30 were occupied in subduing the Silu- 

 rians. Tacitus notices the peculiar obstinacy of the SUures, " prscipua Silurum 

 pervicacia." Claudius issued proclamation after proclamation in vain, to induce 

 them to submit, untU at length he is said to have threatened to blot out their very 

 name. Caractacus alone is said to have fought 30 battles with the Romans with 

 varying success, but greatly to his own repute for skill and personal valour — 

 "Non atrocitate, non dementia mutabatur," says Tacitus, "quinbellum excerceret 

 castrisque legionum premendo foret " (Annal. Lib., II. c. 8). Ostorius Scapula 

 overthrew Caractacus a.d. 51, but then another brave energetic general appeared, 

 Venusius, a chieftain of the Hwiccas, who led the SUurians, and gave Ostorius 

 " no rest, but harassed him by day and by night with skirmishes, ambushes, and 

 surprises," until it is said Ostorius died of a broken heart from vexation. Venu- 

 sius defeated the leg^ion of Manlius Valens, cut off small bodies of Roman troops, 

 and on one occasion took two whole cohorts of their auxiliaries, and carried off 

 all the plunder they had seized ; and so the fighting went on and on for 29 years 

 after the defeat of Caractacus. 



The Roman historians give no notice of British affairs from a.d. 86 to 117 ; 

 and the accounts from that time until A.D. 412, when the Roman legions were 

 withdrawn from Britain, bear no special mention of Herefordshire. 



The most melancholy and degraded portion of British history commences 

 with the departure of the Romans, after a continued residence of 3G9 years. 

 History is silent, happily silent, on the misery and wretchedness of the country 

 during the next century or two. Enough is known to show that human nature 

 appeared in its worst form, and every species of wickedness and brutality 

 were practised, from wholesale murders to the selling of the families of their 

 vanquished rivals, for the time being, into slavery. Many veteran Roman 

 soldiers at first remained, but in two years, a.d. 414, they gathered their goods 

 together and returned into Italy. On the most abject and earnest entreaties of 

 the Britons, the Emperor Honorius sent a legion of soldiers, A.D. 416, to relieve 

 them ; and once again, a.d. 418, under Gallio, who remained two years and res- 

 tored peace over the whole country, drove off the Picts and Scots, and rebuilt the 

 walls of Severus and Antoninus Pius, and left a.d. 420. The Britons were now 

 left to their own resources. The Picts and Scots broke through the wall of Anto- 

 ninus, A.D. 422, and that of Severus, a.d. 426, and soon began to ravage the 

 country southwards. The Britons again applied to Rome, a.d. 446, most abjectly, 

 but CEtius, thrice consul, declined any assistance : and they were driven to seek 

 aid from the Jutes, who sent Hengist and Horsa. They landed on the Isle of 

 Thanet, a.d. 449. The Angles or English from Sleswig invaded Britain, a.d. 540, 

 and the Saxons from Holstein, a.d. 477. 



During the next hundred years there is nowhere to be found any reliable hia- 



