153 



BRITANNIA. 



BRITANNIA. 



151 



conjectured by antiquaries. The positions are those laid down or 

 suggested in the map published by the Society for the Diffusion of 

 Useful Knowledge, ' Ancient Britain,' part 1 , with the exception of 

 the Cassi, as to which tribe we give Camden's conjecture : 



Caesar. Ptolemceus. Inhabitants of 



People of Cantium KOJTIOI Kent. 



Trinobantes . . Tpanxunes Essex. 



Cenimagni . . . 2ifu voi (?). Iceni of Tacitus (?) . Norfolk, Suf- 

 folk, Cam- 

 bridge. 



Segontiaci . . . not mentioned parts of Hants 



and Berks. 



Ancalites .... ATpi&arioi (?) parts of Berks 



and Wilts. 



Bibroci ... . not mentioned parts of Berks 



and adjacent 

 counties. 



Cassi Cassio Hun- 

 dred, Herts(?) 



The Romans did not return to the island until the reign of 

 Claudius, leaving the Britons alone for about a century. In the 

 interval the Britons who dwelt in the parts nearest to Gaul appear to 

 have made some progress in civilisation. They coined money, and 

 many British coins have been discovered, of which about forty (note 

 to Gough's ' Camden ') belong to a prince, Cunobelin, whose residence 

 was at Camalodunum (either Colchester or Maldon), and whom we 

 should therefore take to be a king of the Trinobantes, the people of 

 that part of the country. The money of Cunobeliu is supposed to 

 have been the work of a Roman artist, or of some Gaul familiar with 

 Roman customs. The subjoined engraving is from a coin, one of 

 several of Cunobelin, in the British Museum : 



Coin of Cunobclin. Gold. Actual size. 



The Trinobantes took the lead in opposition to the invading force 

 sent by the emperor Claudius. Aulus Plautius, a senator of praetorian 

 rank, commanded the forces which were designed for the attack on the 

 island (A.D. 43). The Britons were defeated in two battles, in the first of 

 which they were commanded by Catanltncus, in the second by 

 Togodumnus, the sons of the now deceased Cunobelin. After various 

 encounters with the natives, Plautius awaited the arrival of the 

 emperor Claudius. Claudius embarked with reinforcements, including 

 some elephants, and, landing at Hassilia, proceeded through Gaul to 

 Britain. Upon his arrival he crossed the Thames with his army, 

 defeated the natives who had assembled to oppose him, took 

 Camalodunmn or Cainulodunum, the capital of Cunobelin, and forced 

 numbers of the Britons to submit. After this success Claudius 

 disarmed the vanquished tribes and returned to Rome, leaving Plautius 

 to secure the Roman conquests. The senate decreed triumphal 

 honours to the emperor, and the memory of his victory has been 

 perpetuated in his coinage. 



During the command of Plautins, his lieutenant Vespasian con- 

 quered the Isle of Wight. Upon the departure of Plautius, those 

 Britons who were struggling for independence overran the lands ol 

 such as had allied themselves with or submitted to the Romans ; and 

 P. Ostorius Scapula, who succeeded Plautius (A.D. 50) as propraetor, 

 on bis arrival found affairs in great confusion. He immediately 

 collected forces, routed and pursued the invaders, and prepared to 

 restrain their incursions by stations or camps at the rivers Sabrina 

 (Severn) and Antona or Aufona (Nene). The lino which Ostorius 

 proposed to defend comprehended within it all the southern and 

 south-eastern parts of the island, including nations who for the most 

 part were of Belgic origin, and who had either submitted without a 

 struggle to the Roman sway, or had been subdued by Plautius and 

 Vespasian, or had willingly embraced the Roman alliance. This par) 

 of the island was inhabited by the tribes mentioned by Cicsar, by the 

 Iceni, or inhabitants of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire, and the 

 Atrebatii ; by the C'atuellani or Catyeuchlani, probably the native tribe 

 of Cassivellaunus ; by the Dobuni ; and by the following people not 

 yet noticed : the Damnonii or Dumnonii, people of Devonshire and 

 Cornwall; the Durotrigeg, in and about Dorsetshire ; the Belga;, people 

 of Somersetshire, Wilts, and Hants (the name of whose capital, Venta 

 i* prewired in Win-cheater) ; and the Regni, people of Surrey anc 

 Sussex. 



The Iceni had never been subdued : they had allied themselves with 

 the Roma"ji, but they saw that, if Ostorius severed the island into 

 two parts by a line of military posts, the independence of all within 

 that line would be sacrificed. They consequently opposed his plan 

 but they were defeated by Ostorius. He next subjected the Cang 

 the Brigantes. He then prepared to march against the 

 r>ilnr.M or Silyres, a people of South Wales, whose resistance to 



.he Romans was more obstinate than that of any other people of 

 South Britain. That no apprehension of a rising in his rear might 

 mpede his progress, he settled a colony of veterans at Camalodunum. 

 Although the name of Cataratacus, or, according to the orthography 

 of Tacitus, Caractacus, has not been mentioned since the notice of 

 Plautius' a first campaign, that valiant prince appears to have kept the 

 ield ; and in some manner, with which we are not acquainted, he 

 became commander of the Silures. (Tacit. 'Ann.' xii. 33, 36.) The 

 seat of war was transferred into the country of the Ordovices, people 

 of North Wales and Shropshire, by Caractacus. He posted his forces 

 upon a steep ascent, and fortified the approaches by a rampart of loose 

 stones ; a river ran in front of his strong position, and his best troops 

 took their station before the ramparts. But this strong position was 

 stormed by the Roman troops ; the wife and daughter of Caractacus 

 were taken ; his brothers surrendered themselves ; and the gallant 

 prince himself was put in chains by Cartismandua, queen of the 

 Brigantes, with whom he had taken refuge, "and delivered up to the 

 Romans. His noble demeanour when at Rome before Claudius com- 

 manded the admiration of that prince, and the emperor pardoned 

 him. His defeat and capture took place probably A.D. 51. 



The insignia of a triumph were decreed to Ostorius ; but his successes 

 ended with the defeat of Caractacus. The Romans were harassed 

 with repeated skirmishes, and by the obstinate resistance of the Silures, 

 and Ostorius died worn out with care (perhaps A.D. 53). 



Didius, the successor of Ostorius, found the Roman affairs in a 

 depressed condition ; and he does not appear to have gained any signal 

 advantage. His command lasted into the reign of Nero, the successor 

 of Claudius, probably till A.D. 57. Veranius, the successor of Didius, 

 lived only a year after undertaking the command, and did little. His 

 successor, Paulinus Suetonius, attacked the island of Mona (Anglesey), 

 transporting his infantry over the straits which divide that island from 

 the mainland (the Menai) in flat-bottomed boats, the cavalry fording 

 the passage, or in the deeper parts swimming. The description of 

 this attack, which is highly characteristic of the people of the island, 

 is given in the annals of Tacitus. (' Annales,' xiv. 30.) 



From the shores of the extreme west Suetonius was recalled by the 

 news of a great rising of the natives under Boadicea in that part of 

 the island which had been already subdued by the Romans. 

 [BOADICEA, HIST. AND Bioo. Div.] 



The revolt of Boadicea had nearly extinguished the Roman domi- 

 nion in Britain, but at last the natives were completely defeated in a 

 battle, the scene of which is supposed to have been just to the north 

 of London. Battle Bridge, St. Pancras, is thought to have preserved 

 in its name a memorial of this dreadful day. (Nelson, ' History of 

 Islington.') The Roman general ravaged the territories of all those 

 native tribes which had wavered in their attachment to the Romans, 

 as well as those who had joined in the revolt. Suetonius was at last 

 recalled without finishing the war (A.D. 62) and Petrouius Turpilianus 

 appointed his successor. 



Several generals were successively sent to the island ; but the 

 Romans made little progress until the time of Vespasian, A.D. 70-78, 

 in whose reign Petilius Cerealis subdued the Brigantes, who under 

 Venutius had renewed hostilities ; and Julius Frontinus subdued the 

 Silures. But the glory of completing the conquest of South Britain 

 was reserved for Cnseus Julius Agricola. [AGRICOLA.] 



From the time of Agricola we read little about Britain in the 

 Roman historians until the reign of Hadrian (A.D. 117 to 138), who 

 visited the island. The emperor fenced in the Roman territory by a 

 rampart of turf 80 Roman, or about 74 English, miles long. This 

 rampart extended from the jestuary Ituna, Solway Frith, to the 

 German Ocean, a little south of the more solid wall afterwards built 

 by the emperor Severus. In the subsequent reign of Antoninus Pius 

 (A.D. 138 to 161) Lollius Urbicus, his lieutenant in Britain, drove 

 back the barbarians, and recovered the country as far as Agricola's 

 line of stations between the Forth and Clyde. [ANTONINUS, 

 WALL OF.] 



Medal of Antoninus Plus. Reverse. 



Brass. Brit. Mus. Actual size. 



In the following reign of M. Aurelius Antoninus (A.D. 161 to 180 

 we have some notice of wars in Britain, which Calpurnius Agricola 

 was sent to quell. Commodus, the successor of Aurelius, sent against 

 the Caledonians his lieutenant, Ulpius Marcellus, who defeated the 

 Caledonians with heavy loss. 



Septimius Severus, near the close of his reign, though growing old 



