198 THE BRIGANTES. 



Geuunii, allies of Rome, part of their land was taken away*." 

 Who were these Genunii ? And what measure of freedom be- 

 longed to the Brigantes, if thus they engaged in war with 

 another state which was friendly to Rome ? 



By this extension of Roman power the British Islands became 

 widely rather than accurately known : Pliny (iv. 16), writing 

 before the appointment of Agricola, speaks of thirty years' war 

 having carried the knowledge of Britain only to the vicinity of 

 the Caledonian forests. It was no doubt by the campaigns of 

 Agricola that the fullest knowledge was acquired ; for his fleets 

 circumnavigated the wild regions of the north, and his soldiers 

 penetrated farther and remained longer than even those of 

 Severus among the solitudes of the Grampian Mountains. 



The Brigantes, as their name implies, were ' highlanders/ 

 that is to say, inhabitants of the hilly country toward the north 

 of Britain, and having communication by river navigation to 

 ports both on the east and west. They extended from the 

 German Ocean to the Irish Sea. 



Their principal settlements appear to have been in Yorkshire ; 

 Isu Brigantum, the port or water station of the tribe, being at 

 or near Aldborough the Roman Isurium. But there appears 

 reason to include in their territory the elevated parts of Derby- 

 shire, and thus we should assign to this ' most numerous nation* 

 a great part of the large area which extends from the Trent to 

 the Tyne : there is no other important tribe mentioned between 

 these rivers, except the Parisoi, in the south-east of Yorkshire. 



From this large country the Roman commanders, in the course 

 of thirty years' frequent and often bloody war, had torn away 

 the southern portions, and at last the whole became a conquered 

 province, subject to tribute, encircled by camps and traversed 

 by military roads, and honoured by the births, lives and deaths 

 of emperors and tyrants. 



* Pausanias, APKAAIKA, viii. xliii. 3. The general who effected this 

 was Lollius Urbicus. 



