190 A. D. 98-— 117, 



the merchants, by means of their commerce, than thofe of Britain. [^/^/, 

 ^gric. c. 24.] Whether his geographical and his commercial infor- 

 mations were equally corred, I fliall not pretend to judge. 



p8-ii7 — The emperor Trajan was a great conqueror. He added 

 Dacia, a large province beyond the Danube, to the Roman empire. 

 He undertook an expedition into the Eaft, and there alfo he carried the 

 Roman arms far beyond the limits of the empire, into Armenia, Mefo- 

 potamia, and Aflyria, which he reduced to the condition of provinces. But 

 his conquefts, rapid and deftructive as a whirlwind, ferved no purpofe, 

 but to exhauft the blood of his fubjefts, and of the nations who had the 

 misfortune to lie in the track of his career : for, as foon as the ftorm 

 was paft, they refumed their independence *. Trajan alfo poflefTed fe- 

 veral of the more valuable qualifications of a fovereign. He adorned 

 Rome with elegant buildings, and brought water to thofe parts of it, 

 which were deftitute of that accommodation ; he eftablifhed great libra- 

 ries ; he encouraged learning by proteding learned men ; he naade 

 good roads from one end of the empire to the other ; he conflructed a 

 convenient harbour at Centum cellae, (now Civita vecchia) and another 

 at Ancona, on the Adriatic fea ; and he apparently repaired, or renew- 

 ed, the Egyptian canal between the Nile and the Red fea f . 



Adrian, the next einperor, adorned not only Rome, but the whole 

 empire, with magnificent buildings, which were executed under his 

 own eye ; for his whole reign was a continual peregrination. As the 

 Britons were not yet reconciled to the Roman yoke, he vifited this ifland 

 in one of his journies, and reformed feveral abufes in it (a°. 121). Giving 

 up all thoughts of completing the conqueflofit, he conflruded a wall of 

 about eighty miles in length, between the rivers Tine and Eden, in order 

 to cut off all communication between the Barbarians and the Romans, or 

 rather the Romanized Britons. And this kind of fortification by a con- 

 tinued wall, of which he fet the firft example, was repeatedly ufed in the 

 fucceeding ages of the Roman domination in this ifland. Adrian, for 

 ihcfe adions, obtained the title of Reflorer of Britain. 



In the beginning of the reign of Antoninus Pius the Roman terri- 

 tories in Britain were under the government of Lollius Urbicus, who 

 has not obtained his due fliare of the fame ufually beflowed upon con- 

 querors. He quelled fome commotions in the conquered country (a". 140), 

 and built a fccond wall, which extended between the Firths of Forth 

 and Clyde ; the fanie which in later times has been called Gramis dyke, 

 i. e. warriors dyke. He alfo carried the Roman eagles as far as the 

 aeltuary of the river Varar, (now called the Farar, or Beulie) founded 



• Modern commcutntors have extended his f I believe Ptolemy's mention of the Trajan'uxn 



ia\a(;t» to the fouth coail of Arahia, and made nwr in his defcription of Egypt, is the only an- 



hini the deflroyci- of tiie city of Arabia Felix, but ticnt authority we have for tliis work of Trajan, 

 without any aii'.hority. See above, p. 157, Note ij. 



