236 
JOUUNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
unconnected notes, to inform you of some recent speculations as to 
the topography of Eoman Devon, and to leave the matter with 
you for discussion. " 
The lecturer then recalled the main facts connected with the 
Eoman Conquest of Britain, and said that although in its broad 
outlines the history was known to every schoolboy, the details had 
yet to be worked out much in the same way as Dr. Freeman had 
worked out and dealt with the later conquest by William of 
Normandy. The investigations of Guest, Beale Poste, Clifford, and 
others, were mentioned. He then proceeded : "It has generally been 
supposed that from the departure of Julius Caesar after his second 
campaign B.C. 54 until the coming of Claudius a.d. 43, although a 
nominal allegiance was submitted to, that there was no attempt on 
the part of Borne to exercise any right of sovereignty, and that 
no armies visited the shores of Britain. Evidence of this seems 
to be afforded by the discovery from time to time of coins bearing 
the names of British princes, knowledge of whom is derivable 
from this source only. But independently of the preparations 
made by Augustus about twenty years after Caesar's second in- 
vasion, there appears to be some ground for believing that an 
actual descent was made by Augustus before. It is clear that 
during the period to which I have referred there was communica- 
tion to a considerable extent between Britain and the rest of the 
Eoman world, more especially, as might be supposed, with the 
Imperial city ; but it was believed that this was all. In a very 
ingenious and learned paper contributed to the Arclueologia by the 
late William Henry Black, a short time before his death, evidence 
is adduced which throws a doubt on this supposed freedom from 
invasion. His proofs are drawn from various passages in the Latin 
poets; but his main argument is derived from the commentary 
of Maurus Servius Honoratus on Virgil, written in the fourth 
century. The passage commented on is from the third book of 
the Georgics : 
" ' I shall be the first to do what none other Mantuan hath ever yet 
done. I shall carry the Muses into my own country, if I live long 
enough to return from the classic regions of Greece. Ill build a 
temple on the banks of the Mincio. There I '11 found ceremonies, and 
games, and sacrifices, and shows in honour of Augustus ; and there I 
shall have captive Britons to carry embroidered scenery, in which his 
triumphs shall be represented/ 
