43 A.D.] THIRD ROMAN INVASION 13 much larger force, and penetrated the country to a short distance north of the Thames. Before the September gales set in, he reëmbarked for the Continent, never to return. The total results of his two expeditions were a number of natives carried as hostages to Rome, a long train of captives destined to be sold in the slave markets, and some promises of tribute which the Britons never fulfilled. Tacitus, the Roman historian, says Cæsar did not conquer Britain; he only showed it to the Romans." १९ 20. The Third Invasion of Britain by the Romans, 43 A.D. For nearly a hundred years the Romans made no further attempt on Britain, but in 43 A.D. the Emperor Claudius invaded the island. After nine years' fighting, he overcame Caractacus, the leader of the Britons, and carried him in chains to Rome. The brave chief refused to beg for life or liberty. "Can it be possible," said he, as he was led through the streets, "that men who live in such palaces as these envy us our wretched hovels!" "It was the dignity of the man, even in ruins," says the Roman historian, "which saved him." The Emperor, struck with his bearing and his speech, ordered him to be set free. 21. The Romans plant a Colony in Britain; Llyn-din. Meanwhile the armies of the Empire had established a strong colony at Colchester in the southeast of Britain. (See map facing p. 14.) There they built a temple and set up the statue of the Emperor Claudius, which the soldiers worshiped, both as a protecting god and as the representative of the Roman Empire. The army had also conquered other places. One of these was a little native settlement on a bend in the Thames where the river broadened slightly. It consisted of a few miserable huts and a row of intrenched cattle pens. It was called in the British tongue Llyn-din or the Fort-on-the-pool. This name, which was pronounced with difficulty by Roman lips, eventually became known wherever ships sail, trade reaches, or history is read, London. 22. Expedition against the Druids. But in order to complete the conquest of the country, the Roman generals resolved to crush the power of the Druids (§ 3), since these priests exhorted the Britons to refuse to surrender. The island of Anglesey, off the northwest coast of Wales, was the stronghold to which the Druids had retreated. (See map facing p. 14.) As the Roman soldiers approached to attack them, they beheld the priests and women standing on the shore, with uplifted hands, uttering “dreadful prayers and imprecations." For a moment the Roman troops hesitated; then they rushed upon the Druids, cut them to pieces, and cast their bodies into their own sacred fires. From this blow Druidism as an organized faith never recovered, though traces of its religious rites still survive in the use of the mistletoe at Christmas and in May-day festivals. 23. Revolt of Boadicea (61). Still the power of the Latin legions was only partly established, for while the Roman general was absent with his troops at Anglesey, a formidable revolt had broken out in the east. A British chief, in order to secure half of his property to his family at his death, left it to be equally divided between his daughters and the Emperor. The governor of the district, under the pretext that Boadicea, the widow of the dead chief, had concealed part of the property, seized the whole of it. Boadicea protested. To punish her presumption, the Romans stripped and scourged her, and inflicted still more brutal and infamous treatment on her daughters. Maddened by these outrages, Boadicea appealed to her countrymen for vengeance. The enraged Britons fell upon London, and other places held by the Romans, burned them to the ground, and slaughtered many thousand inhabitants. But in the end the Roman forces gained the victory, and Boadicea took her own life rather than fall into the hands of her conqueror. The "warrior queen" died, let us trust, as the poet has represented, animated by the prophecy of the Druid priest that, – "Rome shall perish write that word In the blood that she has spilt; - 24. Christianity introduced into Britain. Perhaps it was not long after this that Christianity made its way to Britain; if so, it crept in so silently that nothing certain can be learned of its advent. The first church, it is said, was built at Glastonbury, in the southeast 1 Cowper's "Boadicea. " 78] AGRICOLA'S FORTS 15 of the island. (See map facing p. 38.) It was a long, shedlike structure of wickerwork. "Here," says an old writer," the converts watched, fasted, preached, and prayed, having high meditations under a low roof and large hearts within narrow walls." At first no notice was taken of the new religion. It was the faith of the poor and the obscure, and the Roman generals treated it with contempt; but as it continued to spread, it caused alarm. The Roman Emperor was not only the head of the state, but the head of religion as well. He represented the power of God on earth: to him every knee must bow (§ 21). But the Christians refused this homage. They put Christ first; for that reason they were dangerous to the state, and were looked upon as traitors and rebels, or as men likely to become so. 25. Persecution of British Christians; St. Alban. Toward the last of the third century the Roman Emperor Diocletian resolved to root out this pernicious belief. The first British martyr was Alban. He refused to sacrifice to the Roman deities, and was beheaded. But the ancient historian 2 says, with childlike simplicity, that the executioner who struck "the wicked stroke was not permitted to rejoice over the deed, for his eyes dropped out upon the ground together with the blessed martyr's head." Five hundred years later the magnificent abbey of St. Albans3 rose on the spot to commemorate him who had fallen there. 26. Agricola builds a Line of Forts (78); Roman Agriculture. When Agricola, a wise and equitable Roman ruler, became governor of Britain he explored the coast, and first discovered Britain to be an island. He gradually extended the limits of the government, and, in order to prevent invasion from the north, he built a line of forts (completed by Antoninus) across Scotland, from the mouth of the river Forth to the Clyde. (See map facing p. 14.) From this date the power of Rome was finally fixed. During the three hundred years which followed, the surface of the country underwent a great change. The Romans cut down forests, drained marshes, reclaimed waste land, and bridged rivers. Furthermore 2 Bede's "Ecclesiastical History of Britain," completed about the year 731. 8 St. Albans: twenty miles northwest of London. (See map facing p. 16.) |