Early Britain—Roman Britain

CHAPTER I. Pre-Roman Britain

PRE-ROMAN BRITAIN

§ A.--Palaeolithic Age--Extinct fauna--River-bed men--Flint implements--Burnt stones--Worked bones--Glacial climate ... p. 25

§ B.--Neolithic Age--"Ugrians"--Polished flints--Jadite--Gold ornaments--Cromlechs--Forts--Bronze Age--Copper and tin--Stonehenge ... p. 28

§ C.--Aryan immigrants--Gael and Briton--Earliest classical nomenclature--British Isles--Albion--Ierne--Cassiterides--Phoenician tin trade viâ Cadiz ... p. 31

§ D.--Discoveries of Pytheas--Greek tin trade viâ Marseilles--Trade routes--Ingots--Coracles--Earliest British coins--Lead-mining ... p. 34

§ E.--Pytheas trustworthy--His notes on Britain--Agricultural tribes--Barns--Manures--Dene Holes--Mead--Beer--Parched corn--Pottery--Mill-stones--Villages--Cattle--Pastoral tribes--Savage tribes--Cannibalism--Polyandry--Beasts of chase--Forest trees--British clothing and arms--Sussex iron ... p. 39

§ F.--Celtic types--"Roy" and "Dhu"--Gael--Silurians--Loegrians--Basque peoples--Shifting of clans--Constitutional disturbances--Monarchy --Oligarchy--Demagogues--First inscribed coins ... p. 50

§ G.--Clans at Julian invasion--Permanent natural boundaries--Population Celtic settlements--"Duns"--Maiden Castle ... p. 54

§ H.--Religious state of Britain--Illustrated by Hindooism--Totemists--Polytheists--Druids--Bards--Seers--Druidic Deities--Mistletoe--Sacred herbs--"Ovum Anguinum"--Suppression of Druidism--Druidism and Christianity p. 62

CHAPTER II. The Julian Invasion

THE JULIAN INVASION

B.C. 55, 54

§ A.--Caesar and Britain--Breakdown of Roman Republican institutions--Corruption abroad and at home--Rise of Caesar--Conquest of Gaul ... p. 73

§ B.--Sea-fight with Veneti and Britons--Pretexts for invading Britain--British dominion of Divitiacus--Gallic tribes in Britain--Atrebates--Commius ... p. 79

§ C.--Defeat of Germans--Bridge over Rhine--Caesar's army--Dread of ocean--Fleet at Boulogne--Commius sent to Britain--Channel crossed--Attempt on Dover--Landing at Deal--Legionary sentiment--British army dispersed ... p. 83

§ D.--Wreck of fleet--Fresh British levy--Fight in corn-field--British chariots--Attack on camp--Romans driven into sea ... p. 94

§ E.--Caesar worsted--New fleet built--Caesar at Rome--Cicero--Expedition of 54 B.C.--Unopposed landing--Pro-Roman Britons--Trinobantes--Mandubratius--British army surprised--"Old England's Hole" ... p. 102

§ F.--Fleet again wrecked--Britons rally under Caswallon--Battle of Barham Down--Britons fly to London--Origin of London--Patriot army dispersed ... p. 112

§ G.--Passage of Thames--Submission of clans--Storm of Verulam--Last patriot effort in Kent--Submission of Caswallon--Romans leave Britain--"Caesar Divus" ... p. 118

CHAPTER III. The Roman Conquest

THE ROMAN CONQUEST

B.C. 54-A.D. 85

§ A.--Britain after Julius Caesar--House of Commius--Inscribed coins--House of Cymbeline--Tasciovan--Commians overthrown--Vain appeal to Augustus--Ancyran Tablet--Romano-British trade--Lead-mining--British fashions in Rome--Adminius banished by Cymbeline--Appeal to Caligula--Futile demonstration--Icenian civil war--Vericus banished--Appeal to Claudius--Invasion prepared ... p. 124

§ B.--Aulus Plautius--Reluctance to embark--Narcissus--Passage of Channel--Landing at Portchester--Strength of expedition--Vespasian's legion--British defeats--Line of Thames held--Arrival of Claudius--Camelodune taken--General submission of island p. 131

§ C.--Claudius triumphs--Gladiatorial shows--Last stand of Britons--Gallantry of Titus--Ovation of Plautius--Distinctions bestowed--Triumphal arch--Commemorative coinage--Conciliatory policy--British worship of Claudius--Cogidubnus--Attitude of clans--Britain made Imperial province ... p. 135

§ D.--Ostorius Pro-praetor--Pacification of Midlands--Icenian revolt--The Fleam Dyke--Iceni crushed--Cangi--Brigantes--Silurian war--Storm of Caer Caradoc--Treachery of Cartismandua--Caradoc at Rome--Death of Ostorius--Uriconium and Caerleon--Britain quieted--Death of Claudius ... p. 142

§ E.--Neronian misgovernment--Seneca--Prasutagus--Boadicean revolt--Sack of Camelodune--Suetonius in Mona--Druidesses--Sack of London and Verulam--Boadicea crushed at Battle Bridge--Peace of Petronius ... p. 151

§ F.--Otho and Vitellius--Civil war--Army of Britain--Priscus--Agricola--Vespasian Emperor--Cerealis--Brigantes put down--Silurians put down--Agricola Pro-praetor--Ordovices put down--Frontinus--Pacification of South Britain--Roman civilization introduced--Caledonian campaign--Galgacus--Agricola's rampart--Domitian--Resignation and death of Agricola ... p. 159

CHAPTER IV. The Roman Occupation

THE ROMAN OCCUPATION

A.D. 85-211

§ A.--Pacification of Britain--Roman roads--London their centre--Authority for names--Watling Street--Ermine Street--Icknield Way ... p. 165

§ B.--Romano-British towns--Ancient lists--Method of identification--Dense rural population--Remains in Cam valley--Coins--Thimbles--Horseshoes ... p. 171

§ C.--Fortification of towns late--Chief Roman centres--London--York--Chester--Bath--Silchester--Remains there found--Romano-British handicrafts--Pottery--Basket-work--Mining--Rural life--Villas--Forests--Hunting-dogs--Husbandry--Britain under Pax Romana ... p. 178

§ D.--The unconquered North--Hadrian's Wall--Upper and Lower Britain--Romano-British coinage--Wall of Antoninus--Britain Pro-consular ... p. 193

§ E.--Commodus Britannicus--Ulpius Marcellus--Murder of Perennis--Era of military turbulence--Pertinax--Albinus--British army defeated at Lyons--Severus Emperor--Caledonian war--Severus overruns Highlands ... p. 198

§ F.--Severus completes Hadrian's Wall--"Mile Castles"--"Stations"--Garrison--The Vallum--Rival theories--Evidence--Remains--Coins--Altars--Mithraism--Inscription to Julia Domna--"Written Rock" on Gelt--Cilurnum aqueduct ... p. 203

§ G.--Death of Severus--Caracalla and Geta--Roman citizenship--Extension to veterans--Tabulae honestae missionis--Bestowed on all British provincials ... p. 212

CHAPTER V. The End of Roman Britain

THE END OF ROMAN BRITAIN

A.D. 211-455

§ A.--Era of Pretenders--Probus--Vandlebury--First notice of Saxons--Origin of name--Count of the Saxon Shore--Carausius --Allectus--Last Romano-British coinage--Britain Mistress of the Sea--Reforms of Diocletian--Constantius Chlorus--Re-conquest of Britain--Diocletian provinces--Diocletian persecution--The last "Divus"--General scramble for Empire--British army wins for Constantine--Christianity established ... p. 218

§ B.--Spread of Gospel--Arianism--Britain orthodox--Last Imperial visit--Heathen temples stripped--British Emperors--Magnentius--Gratian--Julian--British corn-trade--First inroad of Picts and Scots--Valentinian--Saxon raids--Campaign of Theodosius--Re-conquest of Valentia--Wall restored and cities fortified ... p. 229

§ C.--Roman evacuation of Britain begun--Maximus--Settlement of Brittany--Radagaisus invades Italy--Twentieth Legion leaves Britain--Britain in the 'Notitia'--Final effort of British army--The last Constantine--Last Imperial Rescript to Britain--Sack of Rome by Alaric--Final collapse of Roman rule in Britain ... p. 235

§ D.--Beginning of English Conquest--Vortigern--Jutes in Thanet--Battle of Stamford--Massacre of Britons--Valentinian III.--Latest Roman coin found in Britain--Progress of Conquest--The Cymry--Survival of Romano-British titles--Arturian Romances--Procopius--Belisarius--Roman claims revived by Charlemagne--The British Empire ... p. 244

§ E.--Survivals of Romano-British civilization--Romano-British Church--Legends of its origin--St. Paul--St. Peter--Joseph of Arimathaea--Glastonbury--Historical notices--Claudia and Pudens--Pomponia--Church of St. Pudentiana--Patristic references to Britain--Tertullian--Origen--Legend of Lucius--Native Christianity--British Bishops at Councils--Testimony of Chrysostom and Jerome ... p. 249

§ F.--British missionaries--Ninias--Patrick--Beatus--British heresiarchs--Pelagius--Fastidius--Pelagianism stamped out by Germanus--The Alleluia Battle--Romano-British churches--Why so seldom found--Conclusion ... p. 261

ROMAN BRITAIN

CHAPTER I. Pre-Roman Britain

PRE-ROMAN BRITAIN

SECTION A.

Palaeolithic Age--Extinct fauna--River-bed men--Flint implements--Burnt stones--Worked bones--Glacial climate.

A. 1.--All history, as Professor Freeman so well points out, centres round the great name of Rome. For, of all the great divisions of the human race, it is the Aryan family which has come to the front. Assimilating, developing, and giving vastly wider scope to the highest forms of thought and religion originated by other families, notably the Semitic, the various Aryan nationalities form, and have formed for ages, the vanguard of civilization. These nationalities are now practically co-extensive with Christendom; and on them has been laid by Divine Providence "the white man's burden"--the task of raising the rest of mankind along with themselves to an ever higher level--social, material, intellectual, and spiritual.

A. 2.--Aryan history is thus, for all practical purposes, the history of mankind. And a mere glance at Aryan history shows how entirely its great central feature is the period during which all the leading forces of Aryanism were grouped and fused together under the world-wide Empire of Rome. In that Empire all the streams of our Ancient History find their end, and from that Empire all those of Modern History take their beginning. "All roads," says the proverb, "lead to Rome;" and this is emphatically true of the lines of historical research; for as we tread them we are conscious at every step of the Romani Nominis umbra, the all-pervading influence of "the mighty name of Rome."

A. 3.--And above all is this true of the history of Western Europe in general and of our own island in particular. For Britain, History (meaning thereby the more or less trustworthy record of political and social development) does not even begin till its destinies were drawn within the sphere of Roman influence. It is with Julius Caesar, that great writer (and yet greater maker) of History, that, for us, this record commences.

A. 4.--But before dealing with "Britain's tale" as connected with "Caesar's fate," it will be well to note briefly what earlier information ancient documents and remains can afford us with regard to our island and its inhabitants. With the earliest dwellers upon its soil of whom traces remain we are, indeed, scarcely concerned. For in the far-off days of the "River-bed" men (five thousand or five hundred thousand years ago, according as we accept the physicist's or the geologist's estimate of the age of our planet) Britain was not yet an island. Neither the Channel nor the North Sea as yet cut it off from the Continent when those primaeval savages herded beside the banks of its streams, along with elephant and hippopotamus, bison and elk, bear and hyaena; amid whose remains we find their roughly-chipped flint axes and arrow-heads, the fire-marked stones which they used in boiling their water, and the sawn or broken bases of the antlers which for some unknown purpose they were in the habit of cutting up--perhaps, like the Lapps of to-day, to anchor their sledges withal in the snow. For the great Glacial Epoch, which had covered half the Northern Hemisphere with its mighty ice-sheet, was still, in their day, lingering on, and their environment was probably that of Northern Siberia to-day. Some archaeologists, indeed, hold that they are to this day represented by the Esquimaux races; but this theory cannot be considered in any way proved.

A. 5.--Whether, indeed, they were "men" at all, in any real sense of the word, may well be questioned. For of the many attempts which philosophers in all ages have made to define the word "man," the only one which is truly defensible is that which differentiates him from other animals, not by his physical or intellectual, but by his spiritual superiority. Many other creatures are as well adapted in bodily conformation for their environment, and the lowest savages are intellectually at a far lower level of development than the highest insects; but none stand in the same relation to the Unseen. "Man," as has been well said, "is the one animal that can pray." And there is nothing amongst the remains of these "river-bed men" to show us that they either did pray, or could. Intelligence, such as is now found only in human beings, they undoubtedly had. But whether they had the capacity for Religion must be left an unsolved problem. In this connection, however, it may be noted that Tacitus, in describing the lowest savages of his Germania [c. 46], "with no horses, no homes, no weapons, skin-clad, nesting on the bare ground, men and women alike, barely kept alive by herbs and such flesh as their bone-tipped arrows can win them," makes it his climax that they are "beneath the need of prayer;"--adding that this spiritual condition is, "beyond all others, that least attainable by man."

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