IV.

Ir was the ambition of Cæsar, who delighted CHAP. to accomplish what no man before him had achieved, that led him, after the conquest of the Keltic nation in Gaul, and its German inva ders, to attempt the discovery and subjugation of Britain. He knew not whether it was a vast continent or a confined island. But the doubt and obscurity were but additional temptations to his aspiring genius. To great minds, the unknown is as attractive as the wonderful; and untried danger is but a mysterious incentive to explore it. He prepared a small fleet to examine its coasts; and resolved, with the force which he could then venture to take from Gaul, to attempt to penetrate a country, which none of the conquerors of the civilised world appeared to have even seen.

to have founded Trapano in Italy, Dion. Hal. p. 41, 42. But the tradition more immediately connecting itself with the intimations of Nennius, is that noticed by Ammianus Marcellinus, that some Trojans, flying from the Greeks and dispersed all around, occupied regions in Gaul then uninhabited, lib. xv. c.9.

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I.

WHEN Britain was invaded by the Romans,

it exhibited the state of a country which had been peopled from several shoots of the barbaric or nomadic stocks, at different periods, with some grafts or improvements from more civilised nations. Its inhabitants were divided into many tribes, of which about forty-five have been enumerated with distinct appellations.' Of these, the

Attrebates

Segontiaci

Damnonii.

These were afterwards comprised in the Roman district ealled
Britannia Prima.

II. In the Peninsula of Wales were the Silures, Ordovices, and Dimetæ, whose country formed the Britannia Secunda of the Romans.

III. Between the Thames, the Severn, the Mersey, the Humber, and the ocean, the district afterwards named Flavia Cesariensis, comprised the

IV. In the Maxima Cesariensis of the Romans, or in our present Lancashire, Westmoreland, Cumberland, Yorkshire, Durham, and part of Northumberland, were the

V.

Belgæ whom Cæsar particularises to have passed CHAP. over from Belgic Gaul, and to have been esta blished in the island by their victories, occupied part of the coast of the British Channel. He distinguishes the Cantii, or people of Kent, as more advanced than the rest in the habits of civilised life, and as not differing much from the people of Gaul. The Belgæ pursued agriculture. But most of the interior tribes lived on milk and flesh, or in that state which has been called the pastoral, and clothed themselves with skins.2

ALL the Britons stained themselves of a blue colour with woad, which gave them a more horrible appearance in battle. They wore long hair

V. The five nations, who occupied the districts of the Roman province of Valentia, which, comprising chief part of Northumberland, extended from the Wall of Hadrian, into Scotland, as far as the Wall of Antoninus, were the

VI. Beyond these, in North Britain, were the tribes included in the Roman province of Vespasiani.

in the northern districts, with whom Severus fought, as usually
naked, with an iron ring round their neck or stomach, lib.
iii. p. 83.

Cæsar. ib. Mela, lib. iii. c. 6. This seems to have been
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BOOK

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on their heads, but shaved it from the other parts of the body excepting the upper lip. Their population appeared numerous to the Romans."

THE aspect of the country, as it first struck their view, presented a succession of forests, lakes, and great rivers; and Mela remarks of it, what must have been true of most parts of Europe, where agriculture was little practised, that it was more adapted to the kindly nourishment of cattle than of men. He also represents the people in general as not only uncivilised, but as much behind the nations on the continent in their social culture. Their cattle and fields were their general wealth, and they seem to have been acquainted with no other."

LIKE all barbaric tribes, who have reached their stations at successive periods, or have grown up in separate and independent states, and whose active spirits are not occupied by the pursuits of civilised life, they were perpetually at war with each other";

done from infancy, as Pliny says the British wives and nurses did it, lib. xxii. c. 2. Hence Marshal's epithet, "Cæruleis Britannis," lib. xi. c. 32. Herodian remarks, of the Britons who resisted Severus, that they painted the figures of all kinds of animals on their bodies, lib. iii. p. 83.; and as Claudian mentions "the fading figures on the dying Pict," it seems to have pervaded the island, and to have been continued by the less civilised to his time. Claud. de bell. Get.

4 Cæsar.

5 Mela, lib. iii. c. 6. day on this subject.

Cicero gives us the impression of his In a letter to Atticus he says, "It is known that there is not a scruple of money in the island; nor any hope of booty, but in slaves," lib. iv. ep. 17. It is curious to read this remark now, when Britain is the wealthiest country of Europe.

6 Mela, ib. Herodian speaks of the Britons as "a most warlike nation, eager for slaughter," lib. iii. p. 83. "As already

V.

and it is probable that the present state and people CHAP. of New Zealand exhibit more nearly than any other, the condition of Britain when the Romans entered it.

THE Britons were taller than the Gauls, but not so strong. The young Britons whom Strabo saw at Rome, were higher by half a foot than the tallest man there, but their lower limbs were not straight; nor did the general outline of their make display the symmetry of beauty. of beauty. Their hair was less yellow than that of the Gauls.7 The Silures are mentioned with ruddy cheeks and curled hair; and the inhabitants of Caledonia with red hair. As the Belgæ in Gaul wore loose breeches and a waistcoat with sleeves, instead of a tunic; and a sagum or upper garment, we may suppose that their settlers in Britain used the same dress. Bonduca's royal costume, when she addressed the Britons, was long yellow hair, with a large golden torques; and a XIT or tunic swelling round her bosom in various colours, with a thick cloak thrown over it.10 The Britons had gold rings on their middle finger."

hinted, I consider the British History of Jeffry of Monmouth a tissue of fiction, though it may have preserved some real names, traditions, and circumstances; but it is impossible to separate in it the true from the invented.

7 Strabo, lib. iv. p. 305.

8 Tacitus, Agric. Vit. Rutilatæ Comæ, Livy notices of the Gauls, lib. xxxviii. c. 17.

9 Strabo, 300.

10 Xiph. epit. Dio. p. 169. 11 Pliny, lib. xxxiii. c. 6. This author remarks that the person, who first put rings on the fingers, introduced one of the worst crimes of life, ibid. c. 4. The proximum scelus was coining money from gold, ibid. c. 13. The use of rings as a personal distinction for men has so greatly declined, that even Pliny would not have thought them to have a very wicked