Old English Chronicles Part 59

CHAP. I.

IV. In the beginning, the Almighty Creator made this world, inhabited by us and other creatures, out of nothing, in the s.p.a.ce of six days.

V. In the year of the world 1656, the Creator, to punish the increasing wickedness of mankind, sent a flood upon the earth, which, overwhelming the whole world, destroyed every living creature except those which had entered the ark, and whose progeny replenished the new world with colonies of living beings.

VI. 3000. About this time some persons affirm that Britain was cultivated and first inhabited, when it was visited by the Greek and Phoenician merchants. Nor are those wanting who believe that London was shortly after built by a king called Bryto.

VII. 3228. The brothers Romulus and Remus laid the foundation of Rome, which in time became the common terror of all nations.

VIII. 3600. The Senones, having emigrated from Britain, pa.s.sed through Gaul, with the intent to invade Italy and attack Rome.

IX. 3650. The Belgae entered this country, and the Celta occupied the region deserted by the Senones. Divitiacus king of the aedui soon afterwards pa.s.sed over with an army and subdued great part of this kingdom. About this time the Britons who were expelled by the Belgae emigrated to Ireland, formed a settlement, and were thenceforward called Scoti.

X. 3943. Ca.s.sibelinus waged war with the maritime states.[683]

XI. 3946. Caesar overcame the Germans, Gauls, and also the Britons, to whom, before this time, even the name of the Romans was unknown. The conqueror, having received hostages, rendered the people tributary.

XII. 3947. At length coming a second time into this country, upon the invitation, as he pretended, of the Trin.o.bantes, he waged war with Ca.s.sibelinus king of the Ca.s.sii. Suetonius, however, a.s.serts, with greater probability, that he was allured by the costly pearls of Britain.

XIII. 4044. The emperor Claudius pa.s.sed over to Britain, and in the s.p.a.ce of six months, almost without effusion of blood, reduced a great part of the island, which he ordered to be called Caesariensis.

XIV. 4045. Vespasian, at that time in a private station, being sent by the emperor Claudius with the second legion into this country, attacked the Belgae and d.a.m.nonii, and having fought thirty-two battles and taken twenty cities, reduced them under the Roman power, together with the Isle of Wight.

XV. 4047. The Romans occupied Thermae and Glebon.

XVI. 4050. Ostorius the Roman general, after a war of nine years, overcame Caractacus king of the Silures, great part of Britain was reduced into a province, and the colony of Camalodunum founded.

XVII. 4052. Certain cities of the Belgae were yielded by the Romans to Cogibundus, that he might form a kingdom. About this time the Cangi and Brigantes went over and settled in Ireland.

XVIII. 4061. The emperor Nero, having no courage for military enterprises, nearly lost Britain; for under him its two greatest cities were taken and destroyed. Bonduica, in order to revenge the injury offered to her by the Romans, rose in arms, burned the Roman colonies of London, Camalodunum, and the munic.i.p.al town Verulamium, and slew more than eighty thousand Roman citizens. She was at length overcome by Suetonius, who amply avenged the loss, by slaughtering an equal number of her subjects.

XIX. 4073. Cerealis conquered the Brigantes.

XX. 4076. Frontinus punished the Ordovices.

XXI. 4080. Agricola after a severe engagement subdued Galgacus king of the Caledonians. He ordered all the island to be examined by a fleet, and having sailed round its coasts, added the Orcades to the Roman empire.

XXII. 4120. The emperor Hadrian himself came into the island, and separated one part of it from the other by an immense wall.

XXIII. 4140. Urbicus being sent hither by Antoninus Pius, distinguished himself by his victories.

XXIV. 4150. Aurelius Antoninus also obtained victories over some of the Britons.

XXV. 4160. Britain was enlightened by the introduction of Christianity, during the reign of Lucius, who first submitted himself to the cross of Christ.

XXVI. 4170. The Romans were driven from the Vespasian province. About this time it is supposed that king Reuda came with his people, the Picts, from the islands into Britain.

XXVII. 4207. The emperor Severus, pa.s.sing over into Britain, repaired the wall built by the Romans, which had been ruined, and died not long after, by the visitation of G.o.d, at York.

XXVIII. 4211. Ba.s.sia.n.u.s (Caracalla) obtained a venal peace from the Maeatae.

XXIX. 4220. During these times the Roman armies confined themselves within the wall, and all the island enjoyed a profound peace.

x.x.x. 4290. Carausius, having a.s.sumed the purple, seized upon Britain; but ten years afterwards it was recovered by Asclepiodotus.

x.x.xI. 4304. A cruel and inveterate persecution, in which within the s.p.a.ce of a month seventeen thousand martyrs suffered in the cause of Christ. This persecution spread over the sea, and the Britons, Alban, Aaron, and Julius, with great numbers of men and women, were condemned to a happy death.

x.x.xII. 4306. Constantius, a man of the greatest humanity, having conquered Allectus, died at Eborac.u.m in the sixteenth year of his reign.

x.x.xIII. 4307. Constantine, afterwards called the Great, son of Constantius by Helena, a British woman, was created emperor in Britain; and Ireland voluntarily became tributary to him.

x.x.xIV. 4320. The Scoti entered Britain under the conduct of the king Fergusius, and here fixed their residence.

x.x.xV. Theodosius slew Maximus the tyrant three miles from Aquileia.

Maximus having nearly drained Britain of all its warlike youth, who followed the footsteps of his tyranny over Gaul, the fierce transmarine nations of the Scots from the south, and the Picts from the north, perceiving the island without soldiers and defenceless, oppressed it and laid it waste during a long series of years.

x.x.xVI. 4396. The Britons indignantly submitting to the attacks of the Scots and Picts, sent to Rome, made an offer of submission, and requested a.s.sistance against their enemies. A legion being accordingly despatched to their a.s.sistance, slew a great mult.i.tude of the barbarians, and drove the remainder beyond the confines of Britain. The legion, upon its departure homewards, advised its allies to construct a wall between the two estuaries, to restrain the enemy. A wall was accordingly made in an unskilful manner, with a greater proportion of turf than stone, which was of no advantage; for on the departure of the Romans the former enemies returned in s.h.i.+ps, slew, trampled on, and devoured all things before them like a ripened harvest.

x.x.xVII. 4400. a.s.sistance being again entreated, the Romans came, and with the aid of the Britons drove the enemy beyond sea, and built a wall from sea to sea, not as before with earth, but with solid stone, between the fortresses erected in that part to curb the enemy. On the southern coast, where an invasion of the Saxons was apprehended, he erected watch towers. This was the work of Stilicho, as appears from Claudian.

x.x.xVIII. 4411. Rome, the seat of the fourth and greatest of the monarchies, was seized by the Goths, as Daniel prophesied, in the year one thousand one hundred and sixty-four after its foundation.

From this time ceased the Roman empire in Britain, four hundred and sixty-five years after the arrival of Julius Caesar.

x.x.xIX. 4446. The Roman legion retiring from Britain, and refusing to return, the Scots and Picts ravaged all the island from the north as far as the wall, the guards of which being slain, taken prisoners, or driven away, and the wall itself broken through, the predatory enemy then poured into the country. An epistle was sent filled with tears and sorrows to Fl. aetius, thrice consul, in the twenty-third year of Theodosius, begging the a.s.sistance of the Roman power, but without effect.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 683: Probably from Caesar, though the precise date seems to be fixed without authority.--_Caes. de Bell. Gall. lib._ v., -- 9.]

CHAP. II.

1. Having followed truth as far as possible, if any thing should occur not strictly consistent with it, I request it may not be imputed to me as a fault. Confining myself closely to the rules and laws of history, I have collected all the accounts of other persons which I found most accurate and deserving of credit. The reader must not expect any thing beyond an enumeration of those emperors and Roman governors who had authority over this island. With an account of these I shall close my book.

2. Julius Caesar the dictator was the first of the Romans who invaded Britain with an army, during the reign of Ca.s.sibelinus; but, although he defeated the inhabitants in one battle, and occupied the coast, as Tacitus observes, he rather seems to have shown the way to his successors than to have given them possession.

3. In a short time the civil wars succeeding, the arms of the chiefs were turned against the republic. Britain was also long neglected by the advice of Augustus and the command of Tiberius. It is certain that Caligula intended to enter Britain; but his quick temper and p.r.o.neness to change, or the unsuccessful attempts against the Germans, prevented him.

4. Claudius, however, carried war into Britain which no Roman emperor since Julius Caesar had reached, and, having transported his legions and allies without danger or bloodshed, in a few days reduced a part of the island. He afterwards sent over Vespasian, at that time in a private station, who fought two and thirty battles with the enemy, and added to the Roman empire two very powerful nations, with their kings, twenty cities, and the isle of Vecta, contiguous to Britain. He overcame the remainder by means of Cneas Sentius and Aulus Plautius. For these exploits he obtained a great triumph.

5. To him succeeded Ostorius Scapula, a man famous in war, who reduced the nearest part of Britain into a province, and added the colony of the veterans, Camalodunum. Certain cities were delivered up to the chief Cogibundus, who, according to Tacitus, remained faithful till the accession of Trajan to the empire.

6. Avitus Didius Gallus kept possession of what his predecessors had acquired, a few posts only being removed further into the interior, in order to obtain the credit of extending his dominion.