CHAPTER II.

THE ROMAN INVASION.

THE Romans had long been extending their conquests throughout the world before they heard of Britain. The richest part of Asia was theirs; and theirs also were the best portions of Africa and the greatest part of Europe. Julius Cæsar had even conquered Gaul, or France, from the shores of which he descried some of the high white cliffs surrounding the "sea-girt isle;" and he resolved to annex Britain likewise to the Roman empire.

There were several motives which induced Cæsar to undertake the conquest of Britain. Its disjunction from the rest of the world, and the stormy but narrow sea that flows between this country and Rome, gave a bold and romantic character to the enterprise which inflamed his ambition. Then, again, Britain was inhabited by a people of the same race as the Gauls; and during his arduous campaigns on the Continent they had fought against him under the banners of their kindred, which excited his revenge. Moreover, Britain seems to have been considered a sort of Holy Land by the Celtic nations, and the great centre and stronghold of the Druids, who were the revered priesthood of an iron superstition that bound men and tribes and nations together, and inflamed them even more than patriotism against the Roman conquerors. It must be remembered, likewise, that Cæsar, in common with the whole Roman nation, bore an implacable hatred towards the Gaulish race, in consequence of their having been a scourge to Rome for centuries. From the days of the elder Tarquin, they had occasionally broken through the barrier of the Alps, and carried fire and sword into the home territories of the republic; and the war which the Gauls at this period were carrying on with Cæsar, was only a part of the long contest, which did not terminate till the mighty empire was overthrown in the fifth century of our era. Hence the Britons,

as the active allies of the Gauls, could not expect to escape sharing in the deadly conflict. Apart from these motives Cæsar may have had others; such as his desire of dazzling his countrymen, and of seeming to be absorbed by objects remote from internal ambition by expeditions against a new

world; or of furnishing a pretence for prolonging his command in the province of Gaul, and keeping up an army devoted to his interest, till the time should arrive for his trampling upon the liberty of Rome, which he had long meditated. Finally, Cæsar might have invaded Britain in order to obtain possession of its valuable productions; for he could not have been ignorant of the British lead and tin which the Phoenicians had anciently imported into the Mediterranean, and in which Massilia, or Marseilles, was still carrying on a trade. All these motives seem to have weighed with Cæsar in his invasion of Britain; but his ruling motive was, doubtless, a love of conquest and glory; for Cæsar was a mighty and ambitious conqueror, who no sooner subdued one nation, than he turned his thoughts to the subjugation of other nations.

It was in the year B. C. 55 that Cæsar resolved to cross the British Channel. According to his own annals he did not then design attempting the conquest, but simply to take a view of the island, learn the nature of its inhabitants, and survey the coast, harbours, and landing-places. Before he sailed he sent Volusenus forward, with a single galley, to obtain some knowledge of these things; but his commander appears to have rendered him but little service. He took a distant view of the British coast, and on the fifth day of his expedition returned to head-quarters. With such information. as he had, however, Cæsar embarked with about 12,000 men from Portus Itius, or Witstand, between Calais and Boulogne: the cavalry were detained by contrary winds at a port about eight miles off; but Cæsar left orders for them to sail as soon as the weather permitted.

Cæsar reached the British coasts near Dover on the 26th of August. Before he had set sail, many of the states, warned of the coming danger by some merchants, had sent over ambassadors to him with an offer of hostages and submission to the Roman authority. Cæsar received these ambassadors with kindness, and, exhorting them to continue in the same pacific intentions, sent them back to their own country, despatching with them Cominus, a Gaul, in whose virtue, wisdom, and fidelity he placed great confidence, and whom he charged to visit as many of the British states as he could, and persuade them to enter into an alliance with the Romans. But the submission the Britons had offered was intended only to retard invasion; and when they found, on the return of the ambassadors, that Cæsar still intended to visit

Britain, they made Cominus his envoy prisoner, and prepared for their defence. When the Romans looked from their ships, therefore, to the steep white cliffs above them, they saw thein covered with armed Britons.

Finding that the spot to which he had sailed was not a convenient landing-place in the very face of the enemy, Cæsar proceeded about seven miles further along the coast, and prepared to land his forces on an open flat shore between Walmer Castle and Sandwich. His motions, however, were watched by the Britons, and sending their cavalry and war-chariots before, they marched rapidly on with their main force to oppose his landing. The Roman soldiers for some time hesitated to leave their ships, but at length the standard bearer of the tenth legion, having besought the gods of Rome that what he was about to do might prove fortunate for the legion, exclaimed, "Follow me, Romans, unless you will give up your eagle to the enemy! I, at least, will do my duty to the republic and our general!" As he spoke he leaped into the sea, and dashed with his ensign among the enemy's ranks, whither he was followed by his fellow-soldiers. The two armies were for a long time mixed in combat; but at length the Britons were compelled to retreat. As the cavalry of of Cæsar however had not yet arrived, he could not pursue them, so that his victory was not complete.

Thus defeated the British tribes sought the advantages of a hollow peace. They offered hostages and an entire submission to Cæsar, at the same time liberating Cominus. The conqueror after reproaching them for sending ambassadors into Gaul, to sue for peace, and then making war upon him without any just cause, forgave them, and ordered them to send a number of hostages to his camp as security for their future good behaviour. Some of these hostages were delivered and others promised, while the several chiefs came to Cæsar's camp to offer allegiance and negociate or intrigue for their own separate interests. Their forces seemed to be disbanded, but an event occurred which emboldened them to re-assemble them, in order to contest the victory with the conqueror.

On the day that peace was concluded between Cæsar and the British chiefs, the Roman cavalry were enabled to quit their port on the coast of Gaul. They arrived safely in the Channel, but when they neared the British coast, and were within view of Cæsar's camp, they were dispersed by a tempest and driven back to the port whence they had sailed.

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This disaster spread a general consternation through the camp, for there were no other vessels to carry the troops back, and Cæsar had made no preparations for wintering in Britain. The Britons also saw the extent of Cæsar's calamity, and they devised means to profit by it. Having previously held secret consultations among themselves, the chiefs retired from Cæsar's camp by degrees, and began to re-assemble their troops. The effects were soon made visible. Britons had everywhere gathered in their harvest except one field, and as one of the two legions that formed the expedition were employed in cutting down the corn in that field, Cæsar suddenly saw a cloud of dust rising in that direction. As the chiefs had been slow in sending their promised hostages, and had secretly retired from his camp, Cæsar suspected their fidelity, and he rushed to the spot with two cohorts, leaving orders for the other soldiers of the legion to follow as soon as possible. When he arrived he found that the legion which had been surprised in the corn-field, was surrounded on all sides by the cavalry and war-chariots of the Britons, who had been concealed in the neighbouring woods. The legion had already suffered considerable loss, but he succeeded in bringing off the remnant, with which he withdrew to his intrenched camp.

Emboldened by this partial success, the British force of horse and foot, being re-enforced from all parts, gradually drew round the camp of Cæsar. They meditated attacking him, but Cæsar, anticipating them, marshalled his legions outside of the camp, and seizing a favourable opportunity fell upon them and put them to flight. The Romans pursued the fugitives, slaughtering many of them, and setting fire to some houses and villages, after which they returned to their camp.

The Britons now again sued for peace, which Cæsar, being anxious to return to Gaul as soon as possible, granted. The conditions were that the number of hostages should be doubled; but he did not wait to receive these, for, a fair wind springing up, he set sail at midnight, and arrived safely in Gaul. One or two British states sent their hostages, and the breach of treaty which the rest committed gave Cæsar a plea of justification for a second invasion in the next year, B. C. 54.

Cæsar spent the winter in building and equipping his fleet. When he embarked he had 800 vessels of different classes, and these carried five legions and 2,000 cavalry, or about

32,000 men. He set sail from the same Portus Itius, and he disembarked apparently on the same flat between Walmer Castle and Sandwich where he had landed the year before. No enemy appeared on the beach to oppose him, but the Britons were encamped at some distance with an evident determination to contest the possession of their island with the invader. Cæsar found them well posted on some rising ground behind a river, probably the Stour, near Canterbury; the passage of which river was gallantly disputed by the confederate army with their cavalry and chariots. The Britons however were repulsed by the Roman horse, and they retreated towards the woods to a place strongly fortified by nature and art—strong barricades of felled trees being laid upon one another so as to secure the avenues. But this stronghold was taken by the soldiers of the seventh legion, who carried it by means of a mound of earth cast up in front of it, and then they drove the Britons from the cover of the woods. The evening closed on their retreat; and the Roman eagles were scarcely displayed the following morning, and the trumpets had hardly sounded the advance, when intelligence was brought that the fleet had been nearly all driven on the shore and wrecked during the night. On repairing to the coast Cæsar found that forty of his ships were lost, and the rest so damaged as to be scarcely capable of repair. Cæsar, however, set all his carpenters to work, wrote for more artisans from Gaul, and ordered the legions stationed on that coast to build as many new ships as they could. Having repaired his loss, and having caused all his fleet to be drawn upon dry land and enclosed within his fortified camp, he again marched in pursuit of the enemy. In his absence the British chiefs had appointed Cassivelaunus as supreme commander of their forces, and Cæsar found him well posted at or near to the scene of the last battle. Cassivelaunus had a reputation for skill and bravery, and on this occasion he well sustained it. Without waiting to be attacked Cassivelaunus boldly charged the Roman cavalry with his horse, supported by his chariots; and thoughCæsar says that he drove the Britons to their woods and their hills with great slaughter, it is evident that the victory he gained was not complete. Soon after the British gave the Romans a severe check. Sallying from the wood they cut up the Roman advanced guard; and when two cohorts were sent to their aid, the Britons charged them in separate parties, routed them, and then retired without loss. Cæsar was