northern countries of Europe scarcely deserved the expense and labor of conquest. The forests and morasses of Germany were filled with a hardy race of barbarians, who despised life when it was separated from freedom; and though, on the first attack, they seemed to yield to the weight of the Roman power, they soon, by a signal act of despair, regained their independence, and reminded Augustus of the vicissitude of fortune. On the death of that emperor, his testament was publicly read in the senate. He bequeathed, as a valuable legacy to his successors, the advice of confining the empire within those limits which nature seemed to have placed as its permanent bulwarks and boundaries: on the west the Atlantic Ocean; the Rhine and Danube on the north; the curious details concerning these wars. The Romans made themselves masters of Mariaba, or Merab, a city of Arabia Felix, well known to the Orientals (see Abulfeda and the Nubian geography, p. 52). They were arrived within three days' journey of the spice country, the rich object of their invasion. 3 By the slaughter of Varus and his three legions. See the first book of the Annals of Tacitus [c. 55 seq.]. Sueton. in August. c. 23, and Velleius Paterculus, l. ii. c. 117, etc. Augustus did not receive the melancholy news with all the temper and firmness that might have been expected from his character. a There are some inaccuracies in this statement. According to Strabo, the Romans under Ælius Gallus advanced as far as Marsyaba or Marsyabæ, within two (not three) days' journey of the spice country; to this place they laid siege, but, being unable to take it in consequence of the want of water, they commenced their retreat. Gibbon not only assumes that this place is the same as Mariaba, which Pliny mentions among the conquests of Elius Gallus, but also, following D'Anville, identifies Mariaba with Mâreb, the celebrated capital of the Sabeans of Yemen, upon the borders of the remote southern province. But in the first place, Strabo mentions Mariaba, the capital of the Sabeans, as distinct from Marsyaba. (Sce Strabo, p. 768, 778.) Secondly, Mariaba or Mâreb is a common name of the chief towns of Arabia, as it signifies "metropolis," and consequently the mere identity of name, on which alone D'Anville appears to have relied, is of no value in this case, unless supported by other evidence. Thirdly, Gosselin, Dean Vincent, and Mr. Foster have adduced strong reasons for believing that Ælius Gallus did not penetrate as far south as Mâreb, upon the borders of Hadramaut, and consequently the latter town cannot be the same as the Mariaba of Pliny. Pliny's Mariaba and Strabo's Marsyaba may perhaps be the same place, notwithstanding the discrepancy in the statement of these authors; though Mr. Foster supposes them to be two different places. Mariaba he identifies with Mâreb, the chief town of the Beni Khaled, in the province of Bahrein, and at the eastern foot of the great Nedjd chain; Marsyaba he regards as the same as Sabbia, the chief town in the province of Sabiê, on the northern confines of Yemen. When Strabo says that Ælius Gallus arrived within two days' journey of the spice country, he probably meant the emporium of the spice-trade. See Foster's Arabia, vol. ii. p. 277 seq.-S. Euphrates on the cast; and towards the south the sandy deserts of Arabia and Africa." Imitated by his successors. Happily for the repose of mankind, the moderate system recommended by the wisdom of Augustus was adopted by the fears and vices of his immediate successors. Engaged in the pursuit of pleasure, or in the exercise of tyranny, the first Cæsars seldom showed themselves to the armies or to the provinces; nor were they disposed to suffer that those triumphs which their indolence neglected should be usurped by the conduct and valor of their lieutenants. The military fame of a subject was considered as an insolent invasion of the imperial prerogative; and it became the duty, as well as interest, of every Roman general to guard the frontiers intrusted to his care, without aspiring to conquests which might have proved no less fatal to himself than to the vanquished barbarians." Conquest of the first ex The only accession which the Roman empire received during the first century of the Christian era was the province of Britain. In this single instance the successors of Cæsar and Augustus were persuaded to follow the ception to it. example of the former, rather than the precept of the latter. The proximity of its situation to the coast of Gaul seemed to invite their arms; the pleasing, though doubtful, intelligence of a pearl-fishery attracted their avarice; and as Britain was viewed in the light of a distinct and insulated world, the conquest scarcely formed any exception to the general system of continental measures. After a war 4 Tacit. Annal. [l. i. 11]. Dion Cassius, 1. lvi. [c. 33] p. 832; and the speech of Augustus himself, in Julian's Caesars. It receives great light from the learned notes of his French translator, M. Spanheim. 5 Germanicus, Suetonius Paulinus, and Agricola were checked and recalled in the course of their victories. Corbulo was put to death. Military merit, as it is admirably expressed by Tacitus, was, in the strictest sense of the word, imperatoria virtus. Cæsar himself conceals that ignoble motive; but it is mentioned by Suetonius, c. 47. The British pearls proved, however, of little value, on account of their dark and livid color. Tacitus observes, with reason (in Agricola, c. 12), that it was an inherent defect. "Ego facilius crediderim, naturam margaritis deesse quam nobis avaritiam." 8 of about forty years, undertaken by the most stupid,' maintained by the most dissolute, and terminated by the most timid of all the emperors, the far greater part of the island submitted to the Roman yoke. The various tribes of Britons possessed valor without conduct, and the love of freedom without the spirit of union. They took up arms with savage fierceness; they laid them down, or turned them against each other, with wild inconstancy; and while they fought singly, they were successively subdued. Neither the fortitude of Caractacus, nor the despair of Boadicea, nor the fanaticism of the Druids, could avert the slavery of their country, or resist the steady progress of the imperial generals, who maintained the national glory, when the throne was disgraced by the weakest or the most vicious of mankind. At the very time when Domitian, confined to his palace, felt the terrors which he inspired, his legions, under the command of the virtuous Agricola, defeated the collected force of the Caledonians at the foot of the Grampian hills; and his fleets, venturing to explore an unknown and dangerous navigation, displayed the Roman arms round every part of the island. The conquest of Britain was considered as already achieved; and it was the design of Agricola to complete and insure his success by the easy reduction of Ireland, for which, in his opinion, one legion and a few auxiliaries were sufficient." The western isle might be improved into a valuable possession, and the Britons would wear their chains with the less reluctance, if the prospect and example of freedom was on every side removed from before their eyes. But the superior merit of Agricola soon occasioned his removal from the government of Britain; and forever disap Claudius, Nero, and Domitian. A hope is expressed by Pomponius Mela, 1. iii. c. 6 (he wrote under Claudius), that, by the success of the Roman arms, the island and its savage inhabitants would soon be better known. It is amusing enough to peruse such passages in the midst of London. 8 See the admirable abridgment given by Tacitus, in the Life of Agricola, and copiously, though perhaps not completely, illustrated by our own antiquarians, Camden and Horsley. The Irish writers, jealous of their national honor, are extremely provoked on this occasion, both with Tacitus and with Agricola. 2 pointed this rational, though extensive, scheme of conquest. Before his departure the prudent general had provided for security as well as for dominion. He had observed that the island is almost divided into two unequal parts by the opposite gulfs, or, as they are now called, the Friths of Scotland. Across the narrow interval of about forty miles he had drawn a line of military stations, which was afterwards fortified, in the reign of Antoninus Pius, by a turf rampart, erected on foundations of stone." This wall of Antoninus, at a small distance beyond the modern cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, was fixed as the limit of the Roman province. The native Caledonians preserved, in the northern extremity of the island, their wild independence, for which they were not less indebted to their poverty than to their valor. Their 10 See Horsley's Britannia Romana, 1 i. c. 10.a The remains of two Roman walls exist in Britain, one extending from the Clyde to the Frith of Forth, and the other from the Solway to the mouth of the Tyne. The former is an intrenchment of earth, and is known by the name of Grimes Dike. The latter, which is a far more important work, consists of two parallel lines of fortifications-a stone wall and an earthen rampart-which run parallel to, and generally within sixty or seventy yards of each other; the stone wall being on the northern, and the earthen rampart on the southern side of the island. The wall between the Solway and the mouth of the Tyne was at a later period, at all events, the boundary of Roman Britain. Respecting the builders of these walls there is a difference of opinion. It is stated by Tacitus that Agricola erected a line of forts between the Friths of Clyde and Forth in A. D. 81 (Agricol. c. 23); and we learn from Capitolinus that in the reign of Antoninus Pius a rampart of turf was raised by Lollius Urbicus in A.D. 140. (Antonin. Pausan. viii. 43, $ 4.) There can be no doubt that this is the wall between the Friths of Solway and Forth, usually described as the wall of Antoninus, since an extant inscription attests that it was raised in his reign. With respect to the southern wall there is more difficulty. Spartianus states that "Hadrian first built a wall eighty miles in length, dividing the Romans from the barbarians" (Hadrian, c. 11); and the same writer, in another passage, also relates that Septimius Severus built a wall across the island. (Septim. Sever. c. 18.) Hence the stone wall from the Solway to the Tyne has been ascribed to Septimius Severus, and the parallel earthen rampart to Hadrian. But Mr. Bruce, the most recent writer on the Roman wall, adduces strong reasons for believing that the stone wall and the earthen rampart are parts of one fortification, and are essential to each other. He supposes that they were both raised by Hadrian, whose name frequently occurs in inscriptions found in the locality, and that no wall was built by Severus, though this emperor may have repaired the work of Hadrian. In confirmation of this view, it may be stated that neither Dion Cassius nor Herodian attributes the erection of any wall to Severus. See Bruce, The Roman Wall, an account of the Barrier of the Lower Isthmus, extending from the Tyne to the Solway, London, 1851. The passages from the ancient authors relating to the Roman walls are collected by Böcking in his Commentary to the "Notitia Dignitatum," Pars Post. p. 887.-S. incursions were frequently repelled and chastised, but their country was never subdued." The masters of the fairest and most wealthy climates of the globe turned with contempt. from gloomy hills assailed by the winter tempest, from lakes concealed in a blue mist, and from cold and lonely heaths, over which the deer of the forest were chased by a troop of naked barbarians." Conquest of Dacia; the second exception. A.D. 101-106. Such was the state of the Roman frontiers, and such the maxims of imperial policy, from the death of Augustus to the accession of Trajan. That virtuous and active prince had received the education of a soldier, and possessed the talents of a general." The peaceful system of his predecessors was interrupted by scenes of war and conquest; and the legions, after a long interval, beheld a military emperor at their head. The first exploits of Trajan were against the Dacians, the most warlike of men, who dwelt beyond the Danube, and who, dur ing the reign of Domitian, had insulted with impunity the majesty of Rome." To the strength and fierceness of bar barians they added a contempt for life, which was derived from a warm persuasion of the immortality and transmigration of the soul.15 Decebalus, the Dacian king, approved himself a rival not unworthy of Trajan; nor did he despair of his own and the public fortune, till, by the confession of his enemies, he had exhausted every resource both of valor and policy." This memorable war, with a very short suspension of hostilities, lasted five years; and as the emperor could exert, without control, the whole force of the State, it was 11 The poet Buchanan celebrates with elegance and spirit (see his Sylvæ, v.) the unviolated independence of his native country. But if the single testimony of Richard of Cirencester was sufficient to create a Roman province of Vespasiana to the north of the wall, that independence would be reduced within very narrow limits. 12 See Appian (in Proœm. [c. 5]) and the uniform imagery of Ossian's poems, which, according to every hypothesis, were composed by a native Caledonian. 13 See Pliny's Panegyric, which seems founded on facts. 14 Dion Cassius, 1. lxvii. [6 seq.]. 15 Herodotus, l. iv. c. 94. Julian in the Cæsars, with Spanheim's observations 16 Plin. Epist. viii. 9 [4]. |