Ere twenty years had elapsed since this description of the tribes of the barbarian portion of Britain was written, the frontier of the Roman province had been advanced from the wall between the Solway and the Tyne to the isthmus between the Forth and Clyde, the boundary destined for it by the sagacity of Agricola. Early in the reign of Antoninus, who succeeded Hadrian in the empire in the year 138, the independent portion of the nation of the Brigantes had broken the bounds set to them by the wall of Hadrian, and overrun the territories of one of the provincial tribes, and thus drew upon themselves the vengeance of the Roman Emperor. Lollius Urbicus was sent into Britain in the second year of his reign, towards the end of the year 139, subdued the hostile tribes, and constructed an earthen rampart between the Firths of Forth and Clyde, thus advancing the frontier of the Roman province to the isthmus between these firths, and again adding the intermediate territory to the Roman possessions in the island. This wall between the Forth and Clyde remained from this time, till the Romans left the island, the proper boundary of the province during the entire period of their occupation of Britain.^[70]

The isthmus between the Forth and Clyde presents towards the west the appearance of a great valley, having the Campsie and Kilsyth hills on the north, and on the south a series of lesser rising grounds extending in a continuous line from sea to sea; while the hills on the opposite side recede as the valley approaches towards the east, till the view from the southern rising ground extends over the magnificent plain of the Carse of Falkirk, with the upper part of the Firth of Forth stretching along its northern limit. The Roman wall was constructed along the ridge of the southern rising grounds, and the remains of this stupendous work have at all times arrested the attention of even the careless observer. This great work, as it presents itself to the inspection of those who have examined it minutely, consisted of a large rampart of intermingled stone and earth, strengthened by sods of turf, and must have originally measured 20 feet in height, and 24 feet in breadth at the base. It was surmounted by a parapet having a level platform behind it, for the protection of its defenders. In front there extended along its whole course an immense fosse, averaging about 40 feet wide and 20 feet deep. To the southward of the whole was a military way, presenting the usual appearance of a Roman causewayed road. This great barrier extended from Bridgeness, near Carriden, on the Firth of Forth, to Chapelhill, near West Kilpatrick, on the Clyde, a distance of twenty-seven English miles,—having, at intervals of about two miles, small square forts or stations, which, judging from those that remain, amounted in all to nineteen in number, and between them were smaller watch-towers.^[71]

Such was this formidable barrier in its complete state; but it is not likely that it owed its entire construction to Lollius Urbicus. His work appears to have been limited to what was constructed of turf, and consisted probably only of the earthen rampart itself. Few probably, if any, of the principal ‘castella’ formed part of the original construction, as their remains indicate a more elaborate foundation. Numerous inscriptions have been found along the course of the wall, which show that the ‘vallum,’ as it is termed in these inscriptions, had been constructed by the second, the sixth, and the twentieth legions, or rather by their vexillations. The first and last of these legions had been in Britain since the time of Claudius; the sixth was brought into the island by Hadrian. The inscriptions connect the work with the name of Antoninus, and in one that of Lollius Urbicus has been found.

This great work, guarded as it was by a powerful body of Roman troops, seems to have effectually protected the Roman province in its increased extent during the remainder of the reign of Antoninus. But the first year of a new emperor was, as usual, marked in Britain by an attempt upon the province by the northern tribes, and Calphurnius Agricola was sent to Britain to quell them. This was in the year 162.^[72]

In the commencement of the reign of Commodus, twenty years later, the irruption was of a more formidable character. The nations on the north of the wall succeeded in breaking through that great barrier, slew the commander with a number of the soldiers who guarded it, and spread devastation over the neighbouring part of the province. The war created great alarm at Rome, and Marcellus Ulpius was sent by Commodus against them,—a general whose character, as drawn by Dio Cassius, peculiarly fitted him for the task, and he appears to have succeeded in repelling the invading tribes, and terminating the war two years later.^[73]

On the death of Commodus in the year 192, three able generals commanded the Roman troops stationed at the principal points of the boundary of the Roman empire—Pescennius Niger in Syria, Lucius Septimius Severus in Pannonia, and Clodius Albinus in Britain; and after the death of Pertinax and Didius Julianus—the short-lived emperors who had been put up and as speedily deposed by the Prætorian guards—a struggle took place between these generals for the empire. Severus was proclaimed emperor at Rome, but he found himself at once in a position of great difficulty; for both of his rivals were formidable opponents, both were in command of powerful armies devoted to them, and he could not proceed to attack the one without exposing the seat of the empire to be seized upon by the other, or remain at Rome without drawing upon himself the simultaneous attack of both. He therefore caused Albinus to be proclaimed Cæsar, had his title confirmed by the senate, and sent letters to him to invite him to share in the government, but recommended that he should make Britain the seat of his government, and devote himself to the care of that province. An example was thus for the first time set of the command of the troops in Britain being associated with the imperial dignity, which some of the succeeding commanders were not slow to imitate, and a separate interest created with reference to Britain, which tended to isolate it from the rest of the empire, and greatly affected the fortunes of both. It is unnecessary for our purpose to detail the struggle which now took place between Severus and Pescennius Niger, and resulted in the defeat and death of the latter in the year 194. Severus then led his army into Gaul to attack Albinus, who promptly met him by crossing the channel with the British army, and in the battle of Lyons which ensued, he also was defeated and slain in the year 197,^[74] and Severus found himself in possession of the undivided rule of the Roman world.

It would appear that Albinus, in the course of his government, had come to terms with the barbarians or independent tribes of the north, for four years after this battle we find the natives of the Mæatæ, now for the first time mentioned, threatening hostilities against the Roman province, and the Caledonii, who are accused of not abiding by their promises, preparing to assist them. The governor, Virius Lupus, who had probably been sent as Albinus’s successor, being unable to obtain assistance from Severus in consequence of his being engaged in war elsewhere, appears to have been driven by necessity to purchase peace from the Mæatæ at a great price, a circumstance which shows the formidable character which the independent tribes of the north still bore, and the extent to which they taxed the military ability and energy of the Roman governors to protect the province from their attacks.

The great extent of the province, and the difficulty experienced in defending it, probably led to Roman Britain being now divided into two provinces. Herodian distinctly tells us that after the war with Albinus, Severus settled matters in Britain, dividing it into two governments, and Dio alludes to them under the names of Upper and Lower Britain. It is impossible now to ascertain the precise relative position of the two provinces; but the older province of Britain, formed in the reign of Claudius, seems to have been one, while the other probably embraced the later conquests of the Romans from the Humber to the Firths of Forth and Clyde, comprising mainly the great nation of the Brigantes with its dependent tribes. Dio states that the second and twentieth legions were stationed in Upper Britain, while Ptolemy places the one at Isca Silurum or Caerleon; and both Ptolemy and the Itinerary of Antonine place the other at Deva, now Chester. The sixth legion was stationed, according to Dio, in Lower Britain, and Ptolemy as well as the Itinerary of Antonine place it at York, which is the only indication we have of the situation of the two provinces.

These few meagre and incidental notices are all that we possess of the state of the Roman occupation of Britain, from the clear and detailed account given by Tacitus of Agricola’s campaigns, to the second great attempt to subdue the northern tribes, which we are now approaching. The one great feature of this intermediate period was the construction of the great rampart between the Firths of Forth and Clyde, and the fixing of that boundary as the frontier of the province—the line of separation between the provincial Britons and the barbarian or independent tribes. To the few emphatic words of the historian of Antoninus, the remains of the great work itself, and the inscriptions found in its vicinity, add confirmation and a definite locality; and the great boundary at the Firths of Forth and Clyde became from thenceforth the recognised and permanent frontier of the Roman province.

While Severus remained at Rome, after the defeat and death of Albinus, he received letters from the prefect of Britain announcing that the independent tribes had again broken loose and were in a state of open hostility, overrunning the province, driving off booty, and laying everything waste; and that it would be necessary for him either to send additional troops, or to come in person, to take steps for the protection of the province. The latter was the course adopted by Severus. Accompanied by his two sons, and from age and disease travelling in a litter, he arrived in Britain in the year 208, and drawing his troops together from all quarters, and concentrating a vast force, he prepared for war. His object in these great preparations was apparently not merely to repel the incursions of the enemy, but effectually to prevent them from renewing them by striking a severe blow, and carrying the war, as Agricola had done before him, into their fastnesses and the interior of the country.

When this war again drew the attention of the Roman historians to the state of the barbarian or hostile tribes, they found them in a very different situation from what they had been when so vividly painted by Tacitus, and so minutely described by Ptolemy. Instead of their condition as described by the former, who only knew them as a number of separate and independent tribes, inhabiting a part of Britain known by the name of Caledonia, and whom the imminence of the Roman invasion alone united into a temporary confederacy, they are now found combined into two nations, bearing the names respectively of ‘Caledonii’ and ‘Mæatæ,’ for into these two, says the historian Dio as abridged by Xiphiline, ‘were the names of the others merged.’ The nation of the ‘Mæatæ’ consisted of those tribes which were situated next the wall between the Forth and Clyde on the north. The ‘Caledonii’ lay beyond them. The former inhabited the more level districts, or, as the historian describes them, the plains and marshes, from which indeed they probably derived their name.^[75] The latter occupied the more mountainous region beyond them. There is no reason to suppose that the line of separation between them differed very much from that which divided the tribe of the ‘Caledonii,’ as described by Ptolemy, from those on the south and east of them.

The manners of the two nations are described as the same, and they are viewed by the historians in these respects as if they were but one people. They are said to have neither walls nor cities, as the Romans regarded such, and to have neglected the cultivation of the ground. They lived by pasturage, the chase, and the natural fruits of the earth. The great characteristics of the tribes believed to be indigenous were found to exist among them. They fought in chariots, and to their arms of the sword and shield, as described by Tacitus, they had now added a short spear of peculiar construction, having a brazen knob at the end of the shaft, which they shook to terrify their enemies, and likewise a dagger. They are said to have had community of women, and the whole of their progeny were reared as the joint offspring of each small community. And the third great characteristic, the custom of painting the body, attracted particular notice. They are described as puncturing their bodies, so as, by a process of tattooing, to produce the representation of animals, and to have refrained from clothing, in order that what they considered an ornament should not be hidden.

But in these descriptions it must be remembered that the Romans only saw them in summer, and when actually engaged in war; and that, like the American Indians in their war-paint, their appearance might be very different, and convey a totally erroneous impression of their social habits, from what really existed among them in their domestic state.

The arrival of the Emperor himself in Britain, and the vigorous preparations Severus at once made, caused great alarm among the hostile tribes, and they sent ambassadors to sue for peace. They had hitherto easily obtained it; but it was not Severus’s intention to depart from his purpose of total subjugation, and he dismissed the ambassadors without a decided answer, and without avowing his purpose, and proceeded with his preparations. When these had been completed, and a larger force collected than had ever yet been arrayed against them, Severus left his son Geta in the province, and taking his son Antoninus with him, he ‘passed the fortresses and rivers which guarded the frontier, and entered Caledonia.’ Severus had seen that the nature of the country had hitherto in the main prevented the Romans from penetrating far, or their conquests from being permanent in the north. The numerous natural bulwarks, the wide-spreading woods, and the extensive marshes, interposed almost insurmountable obstacles. What are now extensive plains, well-watered straths, and rich carses, must then have presented the appearance of a jungle or bush of oak, birch, or hazel; the higher ground rocky and barren, and the lower soft and marshy. If the native tribes were for a time subdued, and their strongholds taken, they could not be maintained in such a country by the Romans, and the natives speedily regained possession. The policy adopted by Severus was the true mode of overcoming such obstacles—to open up the country and render it passable for troops by clearing the jungles, forming roads in every direction, and throwing bridges over the rivers, so as to penetrate slowly with his troops and enable them to continue in possession of the districts as they occupied them in their advance through the country.

There could not be a better illustration of what a war between the Romans and these outlying tribes at this time really was, and how Severus dealt with it, than a few extracts from a speech by the Duke of Wellington upon our war at the Cape with the Kaffir tribes beyond the Colony in 1852. He says,—‘The operations of the Kaffirs have been carried on by the occupation of extensive regions, which in some places are called jungle, in others bush: but in reality it is thick-set, the thickest wood that can be found anywhere. The Kaffirs having established themselves in these fastnesses with their plunder, on which they exist, their assailants suffer great losses. They move away with more or less celerity and activity, sometimes losing and sometimes saving their plunder, but they always evacuate their fastnesses; our troops do not, cannot, occupy these places. They would be useless to them, and in point of fact, they could not live in them. The enemy moves off, and is attacked again; and the consequence is, to my certain knowledge, under the last three Governments, that some of these fastnesses have been attacked three or four times over, and on every occasion with great loss to the assailants. There is a remedy for these evils: when these fastnesses are stormed and captured, they should be totally destroyed. I have had a good deal to do with such guerilla warfare, and the only mode of subduing a country like that is to open roads into it, so as to admit of troops with the utmost facility. It is absolutely necessary that roads should be opened immediately into these fastnesses.... The only fault I can find with Sir Harry Smith’s operations is, that he has not adopted the plan of opening such roads, after he had attacked and taken these fastnesses. I have, however, instructed him to do so in future; but it is a work of great labour; it will occupy a considerable time, and can only be executed at great expense.’^[76]

It is to this period that the traces of the Roman roads beyond the wall must be attributed, and their remains, with those of the Roman camps beyond the Tay, enable us to trace Severus’s route. He advanced to the northern wall by the road called Watling Street, repairing the fortifications of the stations as he passed.^[77] From the wall near Falkirk, a road proceeds in a direct line to Stirling, where the great pass over the Forth into the north of Scotland has always had its locality. From Stirling westward along the banks of the Forth, where now are to be seen the Flanders and Kincardine mosses, there must have extended one dense forest, the remains of which are imbedded in these mosses, and there, at some depth below the present surface, are to be found remains of Roman roads. From the west of the district of Menteith to Dunkeld must have stretched a thick wood of birch and hazel, and from Stirling the Roman road proceeds through Stratherne to the junction of the Almond with the Tay. Crossing the Tay, it leaves the camp at Grassy Walls, which had been occupied by Agricola, and proceeds in the direction of a large camp near Forfar termed Battledykes. This camp is larger than any of those which may, with every appearance of probability, be attributed to Agricola, and is capable of holding a greater body of troops than his army consisted of; while, if the view we have given of his campaigns be correct, it lay beyond the limit of his utmost advance into the country.

From the great camp at Battledykes, a line of camps, evidently the construction of one hand, and connected with each other by a continuation of the Roman road, extends at intervals corresponding in distance to a day’s march of a Roman army, through the counties of Forfar, Kincardine, and Aberdeen, till they terminate at the shores of the Moray Firth.^[78] Severus is said by the historians Dio and Herodian to have entered Caledonia at the head of an enormous army, and to have penetrated even to the extremity of the island, where ‘he examined the parallax and the length of the days and nights.’ It would appear from these silent witnesses of his march, that he had opened up and occupied the country between the northern wall and the Tay; that he had then concentrated his army in the great camp at Battledykes, and leaving a part of his troops there to prevent his retreat from being cut off, had penetrated through the districts extending along the east coast till he had reached the great estuary of the Moray Firth, where the ocean lay extended before him, and he might well suppose he had reached the extremity of the island.^[79]

During this march Severus is said to have fought no battle, his system of opening up the country and rendering it passable for his troops, insuring him its possession as he slowly advanced; but the natives appear to have carried on a kind of guerilla warfare against the parties engaged in these works, assailing them at every advantage, and enticing them into the woods and defiles by every stratagem, so that, although Severus’s progress was sure, his loss is said to have been very great. This circumstance on his part, and the effect upon the natives of his success in penetrating to a point which no Roman invader had hitherto reached, or even attempted, led eventually to a peace, the principal condition of which was that the native tribes should yield up a considerable part of their territory to be garrisoned by Roman troops. The part ceded could hardly have been any other district than that extending from the northern wall to the Tay, a district which Agricola had likewise held to a limited extent in advance of the frontier he designed for the province, and this is confirmed by the existence of a temporary camp and a strong station at Fortingall, not far from where the river Tay issues from the lake of the same name. It appears to have been an outpost beyond the Tay, and there is no known circumstance connected with the Roman occupation of Britain to which its existence can be attributed, with any probability or with any support from authority, save this cession of territory to Severus. There is a similar camp and station at Fendoch on the banks of the Almond, where it emerges from the Grampians, and a corresponding camp and station at Ardoch, which can be distinguished from Agricola’s camp there.

A part of the inhabitants of this district, too, made their appearance about this time in the Roman army, and two inscriptions found at Nieder Biebr on the Rhine, one of which is dated in 239, show that there were stationed there troops composed of the Horesti, and of the people who possessed Victoria as their chief seat, from which it would appear that Severus had enrolled bodies of the inhabitants of the ceded district among the Roman auxiliaries.^[80] These are all marks of Severus’s occupation of this district, and, as there are traces of Roman works on the Spey at Pitmain, on the line between the Moray Firth and Fortingall, it would appear that Severus with a part of the army had returned through the heart of the Highlands.

Having thus concluded a peace with the Caledonii and Mæatæ, and compelled them to yield up to him a part of their territory north of the wall to be occupied by his troops in advance of the frontier, Severus proceeded to reconstruct the wall between the Forth and the Clyde, as the actual boundary of the province. He appears to have added the large fosse or ditch, to have placed additional posts along the wall, and to have repaired and strengthened the structure itself.^[81]

Having completed this work, and left the province thus once more protected, with the additional security of the occupation by Roman outposts of the ceded territory beyond the wall, he returned to York, leaving behind him Antoninus, whom he was apparently not desirous to retain with him, in consequence of an attempt he had made upon his life in presence of the army, while conferring with the Caledonians regarding the treaty of peace, in charge of the frontier. He had not remained long at York before the Mæatæ again revolted, and were joined by the Caledonians, and he was only prevented from recommencing a war of extermination by his death, which took place at York in the year 211.

Antoninus, as soon as he became, by the death of his father, possessed of the imperial power, being desirous to disembarrass himself of everything that could interfere with his perfect enjoyment of it, terminated the war by making peace with the barbarian natives, and, receiving pledges of their fidelity, left the frontier of which he had remained in charge.

Thus terminated the most formidable attempt which had been made to subjugate the inhabitants of the barren regions of the north since the campaigns of Agricola; and although the expedition was more successful, inasmuch as the army penetrated farther into the country, it was equally unproductive of permanent result, and was not marked by the same brilliant feature of the defeat of the entire force of the hostile tribes in a pitched battle.

There occurs again at this period a silence as to the relative position of the Romans and the barbarian tribes, till, after an interval of seventy-five years, the attention of the Roman historians is once more called to this distant part of the Empire by the revolt and usurpation of the purple by Carausius, in the early part of the reign of the Emperor Diocletian. In accordance with a custom now becoming frequent in the Roman Empire, Diocletian had associated with him in the government Maximian, and to the share of the latter fell the western provinces of Gaul, Spain, and Britain. A new feature now took place in the history of these provinces. This was the appearance of two new barbaric nations, destined to occupy an important position among the European kingdoms—the Franks and the Saxons—who now appeared in the British seas and ravaged the coasts of Gaul, Belgium, and Britain. In order to repress them and to protect these countries from their inroads, a Roman fleet was stationed at Gesoriacum or Boulogne. Carausius, a native of the city of Menapia in Belgium, who had risen to eminence in the Roman army, was appointed to command it, and soon distinguished himself in repressing the inroads of these new barbarian tribes. He was accused, however, of retaining the spoil he took from them, which he ought to have accounted for, and of encouraging them in their piratical expeditions in order that he might secure for himself the booty they had taken. Maximian, in consequence, resolved to put him to death; but Carausius, having become aware of his intention, anticipated the resolution of the Emperor by assuming the purple and taking possession of the provinces of Britain. He took with him in his revolt the fleet under his charge; the Roman soldiers in Britain obeyed him, and he increased his naval force by building numerous new vessels.^[82]

A Barbarian by birth, and consequently connected with native tribes, he appears to have received the ready submission of the Britons, as well as the support of the independent tribes, and Britain for the time assumed the appearance of a separate empire, in which he maintained himself by his fleet. Maximian, after trying in vain to reduce him, at length concluded a peace, bestowing upon him the title of Augustus, and intrusting to him the care of those provinces he had already taken possession of.^[83] In the meantime, owing to the disturbed state of the Empire and the revolt in Britain, Diocletian created Galerius Maximian and Constantius Chlorus, Cæsars.

It appears that the latter, to whose share the provinces of Gaul, Spain, and Britain were assigned, resolved to wrest the provinces of Britain from the usurper, but of the particulars of this war we know nothing except what may be gathered from a few hints of the panegyrists. We ascertain from them that in the year 292 Constantius Chlorus had wrested Gaul from the influence of Carausius, and besieged and taken possession of the harbour of Boulogne, compelling Carausius to withdraw his ships to Britain, where his rule was popular, Constantius being unable to carry the war into Britain for want of vessels.^[84]

The reign of Carausius was one of prosperity to the Britons, and his government vigorous, but it was terminated by his assassination by Allectus, one of his followers, who had conspired against him, and whose cause seems to have been mainly supported by the independent tribes. Allectus had not been long in the enjoyment of his insular dominion, when Constantius Chlorus, having now caused vessels to be made, sailed from Boulogne to Britain two years after the death of Carausius. He is described as passing in a mist the British fleet which was cruising near the Isle of Wight, and landed in Britain, when he marched upon London, and his army under Asclepiodotus, having followed Allectus, a battle took place in which the latter was defeated and slain. It was found after the battle that Allectus had few Roman soldiers, and that his army consisted principally of Barbarians who had been enlisted by him, and in whom, from the allusion by the panegyrists to a marked characteristic indicated by Tacitus as distinguishing them from the rest of the Britons, we can recognise the inhabitants of Caledonia.^[85] Britain had thus been separated from the rest of the Roman Empire for ten years, seven of which belong to the reign of Carausius, and three to that of Allectus, and had for the greater part of that time been under the government of one who united an origin derived from the native tribes with the imperial authority. It almost seemed as if she was destined at that early period to commence her independent existence as a great maritime power, had the assassination of Carausius not altered the character of her fortunes.

The termination of this independent government was the signal for the independent tribes to break out into hostilities; and, as they emerged from under the government of Carausius and Allectus into their old position towards the Roman province they now appear for the first time under the general name of Picts, one section of whom bore the name of Caledones. On the abdication of Diocletian in 305, Constantius Chlorus became Emperor of the West, and apparently made Britain his residence during the greater part of his short reign. In its first year he appears to have penetrated beyond the wall, entered the plains of the low country north of it, and defeated the Picts, who are said by one of the panegyrists to have consisted of the Caledones and other nations not named, but in whom we can well recognise those termed by Dio the Mæatæ.^[86] This expedition was probably limited to the territory beyond the wall which had been ceded to the Romans in the peace concluded with the Emperor Severus. In the following year Constantius died at York, and his son Constantine, having become Emperor, left Britain to take possession of the Empire.

We now hear little of Britain, and nothing of the nations beyond the boundary of the Roman province, for a period of fifty years, till in the year 360 a new and very important feature in the history of the Roman occupation of Britain manifested itself. This was the commencement of those formidable and systematic inroads of the Barbarian tribes into the province, which were not merely temporary expeditions for plunder, but evidently aimed at the subversion of the Roman government in Britain, and, though checked at intervals, were ever again renewed till the Romans finally abandoned the possession of the island.

From the expedition of Severus to the commencement of these formidable attacks a period of 150 years had elapsed, and the few notices we have of the events in Britain show that the integrity of the province had on the whole been maintained, and that the provincial Britons enjoyed some degree of security within its bounds, while the northern tribes were restrained from making incursions beyond their territory by the well-guarded wall, which with its numerous posts along its line, and, in advance of it, in the ceded district, protected the frontier. The ten years’ independent kingdom under Carausius and Allectus had not affected this state of matters. The provincial Britons must have been equally protected, especially under the vigorous government of the former. There are even indications of its influence having extended over the independent tribes, and bodies of them, whom Allectus had enlisted, were found in his army. On the termination of this independent empire, they emerge under a new name; and their defeat and expulsion from the province was a necessary consequence of the renewed union of Britain with the continental provinces under the same authority.

During this period of a century and a half, the quiet and prosperity enjoyed by the provincial Britons led to a corresponding advance in wealth and civilisation, and Britain became rapidly one of the most valuable provinces of the Empire. Instead of being estimated, as Appian represents it in the second century, as of so little value that the part of the island possessed by the Romans was a mere encumbrance to them, it is now described by Eumenius, in the end of the third century, as a possession whose loss to the Empire under Carausius was severely felt. ‘So productive,’ says he, ‘is it in fruit, and so fertile in pastures, so rich in metals and valuable for its contributions to the treasury, surrounded on all sides with abundance of harbours, and an immense line of coast.’^[87] The cultivation of grain, and the amount of its produce, had so greatly increased, that it had become of importance as an exporting country; and during the reign of Julian it had formed his great resource, from whence he drew a large supply of corn during the great scarcity on the Continent.

A change had likewise taken place in its government. By the arrangement introduced by Diocletian, and confirmed and established by Constantine, the Roman Empire was divided into four portions, to correspond with the two Emperors and two Cæsars. Each of these dioceses, as they were called, was placed under a great officer termed the prætorian prefect. The diocese of the west consisted of Gaul, Spain, and Britain, and the latter country was governed by a vicarius or vicar. Roman Britain, which from the time of Severus had consisted of two provinces, termed Upper and Lower Britain, was now divided into four provinces,—Maxima Cæsariensis, Flavia, Britannia Prima, and Britannia Secunda,^[88] the two former or new provinces being apparently named after his father, who had been Cæsar, and was the founder of the Flavian family. In the absence of any direct indication of the position of these provinces, the natural inference certainly is, that each of the former provinces had been divided into two; and that, while Upper Britain now consisted of Britannia Secunda and Flavia, Lower Britain was represented by Britannia Prima and Maxima Cæsariensis. Each of these provinces had its governor, either a consul or a president. The troops were under the command of the ‘Dux Britanniarum’ and the ‘Comes tractus maritimi.’ Under the former were the troops stationed north of a line drawn from the Humber to the Mersey, following the course of the river Don, and on the Roman wall between the Solway and the Tyne; and those under the latter along the maritime tract, exposed to the incursions of the Franks and Saxons, extending from the Wash to Portsmouth. The former appears, therefore, to have been the military leader in the two northern provinces, while the functions of the latter were exercised within the two southern.

The first serious attack upon the province took place in the year 360, and proceeded from two nations. The one consisted of that union of tribes which had now become generally known by the name of ‘Picti’ or Picts, the distinctive appellation of the independent tribes beyond the northern frontier after Britain had been recovered from the usurpation of Carausius; but along with them appear now for the first time as actors in the scene of British war a new nation or people emerging from Ireland, and known to the Romans under the name of ‘Scoti.’^[89] Having broken the agreed-on peace, they ravaged—to use the words of the historian who records it—the districts adjacent to the limits of the province, and filled the provincial Britons with consternation, who dreaded a renewal by this formidable combination of the incursions which had now for so long a time ceased. We learn from the account given by the historian of their eventual recovery, that the districts ravaged by the Picts were those extending from the territories of the independent tribes to the wall of Hadrian between the Tyne and the Solway, and that the districts occupied by the Scots were in a different direction. They lay on the western frontier, and consisted of part of the mountain region of Wales on the coast opposite to Ierne, or the island of Ireland, from whence they came.^[90] The Emperor Julian was unable to render effectual assistance, and Lupicinus, whom he sent, appears to have been unable to do more than maintain the provinces from further encroachment.

During four years the invading tribes retained possession of the districts they had occupied, and were with difficulty prevented from overrunning the province; but in the fourth year a more formidable irruption took place. To the two nations of the Picts and the Scots were now added two other invading tribes—the Saxons, who had already made themselves known and dreaded by their piratical incursions on the coasts; and the Attacotti, who, we shall afterwards find, were a part of the inhabitants of the territory on the north of Hadrian’s wall, from which the Romans had been driven out on its seizure by the independent tribes.^[91] They now joined the Picts in invading the province from the north, while the attack of the Saxons must have been directed against the south-eastern shore; and thus, assailing the provinces on three sides—the Saxons making incursions on the coast between the Wash and Portsmouth, afterwards termed the Saxon Shore, where they appear to have slain Nectarides, the Count of the maritime tract, the Picts and Attacotts on the north placing Fallofaudus, the Dux Britanniarum, whose duty it was to guard the northern frontier, in extreme peril, and the Scots penetrating through the mountains of Wales—the invading tribes penetrated so far into the interior, and the extent and character of their ravages so greatly threatened the very existence of the Roman government, that the Emperor became roused to the imminence of the danger, and after various officers had been sent without effect, the most eminent commander of the day, Theodosius the elder, was despatched to the assistance of the Britons. He found the province in the possession of the Picts, the Scots, and the Attacotts, who were ravaging it and plundering the inhabitants in different directions. The Picts, we are told, were then divided into two nations, the ‘Dicalidonæ’ and the ‘Vecturiones,’ a division evidently corresponding to the twofold division of the hostile tribes in the time of Severus, the ‘Caledonii’ and the ‘Mæatæ.’ The similarity of name and situation sufficiently identifies the first-mentioned people in each of the twofold divisions. The Mæatæ had been obliged to cede a part of their territory to the Romans, so that part of the nation had passed under their rule, and a part only remaining independent probably gave rise to the new name of ‘Vecturiones.’ The ‘Attacotti,’ we are told, were a warlike nation of the Britons, and the epithet applied to the ‘Scoti’ of ranging here and there shows that their attacks must have been made on different parts of the coast.^[92]

Theodosius landed at ‘Rutupiæ’ or Richborough, where he had appointed the rendezvous of the troops, and marched upon London. When arrived there he divided his men into several bodies so as to attack different parties of the enemy, who were ravaging the country and returning laden with booty. These he defeated, and wresting from them their plunder, returned to London and sent to the Continent for reinforcements. As soon as the expected troops arrived, Theodosius left London at the head of a powerful and well-selected army, and speedily succeeded in driving the invaders from the provinces, and restoring the cities and fortresses. He then directed his attention to the restoration of the province to its wonted condition of security. The northern frontier was again protected by the stations along the line of the wall between the Forth and Clyde which he renewed, and part of the recovered provinces were formed into a new and separate province, which he termed ‘Valentia,’ in honour of the Emperor Valens.

Such is the narrative of the historian Ammianus; but, as the panegyrists threw light upon the expeditions of Constantius, so now the poet Claudian, in his panegyrics upon the illustrious general, supplies further details of the character of his exploits. The Picts, says he, he drove into their own region, to which he gives the poetical name applied to Caledonia of Thule. The Scots he pursued across the sea to the country from whence they proceeded—the island of Ierne; and the Saxons he indicates had formed their headquarters in the islands of Orkney. The stations restored by Theodosius on the frontier he identifies as separating the province from Caledonia by his allusion to the latter word; and it may further be inferred that he had again occupied the castella or outposts with which the Romans garrisoned the territory beyond the wall ceded to them in the campaign of Severus.^[93]

The inhabitants of a part of the province had joined the invaders in their second invasion under the name of Attacotti, and their territory was now again taken possession of by the Romans. They had exhibited even greater ferocity than the independent tribes, and these he now formed into Roman cohorts, and enlisted as a part of the army.^[94]

What part of the recovered provinces he formed into the new province of Valentia cannot be determined with certainty. It is usually assumed to have consisted of the territory between the walls; but this assertion, though now accepted as almost a self-evident proposition, dates no further back than the appearance of the spurious work attributed to Richard of Cirencester, and rests upon his authority alone. Horsley, who wrote before his date, considers that this part of Roman Britain belonged to the province of Maxima Cæsariensis, and is borne out by the distribution of the troops as given in the Notitia Imperii; the whole of those stationed from the Humber to the southern wall and along the line of the wall which evidently guarded the northern frontier, being placed under the same commander, the ‘Dux Britanniæ,’ That it was a part of the recovered provinces, and not new territory, is certain, and equally so that it was on the frontier; but it is more probable that the new province was designed to protect Roman Britain against the new invaders, who had appeared for the first time under the name of Scots, and who directed their attacks mainly on the west coast; and this is confirmed by the appearance in the Notitia of a new military commander called the ‘Comes Britanniarum,’ who had under him three bodies of infantry, one of which is called ‘Britanniciani juniores,’ and six bodies of cavalry, one being placed at a station on the north of the Don, and another transferred to the Saxon shore, which would place his command south of the Humber and Mersey. As the ‘Comes littoris Saxonici’ protected the south-eastern coast, and the ‘Dux Britanniæ’ the northern frontier, this new military functionary was probably created for the protection of the western frontier exposed to the Irish Channel. This position also corresponds with the order in which the provinces are enumerated in the Notitia.^[95] In the absence of any trustworthy authority as to its position, and looking merely to the slender indications from which any inference may be drawn, we do not hesitate to pronounce that the true Valentia was that part of the province most exposed to the attacks of the Scots, and afterwards called Wales.

Although Theodosius for the time effectually repressed the invasions of the hostile nations, and restored the province in its integrity, his success left no permanent result behind it; and within forty years after the re-establishment of the province, the Romans were notwithstanding obliged finally to abandon the island. This arose from two causes:—the yearly increasing pressure of the Barbarians upon the military resources of the Empire required the withdrawal of the troops from those distant provinces which were less easily maintained; and the same cause which concentrated the attention of the Emperor upon the defence of the nearer frontiers, and led him to neglect those more remote, rendered the assumption of the imperial authority almost the inevitable consequence of an isolated command, and a temptation too great to be resisted. Had these usurpers been content to remain in possession of Britain alone, they might, in the distracted state of the Empire, have been able to have maintained their position, and an insular dominion been founded which would have greatly affected the future history and fortunes of Britain; but they aimed at the possession of the whole of the western diocese of Gaul, Spain, and Britain, and in grasping at too much effected their own ruin. Their ambition led to the troops no sooner proclaiming their general Emperor, than they were withdrawn from Britain and conveyed into Gaul to support the usurper’s ambitious aim, and the province was thus left undefended to the incursions of the hostile nations.