Contenting
himself with a submission, always cheaply won from a barbarous people, and never long regarded, Severus made no sort of military establishment in that country.
Edmund Burke
ABRIDGMENT OF.
,ENGLISH HISTORY.
205
cured. A long-continued state of war is unnatural
to. such a nation. They abound with artisans, with
traders,. and a number of settled and unwarlike people, who are less disturbed in their ordinary course by submitting to almost any power than in a long opposition; and as this character diffuses itself through the whole nation, they find it impossible to carry on
a war, when they are deprived of. the usual resources. But in a country. like ancient Britain there are
as many soldiers as inhabitants. They unite and
disperse with ease. They require no pay nor formal
subsistence; and the hardships of an irregular war
are not very remote from their ordinary course of
life. Victories are easily obtained over such a rude
people, but they are rarely decisive; and the final
conquest becomes a work of time and patience. All
that can be done is to facilitate communication by
roads, and to secure the principal avenues and the
most remarkable posts on the navigable rivers by
forts and stations. To conquer the people, you must
subdue the nature of the -country. The Romans at
length effected this; but until this was done, they
never were able to make a perfect conquest.
I shall now. add something concerning the government, the Romans settled here, and. of those methods which they used to preserve the conquered people under an entire subjection. Those nations who had either passively permitted or had been instrumental
in the conquest of their fellow-Britons were dignified
with the title of. allies, and thereby preserved their
possessions, laws, and magistrates: they were subject
to. no kind of charge or tribute. But as their league
was not equal, and that they were under the protection of a superior power, they were,entirely divest
? ? ? ? 206 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
ed of the right of war and peace; and in many
cases an appeal lay to Rome in consequence of their
subordinate and dependent situation. This was the
lightest species of subjection; and it was generally
no more than a step preparatory to a stricter government.
The condition of those towns and communities
called municipia,. by their being more closely united to the greater state, seemed to partake a degree
less of independence. They were adopted citizens of
Rome; but whatever was detracted from their ancient liberty was compensated by a more or less complete possession of the privileges which constituted a Roman city, according to the merits which had procured their adoption. These cities were models of
Rome in little; their courts and magistrates were
the same; and though they were at liberty to retain
their old laws, and to make new at their pleasure,
they commonly conformed to those of Rome. The
municipia were not subject to tribute.
When a whole people'had resisted the Roman
power with great obstinacy, had displayed a readiness to revolt upon every occasion, and had frequently broken their faith, they were reduced into what the Romans called the form of a province: that is,
they lost their laws, their liberties, their magistrates;
they forfeited the greatest part of their lands; and
they paid a heavy tribute for what they were permitted to retain.
In these provinces the supreme government was in
the praetor sent by the senate,' who commanded the
army, and in his own person exercised the judicial
power. Where the sphere of his government was
large, he deputed his legates to that employment, who
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 207
judged according to the standing laws of the republic, aided by those occasional declarations of law
called the praetorial edicts. The care of the revenue was in the questor. IHe was appointed to that
office in Rome; but when he acted in a judicial capacity, it was always by commission from the praetor
of the province. * Between these magistrates and
all others who had any share in the provincial government the Roman manners had established a kind
of sacred relation, as inviolable as that of blood. t
All the officers were taught to look up to the pretor
as their father, and to regard each other as brethren:
a firm and useful bond of concord in a virtuous administration; a dangerous and oppressive combina
tion in a bad one. But, like all the Roman institutions, it operated strongly towards its principal purpose, the security of dominion, which is by nothing so much exposed as the factions and competitions
of the officers, when the governing party itself gives
the first example of disobedience.
On the overthrow of the- Commonwealth, a remarkable revolution ensued in the power and the
subordination of these magistrates. For, as the
prince came alone to possess all that was by a
proper title either imperial or prmatorial authority,
the ancient praetors dwindled into his legates, by
which the splendor and importance of that dignity
were much diminished. The business of the quaestor at this time seems to have been transferred to
the emperor's procurator. The whole of the public
revenue became part of the fisc, and was considered
as the private estate of the prince. But the old office
* Sigonii de Antiquo Jure Provinciarum, Lib. 1 and 2.
r Cic. in Verrem, 1.
? ? ? ? 208 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
under this new appellation rose in proportion as the
praetorship had declined. For the procurator seems
to have drawn to himself the cognizance of all civil,
while capital cases alone were reserved for the judgment of the legate. * And though his power was
at first restrained within narrow bounds, and all his
judgments were subject to a review and reversal by
the praetor and the senate, he gradually grew into
independence of both, and was at length by Claudius
invested with a jurisdiction absolutely uncontrollable. Two causes, I imagine, joined to produce this
change: first, the sword was in the hands of the legate; the policy of the emperors, in order to balance
this dangerous authority, thought too much weight
could not be thrown into the scale of the procurator: secondly, as the government was now elltirely despotical, a connection between the inferior officers of the empire and the senate t was found
to shock the reason of that absolute mode of government, which extends the sovereign power in all
its fulness to every officer in his own district, and
renders him accountable. to his master alone for the
abuse of it.
The veteran soldiers were always thought entitled
to a settlement in the country which had been subdued by their valor. The whole legion, with the
tribunes, the centurions, and all the subordinate officers, were seated on an allotted portion of the conquered lands, which were distributed among them * Duobus insuper inserviendum tyrannis; quorum legatus in sanguinem, procurator in bona smeviret. - Tacit. Annal. XII. 60.
t Ne vim principatus resolveret cuncta ad senatum vocando, eam
conditionem esse imperandi, ut non aliter ratio constet, quam si uni
reddatur. - Tacit. Annal. I. 6.
? ? ? ? ABRIDTGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 209
according to their rank. These colonies were disposed throughout the conquered country, so as to sustain each other, to surround the possessions that were left to the conquered, to mix with the municipia or
free towns, and to overawe the allies. Rome extended herself by her colonies into every part of her
empire, and was everywhere present. I speak here
only of the military colonies, because no other, I imagine, were ever settled in Britain.
There were few countries of any considerable extent in which all tlese different modes of government
and different shades and gradations of servitude did
not exist together. There were allies, municipia,
provinces, and colonies in this island, as elsewhere;
and those dissimilar parts, far from being discordant,
united to make a firm and compact body, the motion
of any member of which could only serve to confirm
and establish the whole; and when time was given
to this structure to coalesce and settle, it was found
impossible to break any part of it from the Empire.
By degrees the several parts blended and softened
into one another. And as the remembrance of enmity, on the one hand, wore away by time, so, on the
other, the privileges of the Roman citizens at length
became less valuable. When nothing throughout so
vast an extent of the globe was of consideration but
a single man, there was no reason to make any distinction amongst his subjects. Claudius first gave
the full rights of the city to all the Gauls. Under
Antoninus Rome opened her gates still wider. All
the subjects of the Empire were made partakers of
the same common rights. The provincials flocked
in; even slaves were no sooner enfranchised than
they were advanced to the highest posts; and the
VOL. VII. 14
? ? ? ? 210 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
plan of comprehension, which had overturned the
republic, strengthened the monarchy.
Before the partitions were thus broken down, in
order to support the Empire, and to prevent commotions, they had a custom of sending spies into all the
provinces, where, if they discovered any provincial
laying himself out. for popularity, they were sure of
finding means, for they scrupled none, to repress him.
It was not only the praetor, with his train of lictors'and apparitors, the rods and the axes, and all the
insolent parade of a conqueror's jurisdiction; every
private Roman seemed a kind of magistrate: they'took cognizance of all their words and actions, and
hourly reminded them of that jealous and stern authority, so vigilant to discover and so severe to punish the slightest deviations from obedience.
As they had framed the action de pecuniis repetundis against the avarice and rapacity of the provin-'cial governors, they made at length a law * which, one may say, was against their. virtues. For they
prohibited them from receiving addresses of thanks
on their administration, or any other public mark'of acknowledgment, lest they should come to think
that their merit or demerit consisted in the good
or ill opinion of the people over whom they ruled.
They dreaded either a relaxation of government,
or a dangerous influence in the legate, from the exertion of an humanity too popular.
These are some of the civil and political methods
by which the Romanls held'their dominion over conquered nations; but even in peace they kept up a'great military establishment. They looked upon the "interior country to be sufficiently secured by the' Tacit. Annal. XV. 21, 22.
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 211
colonies; their forces were therefore generally quartered on the frontiers. There they had their stativa, or stations, which were strong intrenched camps, many of them fitted even for a winter residence.
The communication between these camps, the colonies; and the municipal towns was formed by great
roads, which they called military ways. The two
principal of these ran in almost straight lines, the
whole length of England, from north to south. Two
others intersected them from east to west. The remains show them to have been in their perfection
noble works, in all respects worthy the Roman military prudence and the majesty of the Empire. The
Anglo-Saxons called them streets. * Of all the Roman works, they respected and kept up these alone.
They regarded them with a sort of sacred reverence,
granting them a peculiar protection and great immunities. Those who travelled on them were privileged from arrests in all civil suits.
As the general character of the Roman government was hard and austere, it was particularly so
in what regarded the revenue. This revenue was
either fixed or occasional. The fixed consisted, first,
of an annual tax on persons and lands, but in what
proportion to the fortunes of the one or the value
of the other I have not been able to ascertain. Next
was the imposition called decuma, which consisted
of a tenth, and often a greater portion of the corn
of the province, which was generally delivered in
kind. Of all other products a fifth was paid. After
this tenth had been exacted on the corn, they were
obliged to sell another tenth, or a more considerable
* The four roads they called Watling Street, Ikenild Street, Ermin
Street, and the Fosseway.
? ? ? ? 212 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH'HISTORY.
part, to the prwetor, at a price estimated by himself.
Even what remained was still subject to be bought
up in the same manner, and at the pleasure of the
same magistrate, who, independent of these taxes
and purchases, received for the use of his household
a large portion of the corn of the province. The
most valuable of the pasture grounds were also reserved to the public, and a considerable revenue was
thence derived, which they called scriptura. The
state made a monopoly of almost the whole produce of the land, which paid several taxes, and was
further enhanced by passing through several hands
before it came to popular consumption.
The third great branch of the Roman revenue was
the portorium, which did not differ from those impositions which we now call customs and duties of export and import. This was the ordinary revenue; besides which
there were occasional impositions for shipping, for
military stores and provisions, and for defraying the
expense of the proator and his legates on the various circuits they made for the administration of the
province. This last charge became frequently a
means of great oppression, and several ways were
from time to time attempted, but with little effect,
to confine it within reasonable bounds. * Amongst
the extraordinary impositions must be reckoned the
obligation they laid on the provincials to labor at
the public works, after the manner of what the
French call the corvee, and we term statute-labor.
As the provinces, burdened by the ordinary charges,
were often in no condition of levying these occasional
taxes, they were obliged to borrow at interest. In* Cod. Lib. XII. Tit. Lxii.
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF- ENGLISH HISTORY. 213
terest was then to communities at the same exorbitant rate as to individuals. No province was free
from a most onerous public debt; and that debt was
far from operating like the same engagement contracted in modern states, by which, as the creditor
is thrown into the power of the debtor, they often
add considerably to their strength, and to the number and attachment of their dependants. The prince
in this latter case borrows from a subject or from
a stranger. The one becomes more the subject, and
the other less a stranger. But in the Roman provinces the subject borrowed from his master, and he
thereby doubled his slavery. The overgrown favorites and wealthy nobility of Rome advanced money
to the provincials; and they were in a condition both
to prescribe the terms of the loan and to enforce the
payment. The provinces groaned at once under all
the severity of public imposition and the rapaciousness of private usury. They were overrun by publicans, farmers of the taxes, agents, confiscators, usurers, bankers, those numerous and insatiable
bodies which always flourish in a burdened. and
complicated revenue. In a word, the taxes in the
Roman Empire were so heavy, and in many respects
so injudiciously laid on, that they have been not improperly considered as one cause of its decay and
ruin. The Roman government, to the very last,
carried something of the spirit of conquest in it;
and this system of taxes seems rather calculated for
the utter impoverishment of nations, in whom a long
subjection had not worn away the remembrance of
enmity, than for the support of a just commonwealth.
? ? ? ? 214 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. CHAPTER IV.
THE FALL OF THE ROMAN POWER IN BRITAIN. AFTER the period which we have just closed, no mention is made of the affairs of Britain until the A. D. m. reign of Adrian. At that time was wrought the first remarkable change in the exterior
policy of Rome. Although some of the emperors contented themselves with those limits which they found
at their accession, none before this prince had actually contracted the bounds of the Empire: for, being more perfectly acquainted with all the countries that composed it than any of his predecessors, what
was strong and what weak, and having formed to
himself a plan wholly defensive, he purposely abandoned several large tracts of territory, that he might
render what remained more solid and compact.
This plan particularly affected Britain.
All the conquests of Agricola to the northward of the Tyne were relinquished, and a strong
rampart was built from the mouth of that river, on
the east, to Solway Frith, on the Irish Sea, a length
of about eighty miles. But in the reign of his successor, Antoninus Pius, other reasonings prevailed, and
other measures were pursued. The legate
who then commanded in Britain, concluding that the Caledonians would construe the defensive
policy of Adrian into fear, that they would naturally
grow more numerous in a larger territory, and more
haughty when -they saw it abandoned to them, the
frontier was again advanced to Agricola's second
line, which extended between the Friths of Forth
and Clyde, and the stations which. had been estab
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 215
lished by that general were connected with a continued wall.
From this time those walls become the principal
object in the British history. The Caledonians, or
(as they are called) the Picts, made very frequent
and sometimes successful attempts upon this barrier, taking advantage more particularly of every change in government, whilst the soldiery throughout the Empire were more intent upon the choice of
a master than the motions of an enemy. In this dubious state of unquiet peace and unprosecuted war
the province continued until Severus came to the purple, who, finding that Britain had grown inA. D. 207. to one of the most considerable provinces of
the Empire, and was at the same time in a dangerous situation, resolved to visit that island in person, and to provide for its security. He led a
vast army into the wilds of Caledonia, and
was the first of the Romans who penetrated to the
most northern boundary of this island. The natives, defeated in some engagements, and wholly
unable to resist so great and determined a power,
were obliged to submit to such a peace as the emperor thought proper to impose.
Contenting himself with a submission, always cheaply won from a barbarous people, and never long regarded, Severus made no sort of military establishment in that country.
On the contrary, he abandoned the advanced work which had been raised in the
reign of Antoninus, and, limiting himself by the plan
of Adrian, he either built a new wall near the former, or he added to the work of that emperor such considerable improvements and repairs that it has
since been called the Wall of Severus.
? ? ? ? 216 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
Severus with great labor and charge terrified the
Caledonians; but he did not subdue them. He neglected those easy and assured means of subjection
which the nature of that part of Britain affords
to a power master of the sea, by the bays, friths,
and lakes with which it is everywhere pierced, and
in some places almost cut through. A few garrisons at the necks: of land, and a fleet to connect
them and to awe the coast, must at any time have
been sufficient irrecoverably to subdue that part of
Britain. This was a neglect in Agricola occasioned
probably by a limited command; and it was not rectified by boundless authority in Severus. The Caledonians again resumed their arms, and renewed their ravages on the Roman frontier. Severus died before
he could take any new measures; and from his death
there is an almost total silence concerning the affairs of Britain until the division of the Empire.
HIad the unwieldy mass of that overgrown dominion been effectively divided, and divided into
large portions, each forming a state, separate and
absolutely independent, the scheme had been far
more perfect. Though the Empire had perished,
these states might have subsisted; and they might
have made a far better opposition to the inroads
of the barbarians even than the whole united; since
each nation would have its own strength solely employed in resisting its own particular enemies. For,
notwithstanding the resources which might have been
expected from the entireness of so great -a body, it
is clear from history that the Romans were never
able to employ with effect and at the same time
above two armies, and that on the whole they were
very unequal to the defence of a frontier of many
thousand miles in'circuit.
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 217'
But the scheme which was pursued, the scheme of
joint emperors, holding by a common title, each governing his proper territory, but not wholly without authority in the other portions, this formed a species
of government of which it is hard to conceive any
just idea. It was a government in continual fluctuation from one to many, and from many again to a single hand. Each state did not subsist lont enough
independent to fall into those orders and connected
classes of men that are necessary to a regular commonwealth; nor had they time to grow into those virtuous partialities from which nations derive the
first principle of their stability.
The events which follow sufficiently illustrate
these reflections, and will show the reason of introducing them in this place, with regard to the Empire in general, and to Britain more particularly.
In the division which Diocletian first made of the
Roman territory, the western provinces, in which
Britain was included, fell to Maximnian. It was
during his reign that Britain, by an extraordinary
revolution, was for some time entirely separated from
the body of the Empire. Carausius, a man of obscure birth, and a barbarian, (for now not only the army, but the senate, was filled with foreigners,)
had obtained the government of Boulogne; He was
also intrusted with the command of a fleet stationed
in that part to oppose the Saxon pirates, who then
began cruelly to infest the northwest parts of Gaul
and the opposite shore of Britain. But Carausius
made use of the power with which he had been intrusted, not so much to suppress the pirates as to aggrandize himself. He even permitted their depredations, that he might intercept them on their
? ? ? ? 218 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
return, and enrich himself with the retaken plunder. By such methods he acquired immense wealth, which he distributed with so politic a bounty among
the seamen of his fleet and the legions in Britain that
by degrees he disposed both the one and the other to
a revolt in his favor.
As there were then no settled principles either
of succession or election in the Empire, and all depended on the uncertain faith of the army, Carausius made his attempt, perhaps, with the less guilt, and
found the less difficulty in prevailing upon the provincial Britons to submit to a sovereignty which seemed to reflect a sort of dignity on themselves.
In this island he established the seat of his new dominion; but he kept up and augmented his fleet, by which he preserved his communication with his old
government, and commanded the intermediate seas.
He entered into a close alliance with the
a. D. 286.
Saxons and Frisians, by which he at once
preserved his own island from their depredations
and rendered his maritime power irresistible. He
humbled the Picts by several defeats; he repaired
the frontier wall, and supplied it with good garrisons.
He made several roads equal to the works of the
greatest emperors. He cut canals, with vast labor
and expense, through all the low eastern parts of
Britain, at the same time draining those fenny
countries, and promoting communication and commerce. On these canals he built several cities. Whilst he thus labored to promote the inA. D. 290.
ternal strength and happiness of his kingdom, he contended with so much success against his
former masters that they were at length obliged not
only to relinquish their right to his acquisition, but
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 219
to admit him to a participation of the imperial titles.
He reigned after this for seven years prosperously and
with great glory, because he wisely set bounds to his
ambition, and contented himself with the possession
of a great country, detached from the rest of the
world, and therefore easily defended. Had he lived
long enough, and pursued this plan with consistency,
Britain, in all probability, might then have become,
and might have afterwards been, an independent and
powerful kingdom, instructed in the Roman arts,
and freed from their dominion. But the same distemper of the state which had raised Carausius to
power did not suffer him lang to enjoy it. The
Roman soldiery at that time was wholly destitute of
military principle. That religious regard to their
oath, the great bond of ancient discipline, had been
long worn out; and the want of it was not supplied
by that punctilio of honor and loyalty which is the
support of modern armies. Carausius was
assassinated, and succeeded in his kingdom
by Allectus, the captain. of his guards. But the murderer, who did not possess abilities to support the
power he had acquired by his crimes, was in a short
time defeated, and in his turn put to death, by Constantius Chlorus. In about three years from the death
of Carausius, Britain, after a short experiment of independency, was again united to the body of the Empire. Constantius, after he came to the purple, 304
cnose this island for his residence. Many
authors affirm that his wife Helena was a Briton. It
is more certain that his son Constantine the Great was
born here, and enabled to succeed his father principally by the helps which he derived from Britain.
? ? ? ? 220 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
A. D. 306. Under the reign of this great prince there
was an almost total revolution in the internal
policy of the Empire. This was the third remarkable
change in the Roman government since the dissolution of the Commonwealth. The first was that by which Antoninus had taken away the distinctions of
the municipium, province, and colony, communicating
to every part of the Empire those privileges which
had formerly distinguished a citizen of Rome. Thus
the whole government was cast into a more uniform
and simple frame, and every mark of conquest was
finally effaced. The second alteration was the division of the Empire by. Diocletian. The third was the change made in the great offices of the state, and the
revolution in religion, under Constantine.
The prcefeeti prcetorio, who, like the commanders
of the janizaries of the Porte, by their ambition and
turbulence had kept the government in continual ferment, were reduced by the happiest art imaginable. Their number, only two originally, was increased to
four, by which their power was balanced and broken.
Their authority was not lessened, but its nature was
totally. changed: for it became from that time a dignity and office merely civil. The whole Empire was divided into four departments under these four officers. The subordinate districts were governed by their vicarii; and Britain, accordingly, was under a
vicar, subject to the prcefectus prcetorio of Gaul. The
military was divided nearly in the same manner;
and it was placed under officers also of a new creation, the magistri militice. Immediately under these were the duces, and under those the comites, dukes
and counts, titles unknown in the time of the Repub
lie or in -the higher Empire; but afterwards they ex
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 221
tended beyond the Roman territory, and having been
conferred by the Northern nations upon their leaders,
they subsist to this day, and contribute to the dignity
of the modern courts of Europe.
But Constantine made a much greater change with
regard to religion by the establishment of Christianity. At what time the Gospel was first preached. in this island I believe it impossible to ascertain, as it
came in gradually, and without, or rather contrary
to, public authority. It was most probably first introduced among the legionary soldiers; for we find
St. Alban, the first British martyr, to have been of
that body. As it was introduced privately, so its
growth was for a long time insensible; but it shot
up at length with great vigor, and spread itself widely, at first under the favor of Constantius and the protection of Helena, and at length under the establishment of Constantine. From this time it is to be considered as the ruling religion; though heathenism
subsisted long after, and at last expired imperceptibly, and with as little noise as Christianity had been at first introduced.
In this state, with regard to the civil, military, and
religious establishment, Britain remained without any
change, and at intervals in a tolerable state of repose,
until the reign of Valentinian. Then it was attacked
all at once with incredible fury and success, and as it
were in concert, by a number of barbarous
A. D. 364.
nations. The principal of these were the
Scots, a people of ancient settlement in Ireland, and
who had thence been transplanted into the northern
part of Britain, which afterwards derived its name
from that colony. The Scots of both nations united
with the Picts. to fall upon the Roman province. To
? ? ? ? 222 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
these were added the piratical Saxons, who issued
from the mouths of the Rhine. For some years they
met but slight resistance, and made a most miserable
havoc, until the famous Count Theodosius was sent to
the relief of Britain, - who, by an admirable conduct
in war, and as vigorous application to the cure of domestic disorders, for a time freed the country from its
enemies and oppressors, and having driven the Picts
and Scots into the barren extremity of the island, he
shut and barred them in with a new wall, advanced
as far as the remotest of the former, and, what had
hitherto been imprudently neglected, he erected the
A. D. 368. intermediate space into a Roman province,
and a regular government, under the name
of Valentia. But this was only a momentary relief.
The Empire was perishing by the vices of its constitution.
Each province was then possessed by the inconsiderate ambition of appointing a head to the whole; although, when the end was obtained, the victorious province always returned to its ancient insignificance,
and was lost in the common slavery. A great army
of Britons followed the fortune of Maximus, whom
they had raised to the imperial titles, into Gaul.
A. D. 388. ' They were there defeated; and from their
defeat, as it is said, arose a new people.
They are supposed to have settled in Armorica,
which was then, like many other parts of the sickly Empire, become a mere desert; and that country, from this accident, has been since called Bretagne. The Roman province thus weakened afforded opportunity and encouragement to the barbarians again
to invade and ravage it. Stilicho, indeed, during the
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 223
minority of Honorius, obtained some advantages over
them, which procured a short intermission of their
hostilities. But as the Empire on the continent was
now attacked on all sides, and staggered under the
innumerable shocks which it received, that minister
ventured to recall the Roman forces from Britain, in
order to sustain those parts which he judged of more
importance and in greater danger.
On theintelligence of this desertion, their
barbarous enemies break in upon the Britons, and are no longer resisted. Their ancient protection withdrawn, the people became stupefied with terror and despair. They petition the emperor for succor in the most moving terms. The emperor, protesting his weakness, commits them to their own defence,
absolves -them from their allegiance, and confers on
them a freedom which they have no longer the sense
to value nor the virtue to defend. The princes
whom after this desertion they raised and deposed
with a stupid inconstancy were styled Emperors. So
hard it is to change ideas to which men have been
long accustomed, especially in government, that the
Britons had no notion of a sovereign who was not to
be emperor, nor of an emperor who was not to be
master of the Western world. This single idea ruined Britain. Constantine, a native of this island,
one of those shadows of imperial majesty, no sooner
found himself established at home than, fatally for
himself and his country, he turned his eyes towards
the continent. Thither he carried the flower of the
British youth, - all who were any ways eminent for
birth, for courage, for their skill in the military or
mechanic arts; but his success was not equal to his
hopes or his forces. The remains of his routed army
? ? ? ? 224 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
joined their countrymen in Armorica, and a baffled
attempt upon the Empire a second time recruited
Gaul and exhausted Britain.
The Scots and Picts, attentive to every advantage,
rushed with redoubled violence into this vacuity.
The Britons, who could find no protection but in
slavery, again implore the assistance of their former
masters. At that time Aetius commanded the imperial forces in Gaul, and with the virtue and military skill of the ancient Romans supported the Empire, tottering with age and weakness. Though he was then hard pressed by the vast armies of Attila, which like
a deluge had overspread Gaul, he afforded them a
small and temporary succor. This detachment of Romans repelled the Scots; they repaired the walls; and animating the Britons by their example and instructions to maintain their freedom, they departed. But the Scots easily perceived and took advantage of
their departure. Whilst they ravaged the country,
the Britons renewed their supplications to Aetius.
They once more obtained a reinforcement, which
again reestablished their affairs. They were, however, given to understand that this was to be their last relief. The Roman auxiliaries were recalled, and the
Britons abandoned to their own fortune forever.
When the Romans deserted this island,
A. D. 432.
they left a country, with regard to the arts
of war or government, in a manner barbarous, but
destitute of that spirit or those advantages with which
sometimes a state of barbarism is attended. They
carried out of each province its proper and natural
strength, and supplied it by that of some other, which
had no connection with the country. The troops raised
in Britain often served in Egypt; and those which
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT:OF. . ENGLISH. HISTORY. 22b
were employed for the protection of this island were
sometimes from Batavia or Germany, sometimes from
provinces far to the east. Whenever the strangers
were withdrawn; as they were very easily, the province was. left -in the hands of men wholly unprac-'
tised ill war. After a peaceable possession of more
than three hundred years, the Britons derived but
very few benefits from their subjection to the conquerors and civilizers of mankind. Neither does
it appear that the Roman people were at any time
extremely numerous in this island, or had spread
themselves, their manners, or their language as extensively in Britain as they had done in the other
parts of their Empire. The Welsh and the AngloSaxon languages retain much less of Latin than the
French, the Spanish, or the Italian. The Romans
subdued Britain at a later period, at a time when Italy herself was not sufficiently populous to supply so
remote a province: she was rather supplied-from her
provinces. The military colonies, though in some
respects they were admirably fitted for their purposes, had, however, one essential defect: the lands
granted to the soldiers did not pass to their posterity;
so that the Roman people must have multiplied poorly in this island, when their increase principally depended on a succession of superannuated soldiers. From this defect the colonies were continually falling
to decay. They had also in many respects degenerated from their primitive institution. * We must add,
* Neque conjugiis suscipiendis neque alendis liberis sueti, orbas
sine posteris domos relinquebant. Non enim, ut olim, universe legiones deducebantur cum tribunis et centurionibus et suis cujusque
ordinis militibus, ut consensu et caritate rempublicam efficerent, sed
ignoti inter se, diversis manipulis, sine rectore, sine affectibus mutuis,
VOL. VII. 15
? ? ? ? 226. ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
that in the decline of the Empire a great part of the
troops in Britain were barbarians, Batavians or Germans. Thus, at the close of this period, this unhappy country, desolated of its inhabitants, abandoned by its masters, stripped of its artisans, and deprived of all
its spirit, was in a condition the most wretched and
forlorn.
quasi. ex alio genere mortalium repente in unum collecti, numerus
magis quam colonia. - Tacit. Annal. XIV.
cured. A long-continued state of war is unnatural
to. such a nation. They abound with artisans, with
traders,. and a number of settled and unwarlike people, who are less disturbed in their ordinary course by submitting to almost any power than in a long opposition; and as this character diffuses itself through the whole nation, they find it impossible to carry on
a war, when they are deprived of. the usual resources. But in a country. like ancient Britain there are
as many soldiers as inhabitants. They unite and
disperse with ease. They require no pay nor formal
subsistence; and the hardships of an irregular war
are not very remote from their ordinary course of
life. Victories are easily obtained over such a rude
people, but they are rarely decisive; and the final
conquest becomes a work of time and patience. All
that can be done is to facilitate communication by
roads, and to secure the principal avenues and the
most remarkable posts on the navigable rivers by
forts and stations. To conquer the people, you must
subdue the nature of the -country. The Romans at
length effected this; but until this was done, they
never were able to make a perfect conquest.
I shall now. add something concerning the government, the Romans settled here, and. of those methods which they used to preserve the conquered people under an entire subjection. Those nations who had either passively permitted or had been instrumental
in the conquest of their fellow-Britons were dignified
with the title of. allies, and thereby preserved their
possessions, laws, and magistrates: they were subject
to. no kind of charge or tribute. But as their league
was not equal, and that they were under the protection of a superior power, they were,entirely divest
? ? ? ? 206 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
ed of the right of war and peace; and in many
cases an appeal lay to Rome in consequence of their
subordinate and dependent situation. This was the
lightest species of subjection; and it was generally
no more than a step preparatory to a stricter government.
The condition of those towns and communities
called municipia,. by their being more closely united to the greater state, seemed to partake a degree
less of independence. They were adopted citizens of
Rome; but whatever was detracted from their ancient liberty was compensated by a more or less complete possession of the privileges which constituted a Roman city, according to the merits which had procured their adoption. These cities were models of
Rome in little; their courts and magistrates were
the same; and though they were at liberty to retain
their old laws, and to make new at their pleasure,
they commonly conformed to those of Rome. The
municipia were not subject to tribute.
When a whole people'had resisted the Roman
power with great obstinacy, had displayed a readiness to revolt upon every occasion, and had frequently broken their faith, they were reduced into what the Romans called the form of a province: that is,
they lost their laws, their liberties, their magistrates;
they forfeited the greatest part of their lands; and
they paid a heavy tribute for what they were permitted to retain.
In these provinces the supreme government was in
the praetor sent by the senate,' who commanded the
army, and in his own person exercised the judicial
power. Where the sphere of his government was
large, he deputed his legates to that employment, who
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 207
judged according to the standing laws of the republic, aided by those occasional declarations of law
called the praetorial edicts. The care of the revenue was in the questor. IHe was appointed to that
office in Rome; but when he acted in a judicial capacity, it was always by commission from the praetor
of the province. * Between these magistrates and
all others who had any share in the provincial government the Roman manners had established a kind
of sacred relation, as inviolable as that of blood. t
All the officers were taught to look up to the pretor
as their father, and to regard each other as brethren:
a firm and useful bond of concord in a virtuous administration; a dangerous and oppressive combina
tion in a bad one. But, like all the Roman institutions, it operated strongly towards its principal purpose, the security of dominion, which is by nothing so much exposed as the factions and competitions
of the officers, when the governing party itself gives
the first example of disobedience.
On the overthrow of the- Commonwealth, a remarkable revolution ensued in the power and the
subordination of these magistrates. For, as the
prince came alone to possess all that was by a
proper title either imperial or prmatorial authority,
the ancient praetors dwindled into his legates, by
which the splendor and importance of that dignity
were much diminished. The business of the quaestor at this time seems to have been transferred to
the emperor's procurator. The whole of the public
revenue became part of the fisc, and was considered
as the private estate of the prince. But the old office
* Sigonii de Antiquo Jure Provinciarum, Lib. 1 and 2.
r Cic. in Verrem, 1.
? ? ? ? 208 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
under this new appellation rose in proportion as the
praetorship had declined. For the procurator seems
to have drawn to himself the cognizance of all civil,
while capital cases alone were reserved for the judgment of the legate. * And though his power was
at first restrained within narrow bounds, and all his
judgments were subject to a review and reversal by
the praetor and the senate, he gradually grew into
independence of both, and was at length by Claudius
invested with a jurisdiction absolutely uncontrollable. Two causes, I imagine, joined to produce this
change: first, the sword was in the hands of the legate; the policy of the emperors, in order to balance
this dangerous authority, thought too much weight
could not be thrown into the scale of the procurator: secondly, as the government was now elltirely despotical, a connection between the inferior officers of the empire and the senate t was found
to shock the reason of that absolute mode of government, which extends the sovereign power in all
its fulness to every officer in his own district, and
renders him accountable. to his master alone for the
abuse of it.
The veteran soldiers were always thought entitled
to a settlement in the country which had been subdued by their valor. The whole legion, with the
tribunes, the centurions, and all the subordinate officers, were seated on an allotted portion of the conquered lands, which were distributed among them * Duobus insuper inserviendum tyrannis; quorum legatus in sanguinem, procurator in bona smeviret. - Tacit. Annal. XII. 60.
t Ne vim principatus resolveret cuncta ad senatum vocando, eam
conditionem esse imperandi, ut non aliter ratio constet, quam si uni
reddatur. - Tacit. Annal. I. 6.
? ? ? ? ABRIDTGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 209
according to their rank. These colonies were disposed throughout the conquered country, so as to sustain each other, to surround the possessions that were left to the conquered, to mix with the municipia or
free towns, and to overawe the allies. Rome extended herself by her colonies into every part of her
empire, and was everywhere present. I speak here
only of the military colonies, because no other, I imagine, were ever settled in Britain.
There were few countries of any considerable extent in which all tlese different modes of government
and different shades and gradations of servitude did
not exist together. There were allies, municipia,
provinces, and colonies in this island, as elsewhere;
and those dissimilar parts, far from being discordant,
united to make a firm and compact body, the motion
of any member of which could only serve to confirm
and establish the whole; and when time was given
to this structure to coalesce and settle, it was found
impossible to break any part of it from the Empire.
By degrees the several parts blended and softened
into one another. And as the remembrance of enmity, on the one hand, wore away by time, so, on the
other, the privileges of the Roman citizens at length
became less valuable. When nothing throughout so
vast an extent of the globe was of consideration but
a single man, there was no reason to make any distinction amongst his subjects. Claudius first gave
the full rights of the city to all the Gauls. Under
Antoninus Rome opened her gates still wider. All
the subjects of the Empire were made partakers of
the same common rights. The provincials flocked
in; even slaves were no sooner enfranchised than
they were advanced to the highest posts; and the
VOL. VII. 14
? ? ? ? 210 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
plan of comprehension, which had overturned the
republic, strengthened the monarchy.
Before the partitions were thus broken down, in
order to support the Empire, and to prevent commotions, they had a custom of sending spies into all the
provinces, where, if they discovered any provincial
laying himself out. for popularity, they were sure of
finding means, for they scrupled none, to repress him.
It was not only the praetor, with his train of lictors'and apparitors, the rods and the axes, and all the
insolent parade of a conqueror's jurisdiction; every
private Roman seemed a kind of magistrate: they'took cognizance of all their words and actions, and
hourly reminded them of that jealous and stern authority, so vigilant to discover and so severe to punish the slightest deviations from obedience.
As they had framed the action de pecuniis repetundis against the avarice and rapacity of the provin-'cial governors, they made at length a law * which, one may say, was against their. virtues. For they
prohibited them from receiving addresses of thanks
on their administration, or any other public mark'of acknowledgment, lest they should come to think
that their merit or demerit consisted in the good
or ill opinion of the people over whom they ruled.
They dreaded either a relaxation of government,
or a dangerous influence in the legate, from the exertion of an humanity too popular.
These are some of the civil and political methods
by which the Romanls held'their dominion over conquered nations; but even in peace they kept up a'great military establishment. They looked upon the "interior country to be sufficiently secured by the' Tacit. Annal. XV. 21, 22.
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 211
colonies; their forces were therefore generally quartered on the frontiers. There they had their stativa, or stations, which were strong intrenched camps, many of them fitted even for a winter residence.
The communication between these camps, the colonies; and the municipal towns was formed by great
roads, which they called military ways. The two
principal of these ran in almost straight lines, the
whole length of England, from north to south. Two
others intersected them from east to west. The remains show them to have been in their perfection
noble works, in all respects worthy the Roman military prudence and the majesty of the Empire. The
Anglo-Saxons called them streets. * Of all the Roman works, they respected and kept up these alone.
They regarded them with a sort of sacred reverence,
granting them a peculiar protection and great immunities. Those who travelled on them were privileged from arrests in all civil suits.
As the general character of the Roman government was hard and austere, it was particularly so
in what regarded the revenue. This revenue was
either fixed or occasional. The fixed consisted, first,
of an annual tax on persons and lands, but in what
proportion to the fortunes of the one or the value
of the other I have not been able to ascertain. Next
was the imposition called decuma, which consisted
of a tenth, and often a greater portion of the corn
of the province, which was generally delivered in
kind. Of all other products a fifth was paid. After
this tenth had been exacted on the corn, they were
obliged to sell another tenth, or a more considerable
* The four roads they called Watling Street, Ikenild Street, Ermin
Street, and the Fosseway.
? ? ? ? 212 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH'HISTORY.
part, to the prwetor, at a price estimated by himself.
Even what remained was still subject to be bought
up in the same manner, and at the pleasure of the
same magistrate, who, independent of these taxes
and purchases, received for the use of his household
a large portion of the corn of the province. The
most valuable of the pasture grounds were also reserved to the public, and a considerable revenue was
thence derived, which they called scriptura. The
state made a monopoly of almost the whole produce of the land, which paid several taxes, and was
further enhanced by passing through several hands
before it came to popular consumption.
The third great branch of the Roman revenue was
the portorium, which did not differ from those impositions which we now call customs and duties of export and import. This was the ordinary revenue; besides which
there were occasional impositions for shipping, for
military stores and provisions, and for defraying the
expense of the proator and his legates on the various circuits they made for the administration of the
province. This last charge became frequently a
means of great oppression, and several ways were
from time to time attempted, but with little effect,
to confine it within reasonable bounds. * Amongst
the extraordinary impositions must be reckoned the
obligation they laid on the provincials to labor at
the public works, after the manner of what the
French call the corvee, and we term statute-labor.
As the provinces, burdened by the ordinary charges,
were often in no condition of levying these occasional
taxes, they were obliged to borrow at interest. In* Cod. Lib. XII. Tit. Lxii.
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF- ENGLISH HISTORY. 213
terest was then to communities at the same exorbitant rate as to individuals. No province was free
from a most onerous public debt; and that debt was
far from operating like the same engagement contracted in modern states, by which, as the creditor
is thrown into the power of the debtor, they often
add considerably to their strength, and to the number and attachment of their dependants. The prince
in this latter case borrows from a subject or from
a stranger. The one becomes more the subject, and
the other less a stranger. But in the Roman provinces the subject borrowed from his master, and he
thereby doubled his slavery. The overgrown favorites and wealthy nobility of Rome advanced money
to the provincials; and they were in a condition both
to prescribe the terms of the loan and to enforce the
payment. The provinces groaned at once under all
the severity of public imposition and the rapaciousness of private usury. They were overrun by publicans, farmers of the taxes, agents, confiscators, usurers, bankers, those numerous and insatiable
bodies which always flourish in a burdened. and
complicated revenue. In a word, the taxes in the
Roman Empire were so heavy, and in many respects
so injudiciously laid on, that they have been not improperly considered as one cause of its decay and
ruin. The Roman government, to the very last,
carried something of the spirit of conquest in it;
and this system of taxes seems rather calculated for
the utter impoverishment of nations, in whom a long
subjection had not worn away the remembrance of
enmity, than for the support of a just commonwealth.
? ? ? ? 214 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. CHAPTER IV.
THE FALL OF THE ROMAN POWER IN BRITAIN. AFTER the period which we have just closed, no mention is made of the affairs of Britain until the A. D. m. reign of Adrian. At that time was wrought the first remarkable change in the exterior
policy of Rome. Although some of the emperors contented themselves with those limits which they found
at their accession, none before this prince had actually contracted the bounds of the Empire: for, being more perfectly acquainted with all the countries that composed it than any of his predecessors, what
was strong and what weak, and having formed to
himself a plan wholly defensive, he purposely abandoned several large tracts of territory, that he might
render what remained more solid and compact.
This plan particularly affected Britain.
All the conquests of Agricola to the northward of the Tyne were relinquished, and a strong
rampart was built from the mouth of that river, on
the east, to Solway Frith, on the Irish Sea, a length
of about eighty miles. But in the reign of his successor, Antoninus Pius, other reasonings prevailed, and
other measures were pursued. The legate
who then commanded in Britain, concluding that the Caledonians would construe the defensive
policy of Adrian into fear, that they would naturally
grow more numerous in a larger territory, and more
haughty when -they saw it abandoned to them, the
frontier was again advanced to Agricola's second
line, which extended between the Friths of Forth
and Clyde, and the stations which. had been estab
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 215
lished by that general were connected with a continued wall.
From this time those walls become the principal
object in the British history. The Caledonians, or
(as they are called) the Picts, made very frequent
and sometimes successful attempts upon this barrier, taking advantage more particularly of every change in government, whilst the soldiery throughout the Empire were more intent upon the choice of
a master than the motions of an enemy. In this dubious state of unquiet peace and unprosecuted war
the province continued until Severus came to the purple, who, finding that Britain had grown inA. D. 207. to one of the most considerable provinces of
the Empire, and was at the same time in a dangerous situation, resolved to visit that island in person, and to provide for its security. He led a
vast army into the wilds of Caledonia, and
was the first of the Romans who penetrated to the
most northern boundary of this island. The natives, defeated in some engagements, and wholly
unable to resist so great and determined a power,
were obliged to submit to such a peace as the emperor thought proper to impose.
Contenting himself with a submission, always cheaply won from a barbarous people, and never long regarded, Severus made no sort of military establishment in that country.
On the contrary, he abandoned the advanced work which had been raised in the
reign of Antoninus, and, limiting himself by the plan
of Adrian, he either built a new wall near the former, or he added to the work of that emperor such considerable improvements and repairs that it has
since been called the Wall of Severus.
? ? ? ? 216 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
Severus with great labor and charge terrified the
Caledonians; but he did not subdue them. He neglected those easy and assured means of subjection
which the nature of that part of Britain affords
to a power master of the sea, by the bays, friths,
and lakes with which it is everywhere pierced, and
in some places almost cut through. A few garrisons at the necks: of land, and a fleet to connect
them and to awe the coast, must at any time have
been sufficient irrecoverably to subdue that part of
Britain. This was a neglect in Agricola occasioned
probably by a limited command; and it was not rectified by boundless authority in Severus. The Caledonians again resumed their arms, and renewed their ravages on the Roman frontier. Severus died before
he could take any new measures; and from his death
there is an almost total silence concerning the affairs of Britain until the division of the Empire.
HIad the unwieldy mass of that overgrown dominion been effectively divided, and divided into
large portions, each forming a state, separate and
absolutely independent, the scheme had been far
more perfect. Though the Empire had perished,
these states might have subsisted; and they might
have made a far better opposition to the inroads
of the barbarians even than the whole united; since
each nation would have its own strength solely employed in resisting its own particular enemies. For,
notwithstanding the resources which might have been
expected from the entireness of so great -a body, it
is clear from history that the Romans were never
able to employ with effect and at the same time
above two armies, and that on the whole they were
very unequal to the defence of a frontier of many
thousand miles in'circuit.
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 217'
But the scheme which was pursued, the scheme of
joint emperors, holding by a common title, each governing his proper territory, but not wholly without authority in the other portions, this formed a species
of government of which it is hard to conceive any
just idea. It was a government in continual fluctuation from one to many, and from many again to a single hand. Each state did not subsist lont enough
independent to fall into those orders and connected
classes of men that are necessary to a regular commonwealth; nor had they time to grow into those virtuous partialities from which nations derive the
first principle of their stability.
The events which follow sufficiently illustrate
these reflections, and will show the reason of introducing them in this place, with regard to the Empire in general, and to Britain more particularly.
In the division which Diocletian first made of the
Roman territory, the western provinces, in which
Britain was included, fell to Maximnian. It was
during his reign that Britain, by an extraordinary
revolution, was for some time entirely separated from
the body of the Empire. Carausius, a man of obscure birth, and a barbarian, (for now not only the army, but the senate, was filled with foreigners,)
had obtained the government of Boulogne; He was
also intrusted with the command of a fleet stationed
in that part to oppose the Saxon pirates, who then
began cruelly to infest the northwest parts of Gaul
and the opposite shore of Britain. But Carausius
made use of the power with which he had been intrusted, not so much to suppress the pirates as to aggrandize himself. He even permitted their depredations, that he might intercept them on their
? ? ? ? 218 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
return, and enrich himself with the retaken plunder. By such methods he acquired immense wealth, which he distributed with so politic a bounty among
the seamen of his fleet and the legions in Britain that
by degrees he disposed both the one and the other to
a revolt in his favor.
As there were then no settled principles either
of succession or election in the Empire, and all depended on the uncertain faith of the army, Carausius made his attempt, perhaps, with the less guilt, and
found the less difficulty in prevailing upon the provincial Britons to submit to a sovereignty which seemed to reflect a sort of dignity on themselves.
In this island he established the seat of his new dominion; but he kept up and augmented his fleet, by which he preserved his communication with his old
government, and commanded the intermediate seas.
He entered into a close alliance with the
a. D. 286.
Saxons and Frisians, by which he at once
preserved his own island from their depredations
and rendered his maritime power irresistible. He
humbled the Picts by several defeats; he repaired
the frontier wall, and supplied it with good garrisons.
He made several roads equal to the works of the
greatest emperors. He cut canals, with vast labor
and expense, through all the low eastern parts of
Britain, at the same time draining those fenny
countries, and promoting communication and commerce. On these canals he built several cities. Whilst he thus labored to promote the inA. D. 290.
ternal strength and happiness of his kingdom, he contended with so much success against his
former masters that they were at length obliged not
only to relinquish their right to his acquisition, but
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 219
to admit him to a participation of the imperial titles.
He reigned after this for seven years prosperously and
with great glory, because he wisely set bounds to his
ambition, and contented himself with the possession
of a great country, detached from the rest of the
world, and therefore easily defended. Had he lived
long enough, and pursued this plan with consistency,
Britain, in all probability, might then have become,
and might have afterwards been, an independent and
powerful kingdom, instructed in the Roman arts,
and freed from their dominion. But the same distemper of the state which had raised Carausius to
power did not suffer him lang to enjoy it. The
Roman soldiery at that time was wholly destitute of
military principle. That religious regard to their
oath, the great bond of ancient discipline, had been
long worn out; and the want of it was not supplied
by that punctilio of honor and loyalty which is the
support of modern armies. Carausius was
assassinated, and succeeded in his kingdom
by Allectus, the captain. of his guards. But the murderer, who did not possess abilities to support the
power he had acquired by his crimes, was in a short
time defeated, and in his turn put to death, by Constantius Chlorus. In about three years from the death
of Carausius, Britain, after a short experiment of independency, was again united to the body of the Empire. Constantius, after he came to the purple, 304
cnose this island for his residence. Many
authors affirm that his wife Helena was a Briton. It
is more certain that his son Constantine the Great was
born here, and enabled to succeed his father principally by the helps which he derived from Britain.
? ? ? ? 220 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
A. D. 306. Under the reign of this great prince there
was an almost total revolution in the internal
policy of the Empire. This was the third remarkable
change in the Roman government since the dissolution of the Commonwealth. The first was that by which Antoninus had taken away the distinctions of
the municipium, province, and colony, communicating
to every part of the Empire those privileges which
had formerly distinguished a citizen of Rome. Thus
the whole government was cast into a more uniform
and simple frame, and every mark of conquest was
finally effaced. The second alteration was the division of the Empire by. Diocletian. The third was the change made in the great offices of the state, and the
revolution in religion, under Constantine.
The prcefeeti prcetorio, who, like the commanders
of the janizaries of the Porte, by their ambition and
turbulence had kept the government in continual ferment, were reduced by the happiest art imaginable. Their number, only two originally, was increased to
four, by which their power was balanced and broken.
Their authority was not lessened, but its nature was
totally. changed: for it became from that time a dignity and office merely civil. The whole Empire was divided into four departments under these four officers. The subordinate districts were governed by their vicarii; and Britain, accordingly, was under a
vicar, subject to the prcefectus prcetorio of Gaul. The
military was divided nearly in the same manner;
and it was placed under officers also of a new creation, the magistri militice. Immediately under these were the duces, and under those the comites, dukes
and counts, titles unknown in the time of the Repub
lie or in -the higher Empire; but afterwards they ex
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 221
tended beyond the Roman territory, and having been
conferred by the Northern nations upon their leaders,
they subsist to this day, and contribute to the dignity
of the modern courts of Europe.
But Constantine made a much greater change with
regard to religion by the establishment of Christianity. At what time the Gospel was first preached. in this island I believe it impossible to ascertain, as it
came in gradually, and without, or rather contrary
to, public authority. It was most probably first introduced among the legionary soldiers; for we find
St. Alban, the first British martyr, to have been of
that body. As it was introduced privately, so its
growth was for a long time insensible; but it shot
up at length with great vigor, and spread itself widely, at first under the favor of Constantius and the protection of Helena, and at length under the establishment of Constantine. From this time it is to be considered as the ruling religion; though heathenism
subsisted long after, and at last expired imperceptibly, and with as little noise as Christianity had been at first introduced.
In this state, with regard to the civil, military, and
religious establishment, Britain remained without any
change, and at intervals in a tolerable state of repose,
until the reign of Valentinian. Then it was attacked
all at once with incredible fury and success, and as it
were in concert, by a number of barbarous
A. D. 364.
nations. The principal of these were the
Scots, a people of ancient settlement in Ireland, and
who had thence been transplanted into the northern
part of Britain, which afterwards derived its name
from that colony. The Scots of both nations united
with the Picts. to fall upon the Roman province. To
? ? ? ? 222 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
these were added the piratical Saxons, who issued
from the mouths of the Rhine. For some years they
met but slight resistance, and made a most miserable
havoc, until the famous Count Theodosius was sent to
the relief of Britain, - who, by an admirable conduct
in war, and as vigorous application to the cure of domestic disorders, for a time freed the country from its
enemies and oppressors, and having driven the Picts
and Scots into the barren extremity of the island, he
shut and barred them in with a new wall, advanced
as far as the remotest of the former, and, what had
hitherto been imprudently neglected, he erected the
A. D. 368. intermediate space into a Roman province,
and a regular government, under the name
of Valentia. But this was only a momentary relief.
The Empire was perishing by the vices of its constitution.
Each province was then possessed by the inconsiderate ambition of appointing a head to the whole; although, when the end was obtained, the victorious province always returned to its ancient insignificance,
and was lost in the common slavery. A great army
of Britons followed the fortune of Maximus, whom
they had raised to the imperial titles, into Gaul.
A. D. 388. ' They were there defeated; and from their
defeat, as it is said, arose a new people.
They are supposed to have settled in Armorica,
which was then, like many other parts of the sickly Empire, become a mere desert; and that country, from this accident, has been since called Bretagne. The Roman province thus weakened afforded opportunity and encouragement to the barbarians again
to invade and ravage it. Stilicho, indeed, during the
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 223
minority of Honorius, obtained some advantages over
them, which procured a short intermission of their
hostilities. But as the Empire on the continent was
now attacked on all sides, and staggered under the
innumerable shocks which it received, that minister
ventured to recall the Roman forces from Britain, in
order to sustain those parts which he judged of more
importance and in greater danger.
On theintelligence of this desertion, their
barbarous enemies break in upon the Britons, and are no longer resisted. Their ancient protection withdrawn, the people became stupefied with terror and despair. They petition the emperor for succor in the most moving terms. The emperor, protesting his weakness, commits them to their own defence,
absolves -them from their allegiance, and confers on
them a freedom which they have no longer the sense
to value nor the virtue to defend. The princes
whom after this desertion they raised and deposed
with a stupid inconstancy were styled Emperors. So
hard it is to change ideas to which men have been
long accustomed, especially in government, that the
Britons had no notion of a sovereign who was not to
be emperor, nor of an emperor who was not to be
master of the Western world. This single idea ruined Britain. Constantine, a native of this island,
one of those shadows of imperial majesty, no sooner
found himself established at home than, fatally for
himself and his country, he turned his eyes towards
the continent. Thither he carried the flower of the
British youth, - all who were any ways eminent for
birth, for courage, for their skill in the military or
mechanic arts; but his success was not equal to his
hopes or his forces. The remains of his routed army
? ? ? ? 224 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
joined their countrymen in Armorica, and a baffled
attempt upon the Empire a second time recruited
Gaul and exhausted Britain.
The Scots and Picts, attentive to every advantage,
rushed with redoubled violence into this vacuity.
The Britons, who could find no protection but in
slavery, again implore the assistance of their former
masters. At that time Aetius commanded the imperial forces in Gaul, and with the virtue and military skill of the ancient Romans supported the Empire, tottering with age and weakness. Though he was then hard pressed by the vast armies of Attila, which like
a deluge had overspread Gaul, he afforded them a
small and temporary succor. This detachment of Romans repelled the Scots; they repaired the walls; and animating the Britons by their example and instructions to maintain their freedom, they departed. But the Scots easily perceived and took advantage of
their departure. Whilst they ravaged the country,
the Britons renewed their supplications to Aetius.
They once more obtained a reinforcement, which
again reestablished their affairs. They were, however, given to understand that this was to be their last relief. The Roman auxiliaries were recalled, and the
Britons abandoned to their own fortune forever.
When the Romans deserted this island,
A. D. 432.
they left a country, with regard to the arts
of war or government, in a manner barbarous, but
destitute of that spirit or those advantages with which
sometimes a state of barbarism is attended. They
carried out of each province its proper and natural
strength, and supplied it by that of some other, which
had no connection with the country. The troops raised
in Britain often served in Egypt; and those which
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT:OF. . ENGLISH. HISTORY. 22b
were employed for the protection of this island were
sometimes from Batavia or Germany, sometimes from
provinces far to the east. Whenever the strangers
were withdrawn; as they were very easily, the province was. left -in the hands of men wholly unprac-'
tised ill war. After a peaceable possession of more
than three hundred years, the Britons derived but
very few benefits from their subjection to the conquerors and civilizers of mankind. Neither does
it appear that the Roman people were at any time
extremely numerous in this island, or had spread
themselves, their manners, or their language as extensively in Britain as they had done in the other
parts of their Empire. The Welsh and the AngloSaxon languages retain much less of Latin than the
French, the Spanish, or the Italian. The Romans
subdued Britain at a later period, at a time when Italy herself was not sufficiently populous to supply so
remote a province: she was rather supplied-from her
provinces. The military colonies, though in some
respects they were admirably fitted for their purposes, had, however, one essential defect: the lands
granted to the soldiers did not pass to their posterity;
so that the Roman people must have multiplied poorly in this island, when their increase principally depended on a succession of superannuated soldiers. From this defect the colonies were continually falling
to decay. They had also in many respects degenerated from their primitive institution. * We must add,
* Neque conjugiis suscipiendis neque alendis liberis sueti, orbas
sine posteris domos relinquebant. Non enim, ut olim, universe legiones deducebantur cum tribunis et centurionibus et suis cujusque
ordinis militibus, ut consensu et caritate rempublicam efficerent, sed
ignoti inter se, diversis manipulis, sine rectore, sine affectibus mutuis,
VOL. VII. 15
? ? ? ? 226. ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
that in the decline of the Empire a great part of the
troops in Britain were barbarians, Batavians or Germans. Thus, at the close of this period, this unhappy country, desolated of its inhabitants, abandoned by its masters, stripped of its artisans, and deprived of all
its spirit, was in a condition the most wretched and
forlorn.
quasi. ex alio genere mortalium repente in unum collecti, numerus
magis quam colonia. - Tacit. Annal. XIV.
