In the original
institution
neither
of these nations had the use of images; the rules of
the Salian as well as Druid discipline were delivered
in verse; both orders were under an elective head;
and both were for a long time the lawyers of their
country.
of these nations had the use of images; the rules of
the Salian as well as Druid discipline were delivered
in verse; both orders were under an elective head;
and both were for a long time the lawyers of their
country.
Edmund Burke
VII.
12
? ? ? ? 178 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
diction, so similar to that used by the ancient Athenians, and to that'since practised among Christians,
was followed by an. exclusion from all the benefits of
civil community; and it was accordingly the most
dreaded of all punishments. This ample authority
was in general usefully exerted; by the interposition
of the Druids differences were composed, and wars
elided; and the minds of the fierce Northerni people,
being reconciled to each other under the influence of
religion, united with signal effect against their common enemies.
There was a class of the Druids whom they called
Bards, who delivered in songs (their only history)
the exploits of their heroes, and who composed those
verses which contained the secrets of Druidical discipline, their principles of natural and moral philosophy, their astronomy, and the mystical rites of their religion. These verses in all probability bore a near
resemblance to the Golden Verses of Pythagoras, -
to those of Phocylides, Orphels, and other remnants
of the most anlcient Greek poets. The Druids, even
in Gaul, where they were not altogether ignorant of
the use of letters, in order to preserve their knowledge in greater respect, committed none of their pre-. cepts to writing. The proficiency of their pupils was estimated principally by the number'of technical
verses which they retained in their memory: a circumstance that shows this discipline rather calculated to preserve with accuracy a few plain maxims
of traditionary science than to improve and extend
it. And this is not the sole circumstance which
leads us to believe that among them learning had
advanced no further than its infancy.
The scholars of the Druids, like those of Pythago:
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 179
ras, were carefully enjoined a long and religious silence: for, if barbarians come to acquire any knowledge, it is rather by instruction than examination; they must therefore be silent. Pythagoras, in the
rude times of Greece, required silence in his disciples; but Socrates, in the meridian of the Athenian
refinement, spoke less than his scholars: everything
was disputed in the Academy.
The Druids are said to be very expert in astronomy, in geography, and in all parts of mathematical
knowledge; and authors speak in a very exaggerated strain of their excellence in these, and in many
other sciences. Some elemental knowledge I suppose they had; but I can scarcely be persuaded
that their learning was either deep or extensive.
In all countries where Druidism was professed, the
youth were generally instructed by that order; and
yet was there little either in -the manners of the people, in their way of life, or their works of art, that
demonstrates profound science or particularly mathematical skill. Britain, where their discipline was
in its highest perfection, and which was therefore
resorted to by the people of Gaul as an oracle in
Druidical questions, was more barbarous in all other respects than Gaul itself, or than any other country then kniown in Europe. Those piles of rude magnificence, Stonehenge and Abury, are in vain
produced in proof of their mathematical abilities.
These vast structures have nothing which can be
admired, but the greatness of the work; and they
are not the only instances of the great things which
the mere labor of many hands united, and persevering in their purpose, may accomplish with very
little help from mechanics. This may be evinced
? ? ? ? 180 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY,
by the immense buildings and the low state of the
sciences among the original Peruvians.
The Druids were eminent above all the philosophic
lawgivers of antiquity for their care in impressing
the doctrine of the soul's immortality on the minds
of their people, as an operative and leading principle. This doctrine was inculcated on the scheme
of Transmigration, which some imagine them to have
derived from Pythagoras. But it is by no means
necessary to resort to any particular teacher for an
opinion which owes its birth to the weak struggles
of unenlightened reason, and to mistakes natural
to the human mind. The idea of the soul's immortality is indeed ancient, universal, and in a manner inherent in our nature; but it is not easy for
a rude people to conceive any other mode of existence than one similar to what they had experienced in life, nor any other world as the scene of such an existence but this we inhabit, beyond the
bounds of which the mind extends itself with great
difficulty. Admiration, indeed, was able to exalt. to
heaven a few selected heroes: it did not seem absurd that those who in their mortal state had distinguished themselves as superior and overruling spirits should after death ascend to that sphere
which influences and governs everything below, or
that the proper abode of beings at once so illustrious
and permanent should be in that part of Nature in
which they had always observed the greatest splendor and the least mutation. But on ordinary occasions it was natural some should imagine that the dead retired into a remote country, separated
from the living by seas or mountains. It was natural that some should follow their imagination with'
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 181
a simplicity still purer, and pursue the souls of men
no further than the sepulchres in which their bodies
had been deposited;* whilst others of deeper penetration, observing that bodies worn out by age or destroyed by accident still afforded the materials
for generating new ones, concluded likewise that a
soul being dislodged did not wholly perish, but was
destined, by a similar revolution in Nature, to act
again, and to animate some other body. This last
principle gave rise to the doctrine of Transmigration: but we must not presume of course, that, where it prevailed, it necessarily excluded the other opinions; for it is not remote from the usual procedure of the human mind, blending in obscure matters
imagination and reasoning together, to unite ideas
the most inconsistent. When HIomer represents the
ghosts of his heroes appearing at the sacrifices of
Ulysses, he supposes them endued with life, sensation, and a capacity of moving; but he has joined to these powers of living existence uncomeliness,
want of strength, want of distinction, the characteristics of a dead carcass. This is what the mind
is apt to do: it is very apt to confound the ideas
of the surviving soul and the dead body. The
vulgar have always and still do confound these very
irreconcilable ideas. They lay the scene of apparitions in churchyards; they habit the ghost in a shroud; and it appears in all the ghastly paleness
of a corpse. A contradiction of this kind has given
rise to a doubt whether the Druids did in reality
hold the doctrine of Transmigration. There is positive testimony that they did hold it; there is also testimony as positive that they buried or burned
* Cic. Tusc. Quest. Lib. I.
? ? ? ? 182 ABRIDGMENT. OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
with the dead utensils, arms, slaves, and whatever
might be judged useful to them, as if they were to
be removed into a separate state. They might have
held both these opinions; and we ought not to be
surprised to find error inconsistent.
The objects of the Druid worship were many. In
this respect they did not differ from other heathens:
but it must be owned that in general their ideas of
divine matters were more exalted than those of the
Greeks and Romans,'and that they did not fall into
an idolatry so coarse and vulgar. That their gods
should be represented under a hunian. form they
thought derogatory to beings uncreated and imperishable. To confine what can endure no limits within walls and roofs they judged absurd and impious. In these particulars there was something refined and
suitable enough to a just idea of the Divinity. But
the rest was not equal. Some notions they had, like
the greatest part of mankind, of a Being eternal and
infinite; but they also, like the greatest part of mankind, paid their worship to inferior objects, from the
nature of ignorance and superstition always tending
downwards.
The first and chief objects of their worship were
the elements, -- and of the elements, fire, as the most
pure, active, penetrating, and what gives life and
energy to all the rest. Among fires, the preference
was given to the sun, as the most glorious visible
being, and the fountain of all life. Next they venerated the moon and the planets. After fire, water was
held in reverence. This, when pure, and ritually
prepared, was supposed to wash away all sins, and to
qualify the priest to approach the altar of the gods
with more acceptable prayers: washing with water
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 183
being a type natural enough of inward cleansing and
purity of mind. They also worshipped fountains and
lakes and rivers.
Oaks were regarded by this sect with a particular
veneration, as, by their greatness, their shade, their
stability, and duration, not ill representing the perfections of the Deity. From the great reverence in
which they held this tree, it is thought their name of
Druids is derived: the word Deru, in the Celtic language, signifying an oak. But their reverence was
not wholly confined to this tree. A1l forests were
held sacred; and many particular plants were respected, as endued with a particular holiness. No
plant was more revered than the mistletoe, especially
if it grew on the oak, -not only because it is rarely
found upon that tree, but because the oak was among
the Druids peculiarly sacred. Towards the end of the
year they searched for this plant, and when it was
found great rejoicing ensued; it was approached with
reverence; it was cut with a golden hook; it was
not suffered to fall to the ground, but received with
great care and solemnity upon a white garment.
In ancient times, and in all countries, the profession of physic was annexed to the priesthood. Men imagined that all their diseases were inflicted by the
immediate displeasure of the Deity, and therefore concluded that the remedy would most probably proceed from those who were particularly employed in his
service. Whatever, for the same reason, was found
of efficacy to avert or cure distempers was considered
as partaking somewhat of the Divinity. Medicine
was always joined with magic: no remedy was administered without mysterious ceremony ahd incan, tation. The use of plants and herbs, both in medici
? ? ? ? 184 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
nal and magical practices, was early and general.
The mistletoe, pointed out by its very peculiar appearance and manner of growth, must have struck
powerfully on the imaginations of a superstitious
people. Its virtues may have been soon discovered.
It has been fully proved, against the opinion of
Celsus, that internal remedies were of very early
use. * Yet if it had not, the practice of the present
savage nations supports the'probability of that opinion. By some modern authors the mistletoe is said
to be of signal service in the cure of certain convulsive distempers, which, by their suddenness, their violence, and their unaccountable symptoms, have been ever considered as supernatural. The epilepsy was
by the Romans for that reason called morbus sacer;
and all other nations have regarded it in the same
light. The Druids also looked upon vervain, and
some other plants, as holy, and probably for a similar reason.
The other objects of the Druid worship were chiefly serpents, in the animal world, and rude heaps of
stone, or great pillars without polish or sculpture, in
the inanimate. The serpent, by his dangerous qualities, is not ill adapted to inspire terror,- by his annual renewals, to raise admiration, -- by his make,
easily susceptible of many figures, to serve for a variety of symbols, - and by all, to be an object of religious observance: accordingly, no object of idolatry
has been more universal. t And this is so natural,; See this point in the Divine Legation of Moses.
t IIapca 7raVTL VOulO6'vOVV reap' V/LW OEiov 0LtsL orlJ,/oXov pLEya Kal
i,uva-rTpto dvaypadCerat. -Justin Martyr, in Stillingfleet's Origines
Sacrae.
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 185
that serpent-veneration seems to be rising again even
in the bosom of Mahometanism. *
The great stones, it has been supposed, were originally monuments of illustrious men, or the memorials
of considerable actions,- or they were landmarks for
deciding the bounds of fixed property. In time the
memory of the persons or facts which these stones
were erected to perpetuate wore away; but the reverence which custom, and probably certain periodical
ceremonies, had preserved for those places was not
so soon obliterated. The monuments themselves then
came to be venerated, -- and not the less because
the reason for venerating them was no longer known.
The landmark was in those times held sacred on account of its great uses, and easily passed into an object of worship. Hence the god Terminus amongst the Romans. This religious observance towards rude
stones is one of the most ancient and universal of all
customs. Traces of it are to be found in almost all,
and especially in these Northern nations; and to this
day, in Lapland, where heathenism is not yet entirely
extirpated, their chief divinity, which they call Storjunkare, is notliing more than a rude stone. ~
Some writers among the moderns, because the
Druids ordinarily made no use of images in their
worship, have given into an opinion that their religion was founded on the unity of the Godhead.
But this is no just consequence. The spirituality
of the idea, admitting their idea to have been spiritual, does not infer the unity of the object. All
the ancient authors who speak of this order agree,
that, besides those great and more distinguishing ob* Norden's Travels.
t Scheffer's Lapland, p. 92, the translation.
? ? ? ? 186 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
jects of their worship already mentioned, they had
gods answerable to those adored by the Romans.
And we know that the Northern nations, who overran the Roman Empire, had in fact a great plurality of gods, whose attributes, though not their names,
bore a close analogy to the idols of the Southern
world.
The Druids performed the highest act of religion
by sacrifice, agreeably to the custom of all other
nations. They not only offered up beasts, but even
human victims: a barbarity almost universal in the
heathen world, but exercised more uniformly, and
with circumstances of peculiar cruelty, amongst those
nations where the religion of the Druids prevailed.
They held that the life of a man was the only atonement for the life of a man. They frequently inclosed a number of wretches, some captives, some criminals,
and, when these were wanting, even innocent victims,
in a gigantic statue of wicker-work, to which they set
fire, and invoked their deities amidst the horrid cries
and shrieks of the sufferers, and the shouts of those
who assisted at this tremendous rite.
There were none among the ancients more eminent
for all the arts of divination than the Druids. Many
of the superstitious practices in use to this day among
the country people for discovering their future fortune seem to be remains of Druidism. Futurity is
the great concern of mankind. Whilst the wise and
learned look back upon experience and history, and
reason from things past about events to come, it is
natural for the rude and ignorant, who have the
same desires without the same reasonable means
of satisfaction, to inquire into the secrets of futurity, and to govern their conduct by omens, dreams,
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 187
and prodigies. The Druids, as well as the Etruscan
and Roman priesthood, attended with diligence the
flight of birds, the pecking of chickens, and the entrails of their animal sacrifices. It was obvious that no contemptible prognostics of the weather were to
be taken from certain motions and appearances in
birds and beasts. * A people who lived mostly in
the open air must have been well skilled in these
observations. And as changes in the weather influenced much the fortune of their buntings or their harvests, which were all their fortunes, it was easy
to apply the same prognostics to every event by a
transition very natural and common; and thus probably arose the science of auspices, which formerly guided the deliberations of councils and the motions
of armies, though now they only serve, and scarcely
serve, to amuse the vulgar.
The Druid temple is represented to have been
nothing more than a consecrated wood. The ancients speak of no other. But monuments remain which show that the Druids were not in this respect
wholly confined to groves. They had also a species
of building which in all probability was destined to
religious use. This sort of structure was, indeed,
without walls or roof. It was a colonnade, generally circular, of huge, rude stones, sometimes single, sometimes double, sometimes with, often without, an
architrave. These open temples were not in all respects peculiar to the Northern nations. Those of the Greeks, which were dedicated to the celestial
gods, ought in strictness to have had no roof, and
were thence called hyacethra. t
* Cic. de Divinatione, Lib. I.
t Decor. . . . perficitur statione,. . . . cum Jovi Fnlguri, et
? ? ? ? 188 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
Many of these monuments remain in the British
islands, curious for their antiquity, or astonishing for
the greatness of the work: enormous masses of rock,
so poised as to be set in motion with the slightest
touch, yet not to be pushed from their place by a
very great power; vast altars, peculiar and mystical
in their structure, thrones, basins, heaps or cairns;
and a variety of other works, displaying a wild industry, and a strange mixture of ingenuity and rudeness. But they are all worthy of attention, - not only as such monuments often clear up the darkness and supply the defects of history, but as they lay
open a noble field of speculation for those who study
the changes which have happened in the manners,
opinions, and sciences of men, and who think them.
as worthy of regard as the fortune of wars and the
revolutions of kingdoms.
The short account which I have here given does
not contain the whole of what is handed down to us
by ancient writers, or discovered by modern research,
concerning this remarkable order. But I have selected those which appear to me the most striking
features, and such as throw the strongest light on
the genius and true character of the Druidical in
stitution. In some respects it was undoubtedly very
singular; it stood out more from the body of the
people than the priesthood of other nations; and
their knowledge and policy appeared the more striking by being contrasted with the great simplicity and
rudeness of the people over whom they presided.
But, notwithstanding some peculiar appearances and
Ccelo, ct Soli, et Lunm xedificia sub divo hypsethraque constituentur.
Horum enim deorum et species et effectus in aperto mundo atque lucenti prsesentes videmus. - Vitruv. de Architect. p. 6. de Laet. Antwerp.
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 189
practices, it is impossible not to perceive a great conformity between this and the ancient orders which have been established for the purposes of religion in
almost all countries. For, to say nothing of the resemblance which many have traced between this and
the Jewish priesthood, the Persian Magi, and the Indian Brahmans, it did not so greatly differ from the Roman priesthood, either in the original objects or
in the general mode of worship, or in the constitution
of their hierarchy.
In the original institution neither
of these nations had the use of images; the rules of
the Salian as well as Druid discipline were delivered
in verse; both orders were under an elective head;
and both were for a long time the lawyers of their
country. So that, when the order of Druids was
suppressed by the Emperors, it was rather from a
dread of an influence incompatible with the Roman
government than from any dislike of their religious
opinions.
CHAPTER III.
THE REDUCTION OF BRITAIN BY THE ROMANS.
THE death of Caesar, and the civil wars which ensued, afforded foreign nations some respite from the Roman ambition. 'Augustus, having restored peace
to mankind, seems to have made it a settled maxim
of his reign not to extend the Empire. He found
himself at tlie head of a new monarchy; and he was
more solicitous to confirm it by the institutions of
sound policy than to extend the bounds of its dominion. In consequence of this plan Britain was neglected.
? ? ? ? 190 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
Tiberius came a regular successor to an established
government. But his politics were dictated rather by
his character than his situation. He was a lawful
prince, and he acted on the maxims of an usurper.
Having made it a rule never to remove far from the
capital, and jealous of every reputation which seemed
too great for the measure of a subject, he neither undertook any enterprise of moment in his own person
nor cared to commit the conduct of it to another.
There was little in a British triumph that could affect a temper like that of Tiberius. ,
His successor, Caligula, was not influenced by this,
nor indeed by any regular system; for, having undertaken an expedition to Britain without any determinate view, he abandoned it on the point of execution without reason. And adding ridicule to his disgrace, his soldiers returned to Rome loaded with shells. These spoils he displayed as the ornaments
of a triumph which he celebrated over the Ocean, --
if in all these particulars we may trust to the historians of that time, who relate things almost incredible
of the folly of their masters and the patience of the
Roman people.
But the Roman people, however degenerate, still
retained much of their martial spirit; and as the
Emperors held their power almost entirely by the
affection of the soldiery, they founfd themselves often
obliged to such enterprises as might prove them no
improper heads of a military constitution. An expedition to Britain was well adapted to answer all the
purposes of this ostentatious policy. The country
was remote and little known, so that every exploit
there, as if achieved in another world, appeared at
Rome witL double pomp and lustre; whilst the sea,
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 191
which. divided Britain from the continent, prevented
a failure in that island from being followed by any
consequences alarming to the body of the Empire.
A pretext was not wanting to this war. The maritime Britons, while the terror of the Roman arms
remained fresh upon theii' minds, continued regularly to pay the tribute imposed by Coesar. But the
generation which experienced that war having passed
away, that which succeeded felt the burden, but
knew fromn rumor only the superiority which had
imposed it; and being very ignorant, as of all things
else, so of the true extent of the Roman power, they
were not afraid to provoke it by discontinuing the
payment of the tribute.
This gave occasion to the Emperor Clau- A. D. 43
dius, ninety-seven years after the first expedition of Caesar, to invade Britain in person, and with
a great army. But he, having rather surveyed than
conducted the war, left in a short time the management of it to his legate, Plautius, who subdued without much difficulty those countries which lay to the southward of the Thames, the best cultivated and most
accessible parts of the island. But the inhabitants of
the rough inland countries, the people called Cattivellauni, made a more strenuous opposition. They were
under the command of Caractacus, a chief of great
and just renown amongst all the British nations.
This leader wisely adjusted his conduct of the war to
the circumstances of his savage subjects and his rude
country. Plautius obtained no decisive advantages
over him. He opposed Ostorius Scapula, who succeeded that general, with the same bravery, but with
unequal, success; for he was, after various turns of
fortune, obliged to abandon his dominions, which Ostorius at length subdued and disarmed.
? ? ? ? 192 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
This bulwark of the British freedom being overturned, Ostorius was not afraid to enlarge his plan.
Not content with disarming the enemies of Rome,
he proceeded to the same extremities with those nations who had been always quiet, and who, under
the name of an alliance, lay ripening for subjection.
This fierce people, who looked upon their arms as
their only valuable possessions, refused to submit
to terms as severe as the most absolute conquest
could impose. They unanimously entered into a
league against the Romans. But their confederacy
was either not sufficiently strong or fortunate to resist so able a commander, and only afforded him an
opportunity, from a more comprehensive victory, to
extend the Roman province a considerable way to
the northern and western parts of the island. The
frontiers of this acquisition, which extended along
the rivers Severn and Nen, he secured by a chain
of forts and stations; the inland parts he quieted
by the settlement of colonies of his veteran troops
at Maldon and Verulam: and such was the beginning of those establishments. which afterwards became so numerous in Britain. This commander was the first who traced in this island a plan of settlement and civil policy to concur with his military
operations. For, after he had settled these colonies,
considering with what difficulty any and especially
an uncivilized people are broke into submission to
a foreign government, he imposed it on some of the
most powerful of the British nations in a more indirect manner. He placed thenm under kings of
their own race; and whilst he paid this compliment
to their pride, he secured their obedience by the
interested fidelity of a prince who knew, that, as he
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 193
owed the beginning, so he depended for the duration of his authority wholly upon their favor. Such
was the dignity and extent of the Roman policy,
that they could number even royalty itself amongst
their instruments of servitude.
Ostorius did not confine himself within the boundaries of these rivers. He observed that the Silures,
inhabitants of South Wales, one of the most martial
tribes in Britain, were yet unhurt and almost untouched by the war. He could expect to make no
progress to the northward, whilst an enemy of such
importance hung upon his rear, - especially as they
were now commanded by Caractacus, who preserved[
the spirit of a prince, though he had lost his dominions, and fled from nation to nation, whereverhe could find a banner erected against the Romans. His character obtained him reception and command.
Though the Silures, thus headed, did everything
that became their martial reputation, both in the
choice and defence of their posts, the Romans, by
their discipline and the weight and excellence of
their arms, prevailed over the naked bravery of this
gallant people, and defeated them in a great. 51
battle. Caractacus was soon after betrayed
into their hands, and conveyed to Rome. The merit
of the prisoner was the sole ornament of a triumph
celebrated over an indigent people headed by a gallant chief. The Romans crowded eagerly to behold
the man who, with inferior forces, and in an obscure
corner of the world, had so many years stood up
against the weight of their empire.
As the arts of adulation improved in proportion
as the real grandeur of Rome declined, this advantage was compared to the greatest conquests in the
VOL. VII. 13
? ? ? ? 194 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
most flourishing times of the Republic: and so far
as regarded the personal merit of Caractacus, it
could not be too highly rated. Being brought before the emperor, he behaved with such manly fortitude, and spoke of his former actions and his present condition with so much plain sense and unaffected dignity, that he moved the compassion of the emperor, who remitted much of that severity which
the Romans formerly exercised upon their captives.
Rome was now a monarchy, and that fierce republican spirit was abated which had neither feeling
nor respect for the character of unfortunate sovereigns.
The Silures were not reduced by the loss of Caractacus, and the great defeat they had suffered.
They resisted every measure of force or artifice that
could be employed against them, with the most generous obstinacy: a resolution in which they were
confirmed by some imprudent words of the legate,
threatening to extirpate, or, what appeared to them
scarcely less dreadful, to transplant their nation.
Their natural bravery thus hardened into despair,
and inhabiting a country very difficult of access, they
presented an impenetrable barrier to the progress of
that commander; insomuch that, wasted with continual cares, and with the mortification to find the
end of his affairs so little answerable to the splendor
of their beginning, Ostorius died of grief, and left all
things in confusion.
The legates who succeeded to his charge did little
more for about sixty years than secure the frontiers
of the Roman province. But in the beginning of
Nero's reign the command in Britain was devolved
on Suetonius Paulilus, a soldier of merit and expe.
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 195rience, who, when he came to view the theatre of his future operations, and had well considered the nature
of the country, discerned evidently that the war must
of necessity be protracted to a great length, if he
should be obliged to penetrate into every fastness to which the enemy retired, and to combat their flying parties one by one. He therefore resolved to make such a blow at the head as must of course disable all the inferior members.
The island then called Mona, now Anglesey, at
that time was the principal residence- of the Druids.
Here their councils were held, and their commands
from hence were dispersed among all the British nations. Paulinus proposed, in reducing this their favorite and sacred seat, to destroy, or at least greatly to weaken, the body of the Druids, and thereby to extinguish the great actuating principle of all the Celtic
people, and that which was alone capable of communicating order and energy to their operations.
Whilst the Roman troops were passing that strait
which divides this island from the continent of Britain, they halted on a sudden, -not checked by the
resistance of the enemy, but suspended by a spectacle of an unusual and altogether surprising nature.
On every side of the British army were seen bands of
Druids in their most sacred habits surrounding the
troops, lifting their hands to heaven, devoting to
death their enemies, and animating their disciples to
religious frenzy by the uncouth ceremonies of a savage ritual, and the horrid mysteries of a superstition
familiar with blood. The female Druids also moved
about in a troubled order, their hair dishevelled,
their garments torn, torches in their hands, and,
with an horror increased by the perverted softness
? ? ? ? 196: ABRIDGMENT OF: ENGLISH HISTORY.
of their sex, howled out the same curses and incanta.
tions with greater clamor. * Astonished at this sight,
the. Romans for- some time neither advanced nor returned the darts of the enemy. But at length, rousing from their trance, and animating each other with
the shame of yielding to the impotence of female and
fanatical fury, they found the resistance by- no means
proportioned to the horror and solemnity of the preparations. These overstrained efforts had, as frequently happens, exhausted the spirits of the men, and stifled that ardor they were intended to kindle. The Britons were defeated; and Paulinus, pretending to
detest the barbarity of their superstition, in reality
from, the cruelty of his own nature, and that. he might
cut off the occasion of future disturbances, exercised
the most unjustifiable severities on this unfortunate
people. He burned the Druids in their own fires;
and that no retreat might be afforded to that order,
their consecrated woods were everywhere destroyed.
Whilst he was occupied in this service, a general rebellion broke out, which his severity to the Druids
served rather to inflame than allay.
From the manners of the republic a custom had
been ingrafted into the monarchy of Rome altogether
unsuitable to that mode of government. In the time
* There is a curious instance of a ceremony not unlike this in a
fragment of an ancient Runic history, which it may not be disagreeable to compare with this part of the British manners. "~Ne vero
regem ex improviso adoriretur Ulafus, admoto sacculo suo, eundem
quatere coepit, carmen simul magicum obmurmurans, hac verborum
formula: Duriter increpetur cum tonitru; stringant Cyclopia tela; in.
jiciant manum Parche;. . . . acriter excipient monticolm genii plurimi, atque gigantes. . . . contundent; quatient; procelle. . . .
disrumpent lapides navigium ejus. . . . " --Hickesii Thesaur. Vol.
II. p. 140.
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF:. ENGLISH HISTORY. 197
of the Commonwealth, those who lived in a dependent and cliental relation on the great men used frequently to show marks of their acknowledgment by
considerable bequests at their death. But when all
the scattered powers of that state became united in
the emperor, these legacies followed the general current, and flowed in upon: the common patron. In
the will of every considerable person he inherited
with the children and relations, and such devises
formed no inconsiderable part of his revenue: a
monstrous practice, which let an absolute sovereign
into all the private concerns of his subjects, and
which, by giving the prince a prospect of one day
sharing in- all the great estates, whenever he was
urged by avarice or necessity, naturally pointed out
a resource by an anticipation always in his power.
This practice extended into the provinces. A king
of the Iceni * had devised a considerable part of his
substance to the emperor. -But the Roman procurator, not satisfied with entering into his master's portion, seized upon the rest, - and pursuing his injustice to the most horrible outrages, publicly scourged Boadicea, queen to the deceased prince, and violated
-his daughters. These - cruelties, aggravated by the
shame and scorn that attended them -- the general
severity of the government, - the taxes, (new- to a
barbarous people,) laid on without; discretion, extorted without mercy, and,- even when respited, made
utterly ruinous by exorbitant usury, -- the further
mischiefs they had to dread, when' more completely
reduced, - all these, with. the absence of the legate
and the army on a remote expedition, provoked all
the tribes of the Britons,- provincials, allies, enemies,
* Inhabitants of Norfolk and Suffolk.
? ? ? ? 198 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
to a general insurrection. The command of this confederacy was conferred on Boadicea, as the first in
rank, and resentment of injuries. They began by
cutting off a Roman legion; then they fell upon the
colonies of Camelodunum and Verulam, and with a
barbarous fury butchered the Romans and their adherents to the number of seventy thousand.
An end had been now put to the Roman power in
this island, if Paulinus, with unexampled vigor and
prudence, had not conducted his army through the
midst of the enemy's country from Anglesey to London. There uniting the soldiers that remained dispersed in different garrisons, he formed an army of
ten thousand men, and marched to attack the enemy
in the height of their success and security. The army of the, Britons is said to have amounted to two
hundred and thirty thousand; but it was ill composed, and without choice or order, -women, boys,
old men, priests, -- full of presumption, tumult, and
confusion. Boadicea was at their head, - a woman
of masculine spirit, but precipitant, and without any
military knowledge.
The event was such as might have been expected.
Paulinus, having chosen a situation favorable to the
smallness of his numbers, and encouraged his troops
not to dread a multitude whose weight was dangerous only to themselves, piercing into the midst of
that disorderly crowd, after a blind and furious resistance, obtained a complete victory. Eighty thousand Britons fell ill this battle. . D. 1. Paulinus improved the terror this slaughter had produced by the unparalleled severities which he exercised. This method would probably have succeeded to subdue
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 199
to depopulate the nation, if such loud complaints
had not been made at Rome of the legate's cruelty
as procured his recall.
Three successive legates carried on the affairs of
Britain during the latter part of Nero's reign, and
during the troubles occasioned by the disputed succession. But they were all of an inactive character.
The victory obtained by Paulinus had disabled the
Britons from any new attempt. Content, therefore,
with recovering the Roman province, these generals
compounded, as it were, with the enemy for the rest
of the island. They caressed the troops; they indulged them in their licentiousness; and not being
of a character to repress the seditions that continually arose, they submitted to preserve their ease and
some shadow of authority by sacrificing the most material parts of it. And thus they continued, soldiers
and commanders, by a sort of compact, in a common
neglect of all duty on the frontiers of the Empire, in
the face of a bold and incensed enemy.
But when Vespasian arrived to the head
A. D. 69.
of affairs, he caused the vigor of his government to be felt in Britain, as he had done in all the
other parts of the Empire. He was not afraid to receive great services. His legates, Cerealis and Frontinus, reduced the Silures and Brigantes, - one the most warlike, the other the most numerous people
in the island. But its final reduction and
perfect settlement were reserved for Julius
Agricola, a man by whom it was a happiness for the
Britons to be conquered. He was endued with all
those bold and popular virtues which would have
given him the first place in the times of the free
Republic; and he joined to them all that reserve
? ? ? ? 200 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
and'moderation which enabled him to fill great offices with safety, and made him a good subject under
a jealous despotism.
Though the summer was almost spent when he
arrived in Britain, knowing how much the vigor and
success of the first stroke influences all subsequent
measures, he entered immediately into action. After reducing some tribes, Mona became the principal
object of his attention. . The cruel ravages of Paulinus had not entirely effaced the idea of sanctity
which the Britons by a long course of hereditary reverence had annexed to that island: it became once
more a place of consideration by the return of the
Druids. Here Agricola observed a conduct very different from that of his: predecessor, Paulinus: the
island, when he had reduced it, was treated with
great lenity.
? ? ? ? 178 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
diction, so similar to that used by the ancient Athenians, and to that'since practised among Christians,
was followed by an. exclusion from all the benefits of
civil community; and it was accordingly the most
dreaded of all punishments. This ample authority
was in general usefully exerted; by the interposition
of the Druids differences were composed, and wars
elided; and the minds of the fierce Northerni people,
being reconciled to each other under the influence of
religion, united with signal effect against their common enemies.
There was a class of the Druids whom they called
Bards, who delivered in songs (their only history)
the exploits of their heroes, and who composed those
verses which contained the secrets of Druidical discipline, their principles of natural and moral philosophy, their astronomy, and the mystical rites of their religion. These verses in all probability bore a near
resemblance to the Golden Verses of Pythagoras, -
to those of Phocylides, Orphels, and other remnants
of the most anlcient Greek poets. The Druids, even
in Gaul, where they were not altogether ignorant of
the use of letters, in order to preserve their knowledge in greater respect, committed none of their pre-. cepts to writing. The proficiency of their pupils was estimated principally by the number'of technical
verses which they retained in their memory: a circumstance that shows this discipline rather calculated to preserve with accuracy a few plain maxims
of traditionary science than to improve and extend
it. And this is not the sole circumstance which
leads us to believe that among them learning had
advanced no further than its infancy.
The scholars of the Druids, like those of Pythago:
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 179
ras, were carefully enjoined a long and religious silence: for, if barbarians come to acquire any knowledge, it is rather by instruction than examination; they must therefore be silent. Pythagoras, in the
rude times of Greece, required silence in his disciples; but Socrates, in the meridian of the Athenian
refinement, spoke less than his scholars: everything
was disputed in the Academy.
The Druids are said to be very expert in astronomy, in geography, and in all parts of mathematical
knowledge; and authors speak in a very exaggerated strain of their excellence in these, and in many
other sciences. Some elemental knowledge I suppose they had; but I can scarcely be persuaded
that their learning was either deep or extensive.
In all countries where Druidism was professed, the
youth were generally instructed by that order; and
yet was there little either in -the manners of the people, in their way of life, or their works of art, that
demonstrates profound science or particularly mathematical skill. Britain, where their discipline was
in its highest perfection, and which was therefore
resorted to by the people of Gaul as an oracle in
Druidical questions, was more barbarous in all other respects than Gaul itself, or than any other country then kniown in Europe. Those piles of rude magnificence, Stonehenge and Abury, are in vain
produced in proof of their mathematical abilities.
These vast structures have nothing which can be
admired, but the greatness of the work; and they
are not the only instances of the great things which
the mere labor of many hands united, and persevering in their purpose, may accomplish with very
little help from mechanics. This may be evinced
? ? ? ? 180 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY,
by the immense buildings and the low state of the
sciences among the original Peruvians.
The Druids were eminent above all the philosophic
lawgivers of antiquity for their care in impressing
the doctrine of the soul's immortality on the minds
of their people, as an operative and leading principle. This doctrine was inculcated on the scheme
of Transmigration, which some imagine them to have
derived from Pythagoras. But it is by no means
necessary to resort to any particular teacher for an
opinion which owes its birth to the weak struggles
of unenlightened reason, and to mistakes natural
to the human mind. The idea of the soul's immortality is indeed ancient, universal, and in a manner inherent in our nature; but it is not easy for
a rude people to conceive any other mode of existence than one similar to what they had experienced in life, nor any other world as the scene of such an existence but this we inhabit, beyond the
bounds of which the mind extends itself with great
difficulty. Admiration, indeed, was able to exalt. to
heaven a few selected heroes: it did not seem absurd that those who in their mortal state had distinguished themselves as superior and overruling spirits should after death ascend to that sphere
which influences and governs everything below, or
that the proper abode of beings at once so illustrious
and permanent should be in that part of Nature in
which they had always observed the greatest splendor and the least mutation. But on ordinary occasions it was natural some should imagine that the dead retired into a remote country, separated
from the living by seas or mountains. It was natural that some should follow their imagination with'
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 181
a simplicity still purer, and pursue the souls of men
no further than the sepulchres in which their bodies
had been deposited;* whilst others of deeper penetration, observing that bodies worn out by age or destroyed by accident still afforded the materials
for generating new ones, concluded likewise that a
soul being dislodged did not wholly perish, but was
destined, by a similar revolution in Nature, to act
again, and to animate some other body. This last
principle gave rise to the doctrine of Transmigration: but we must not presume of course, that, where it prevailed, it necessarily excluded the other opinions; for it is not remote from the usual procedure of the human mind, blending in obscure matters
imagination and reasoning together, to unite ideas
the most inconsistent. When HIomer represents the
ghosts of his heroes appearing at the sacrifices of
Ulysses, he supposes them endued with life, sensation, and a capacity of moving; but he has joined to these powers of living existence uncomeliness,
want of strength, want of distinction, the characteristics of a dead carcass. This is what the mind
is apt to do: it is very apt to confound the ideas
of the surviving soul and the dead body. The
vulgar have always and still do confound these very
irreconcilable ideas. They lay the scene of apparitions in churchyards; they habit the ghost in a shroud; and it appears in all the ghastly paleness
of a corpse. A contradiction of this kind has given
rise to a doubt whether the Druids did in reality
hold the doctrine of Transmigration. There is positive testimony that they did hold it; there is also testimony as positive that they buried or burned
* Cic. Tusc. Quest. Lib. I.
? ? ? ? 182 ABRIDGMENT. OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
with the dead utensils, arms, slaves, and whatever
might be judged useful to them, as if they were to
be removed into a separate state. They might have
held both these opinions; and we ought not to be
surprised to find error inconsistent.
The objects of the Druid worship were many. In
this respect they did not differ from other heathens:
but it must be owned that in general their ideas of
divine matters were more exalted than those of the
Greeks and Romans,'and that they did not fall into
an idolatry so coarse and vulgar. That their gods
should be represented under a hunian. form they
thought derogatory to beings uncreated and imperishable. To confine what can endure no limits within walls and roofs they judged absurd and impious. In these particulars there was something refined and
suitable enough to a just idea of the Divinity. But
the rest was not equal. Some notions they had, like
the greatest part of mankind, of a Being eternal and
infinite; but they also, like the greatest part of mankind, paid their worship to inferior objects, from the
nature of ignorance and superstition always tending
downwards.
The first and chief objects of their worship were
the elements, -- and of the elements, fire, as the most
pure, active, penetrating, and what gives life and
energy to all the rest. Among fires, the preference
was given to the sun, as the most glorious visible
being, and the fountain of all life. Next they venerated the moon and the planets. After fire, water was
held in reverence. This, when pure, and ritually
prepared, was supposed to wash away all sins, and to
qualify the priest to approach the altar of the gods
with more acceptable prayers: washing with water
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 183
being a type natural enough of inward cleansing and
purity of mind. They also worshipped fountains and
lakes and rivers.
Oaks were regarded by this sect with a particular
veneration, as, by their greatness, their shade, their
stability, and duration, not ill representing the perfections of the Deity. From the great reverence in
which they held this tree, it is thought their name of
Druids is derived: the word Deru, in the Celtic language, signifying an oak. But their reverence was
not wholly confined to this tree. A1l forests were
held sacred; and many particular plants were respected, as endued with a particular holiness. No
plant was more revered than the mistletoe, especially
if it grew on the oak, -not only because it is rarely
found upon that tree, but because the oak was among
the Druids peculiarly sacred. Towards the end of the
year they searched for this plant, and when it was
found great rejoicing ensued; it was approached with
reverence; it was cut with a golden hook; it was
not suffered to fall to the ground, but received with
great care and solemnity upon a white garment.
In ancient times, and in all countries, the profession of physic was annexed to the priesthood. Men imagined that all their diseases were inflicted by the
immediate displeasure of the Deity, and therefore concluded that the remedy would most probably proceed from those who were particularly employed in his
service. Whatever, for the same reason, was found
of efficacy to avert or cure distempers was considered
as partaking somewhat of the Divinity. Medicine
was always joined with magic: no remedy was administered without mysterious ceremony ahd incan, tation. The use of plants and herbs, both in medici
? ? ? ? 184 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
nal and magical practices, was early and general.
The mistletoe, pointed out by its very peculiar appearance and manner of growth, must have struck
powerfully on the imaginations of a superstitious
people. Its virtues may have been soon discovered.
It has been fully proved, against the opinion of
Celsus, that internal remedies were of very early
use. * Yet if it had not, the practice of the present
savage nations supports the'probability of that opinion. By some modern authors the mistletoe is said
to be of signal service in the cure of certain convulsive distempers, which, by their suddenness, their violence, and their unaccountable symptoms, have been ever considered as supernatural. The epilepsy was
by the Romans for that reason called morbus sacer;
and all other nations have regarded it in the same
light. The Druids also looked upon vervain, and
some other plants, as holy, and probably for a similar reason.
The other objects of the Druid worship were chiefly serpents, in the animal world, and rude heaps of
stone, or great pillars without polish or sculpture, in
the inanimate. The serpent, by his dangerous qualities, is not ill adapted to inspire terror,- by his annual renewals, to raise admiration, -- by his make,
easily susceptible of many figures, to serve for a variety of symbols, - and by all, to be an object of religious observance: accordingly, no object of idolatry
has been more universal. t And this is so natural,; See this point in the Divine Legation of Moses.
t IIapca 7raVTL VOulO6'vOVV reap' V/LW OEiov 0LtsL orlJ,/oXov pLEya Kal
i,uva-rTpto dvaypadCerat. -Justin Martyr, in Stillingfleet's Origines
Sacrae.
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 185
that serpent-veneration seems to be rising again even
in the bosom of Mahometanism. *
The great stones, it has been supposed, were originally monuments of illustrious men, or the memorials
of considerable actions,- or they were landmarks for
deciding the bounds of fixed property. In time the
memory of the persons or facts which these stones
were erected to perpetuate wore away; but the reverence which custom, and probably certain periodical
ceremonies, had preserved for those places was not
so soon obliterated. The monuments themselves then
came to be venerated, -- and not the less because
the reason for venerating them was no longer known.
The landmark was in those times held sacred on account of its great uses, and easily passed into an object of worship. Hence the god Terminus amongst the Romans. This religious observance towards rude
stones is one of the most ancient and universal of all
customs. Traces of it are to be found in almost all,
and especially in these Northern nations; and to this
day, in Lapland, where heathenism is not yet entirely
extirpated, their chief divinity, which they call Storjunkare, is notliing more than a rude stone. ~
Some writers among the moderns, because the
Druids ordinarily made no use of images in their
worship, have given into an opinion that their religion was founded on the unity of the Godhead.
But this is no just consequence. The spirituality
of the idea, admitting their idea to have been spiritual, does not infer the unity of the object. All
the ancient authors who speak of this order agree,
that, besides those great and more distinguishing ob* Norden's Travels.
t Scheffer's Lapland, p. 92, the translation.
? ? ? ? 186 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
jects of their worship already mentioned, they had
gods answerable to those adored by the Romans.
And we know that the Northern nations, who overran the Roman Empire, had in fact a great plurality of gods, whose attributes, though not their names,
bore a close analogy to the idols of the Southern
world.
The Druids performed the highest act of religion
by sacrifice, agreeably to the custom of all other
nations. They not only offered up beasts, but even
human victims: a barbarity almost universal in the
heathen world, but exercised more uniformly, and
with circumstances of peculiar cruelty, amongst those
nations where the religion of the Druids prevailed.
They held that the life of a man was the only atonement for the life of a man. They frequently inclosed a number of wretches, some captives, some criminals,
and, when these were wanting, even innocent victims,
in a gigantic statue of wicker-work, to which they set
fire, and invoked their deities amidst the horrid cries
and shrieks of the sufferers, and the shouts of those
who assisted at this tremendous rite.
There were none among the ancients more eminent
for all the arts of divination than the Druids. Many
of the superstitious practices in use to this day among
the country people for discovering their future fortune seem to be remains of Druidism. Futurity is
the great concern of mankind. Whilst the wise and
learned look back upon experience and history, and
reason from things past about events to come, it is
natural for the rude and ignorant, who have the
same desires without the same reasonable means
of satisfaction, to inquire into the secrets of futurity, and to govern their conduct by omens, dreams,
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 187
and prodigies. The Druids, as well as the Etruscan
and Roman priesthood, attended with diligence the
flight of birds, the pecking of chickens, and the entrails of their animal sacrifices. It was obvious that no contemptible prognostics of the weather were to
be taken from certain motions and appearances in
birds and beasts. * A people who lived mostly in
the open air must have been well skilled in these
observations. And as changes in the weather influenced much the fortune of their buntings or their harvests, which were all their fortunes, it was easy
to apply the same prognostics to every event by a
transition very natural and common; and thus probably arose the science of auspices, which formerly guided the deliberations of councils and the motions
of armies, though now they only serve, and scarcely
serve, to amuse the vulgar.
The Druid temple is represented to have been
nothing more than a consecrated wood. The ancients speak of no other. But monuments remain which show that the Druids were not in this respect
wholly confined to groves. They had also a species
of building which in all probability was destined to
religious use. This sort of structure was, indeed,
without walls or roof. It was a colonnade, generally circular, of huge, rude stones, sometimes single, sometimes double, sometimes with, often without, an
architrave. These open temples were not in all respects peculiar to the Northern nations. Those of the Greeks, which were dedicated to the celestial
gods, ought in strictness to have had no roof, and
were thence called hyacethra. t
* Cic. de Divinatione, Lib. I.
t Decor. . . . perficitur statione,. . . . cum Jovi Fnlguri, et
? ? ? ? 188 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
Many of these monuments remain in the British
islands, curious for their antiquity, or astonishing for
the greatness of the work: enormous masses of rock,
so poised as to be set in motion with the slightest
touch, yet not to be pushed from their place by a
very great power; vast altars, peculiar and mystical
in their structure, thrones, basins, heaps or cairns;
and a variety of other works, displaying a wild industry, and a strange mixture of ingenuity and rudeness. But they are all worthy of attention, - not only as such monuments often clear up the darkness and supply the defects of history, but as they lay
open a noble field of speculation for those who study
the changes which have happened in the manners,
opinions, and sciences of men, and who think them.
as worthy of regard as the fortune of wars and the
revolutions of kingdoms.
The short account which I have here given does
not contain the whole of what is handed down to us
by ancient writers, or discovered by modern research,
concerning this remarkable order. But I have selected those which appear to me the most striking
features, and such as throw the strongest light on
the genius and true character of the Druidical in
stitution. In some respects it was undoubtedly very
singular; it stood out more from the body of the
people than the priesthood of other nations; and
their knowledge and policy appeared the more striking by being contrasted with the great simplicity and
rudeness of the people over whom they presided.
But, notwithstanding some peculiar appearances and
Ccelo, ct Soli, et Lunm xedificia sub divo hypsethraque constituentur.
Horum enim deorum et species et effectus in aperto mundo atque lucenti prsesentes videmus. - Vitruv. de Architect. p. 6. de Laet. Antwerp.
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 189
practices, it is impossible not to perceive a great conformity between this and the ancient orders which have been established for the purposes of religion in
almost all countries. For, to say nothing of the resemblance which many have traced between this and
the Jewish priesthood, the Persian Magi, and the Indian Brahmans, it did not so greatly differ from the Roman priesthood, either in the original objects or
in the general mode of worship, or in the constitution
of their hierarchy.
In the original institution neither
of these nations had the use of images; the rules of
the Salian as well as Druid discipline were delivered
in verse; both orders were under an elective head;
and both were for a long time the lawyers of their
country. So that, when the order of Druids was
suppressed by the Emperors, it was rather from a
dread of an influence incompatible with the Roman
government than from any dislike of their religious
opinions.
CHAPTER III.
THE REDUCTION OF BRITAIN BY THE ROMANS.
THE death of Caesar, and the civil wars which ensued, afforded foreign nations some respite from the Roman ambition. 'Augustus, having restored peace
to mankind, seems to have made it a settled maxim
of his reign not to extend the Empire. He found
himself at tlie head of a new monarchy; and he was
more solicitous to confirm it by the institutions of
sound policy than to extend the bounds of its dominion. In consequence of this plan Britain was neglected.
? ? ? ? 190 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
Tiberius came a regular successor to an established
government. But his politics were dictated rather by
his character than his situation. He was a lawful
prince, and he acted on the maxims of an usurper.
Having made it a rule never to remove far from the
capital, and jealous of every reputation which seemed
too great for the measure of a subject, he neither undertook any enterprise of moment in his own person
nor cared to commit the conduct of it to another.
There was little in a British triumph that could affect a temper like that of Tiberius. ,
His successor, Caligula, was not influenced by this,
nor indeed by any regular system; for, having undertaken an expedition to Britain without any determinate view, he abandoned it on the point of execution without reason. And adding ridicule to his disgrace, his soldiers returned to Rome loaded with shells. These spoils he displayed as the ornaments
of a triumph which he celebrated over the Ocean, --
if in all these particulars we may trust to the historians of that time, who relate things almost incredible
of the folly of their masters and the patience of the
Roman people.
But the Roman people, however degenerate, still
retained much of their martial spirit; and as the
Emperors held their power almost entirely by the
affection of the soldiery, they founfd themselves often
obliged to such enterprises as might prove them no
improper heads of a military constitution. An expedition to Britain was well adapted to answer all the
purposes of this ostentatious policy. The country
was remote and little known, so that every exploit
there, as if achieved in another world, appeared at
Rome witL double pomp and lustre; whilst the sea,
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 191
which. divided Britain from the continent, prevented
a failure in that island from being followed by any
consequences alarming to the body of the Empire.
A pretext was not wanting to this war. The maritime Britons, while the terror of the Roman arms
remained fresh upon theii' minds, continued regularly to pay the tribute imposed by Coesar. But the
generation which experienced that war having passed
away, that which succeeded felt the burden, but
knew fromn rumor only the superiority which had
imposed it; and being very ignorant, as of all things
else, so of the true extent of the Roman power, they
were not afraid to provoke it by discontinuing the
payment of the tribute.
This gave occasion to the Emperor Clau- A. D. 43
dius, ninety-seven years after the first expedition of Caesar, to invade Britain in person, and with
a great army. But he, having rather surveyed than
conducted the war, left in a short time the management of it to his legate, Plautius, who subdued without much difficulty those countries which lay to the southward of the Thames, the best cultivated and most
accessible parts of the island. But the inhabitants of
the rough inland countries, the people called Cattivellauni, made a more strenuous opposition. They were
under the command of Caractacus, a chief of great
and just renown amongst all the British nations.
This leader wisely adjusted his conduct of the war to
the circumstances of his savage subjects and his rude
country. Plautius obtained no decisive advantages
over him. He opposed Ostorius Scapula, who succeeded that general, with the same bravery, but with
unequal, success; for he was, after various turns of
fortune, obliged to abandon his dominions, which Ostorius at length subdued and disarmed.
? ? ? ? 192 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
This bulwark of the British freedom being overturned, Ostorius was not afraid to enlarge his plan.
Not content with disarming the enemies of Rome,
he proceeded to the same extremities with those nations who had been always quiet, and who, under
the name of an alliance, lay ripening for subjection.
This fierce people, who looked upon their arms as
their only valuable possessions, refused to submit
to terms as severe as the most absolute conquest
could impose. They unanimously entered into a
league against the Romans. But their confederacy
was either not sufficiently strong or fortunate to resist so able a commander, and only afforded him an
opportunity, from a more comprehensive victory, to
extend the Roman province a considerable way to
the northern and western parts of the island. The
frontiers of this acquisition, which extended along
the rivers Severn and Nen, he secured by a chain
of forts and stations; the inland parts he quieted
by the settlement of colonies of his veteran troops
at Maldon and Verulam: and such was the beginning of those establishments. which afterwards became so numerous in Britain. This commander was the first who traced in this island a plan of settlement and civil policy to concur with his military
operations. For, after he had settled these colonies,
considering with what difficulty any and especially
an uncivilized people are broke into submission to
a foreign government, he imposed it on some of the
most powerful of the British nations in a more indirect manner. He placed thenm under kings of
their own race; and whilst he paid this compliment
to their pride, he secured their obedience by the
interested fidelity of a prince who knew, that, as he
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 193
owed the beginning, so he depended for the duration of his authority wholly upon their favor. Such
was the dignity and extent of the Roman policy,
that they could number even royalty itself amongst
their instruments of servitude.
Ostorius did not confine himself within the boundaries of these rivers. He observed that the Silures,
inhabitants of South Wales, one of the most martial
tribes in Britain, were yet unhurt and almost untouched by the war. He could expect to make no
progress to the northward, whilst an enemy of such
importance hung upon his rear, - especially as they
were now commanded by Caractacus, who preserved[
the spirit of a prince, though he had lost his dominions, and fled from nation to nation, whereverhe could find a banner erected against the Romans. His character obtained him reception and command.
Though the Silures, thus headed, did everything
that became their martial reputation, both in the
choice and defence of their posts, the Romans, by
their discipline and the weight and excellence of
their arms, prevailed over the naked bravery of this
gallant people, and defeated them in a great. 51
battle. Caractacus was soon after betrayed
into their hands, and conveyed to Rome. The merit
of the prisoner was the sole ornament of a triumph
celebrated over an indigent people headed by a gallant chief. The Romans crowded eagerly to behold
the man who, with inferior forces, and in an obscure
corner of the world, had so many years stood up
against the weight of their empire.
As the arts of adulation improved in proportion
as the real grandeur of Rome declined, this advantage was compared to the greatest conquests in the
VOL. VII. 13
? ? ? ? 194 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
most flourishing times of the Republic: and so far
as regarded the personal merit of Caractacus, it
could not be too highly rated. Being brought before the emperor, he behaved with such manly fortitude, and spoke of his former actions and his present condition with so much plain sense and unaffected dignity, that he moved the compassion of the emperor, who remitted much of that severity which
the Romans formerly exercised upon their captives.
Rome was now a monarchy, and that fierce republican spirit was abated which had neither feeling
nor respect for the character of unfortunate sovereigns.
The Silures were not reduced by the loss of Caractacus, and the great defeat they had suffered.
They resisted every measure of force or artifice that
could be employed against them, with the most generous obstinacy: a resolution in which they were
confirmed by some imprudent words of the legate,
threatening to extirpate, or, what appeared to them
scarcely less dreadful, to transplant their nation.
Their natural bravery thus hardened into despair,
and inhabiting a country very difficult of access, they
presented an impenetrable barrier to the progress of
that commander; insomuch that, wasted with continual cares, and with the mortification to find the
end of his affairs so little answerable to the splendor
of their beginning, Ostorius died of grief, and left all
things in confusion.
The legates who succeeded to his charge did little
more for about sixty years than secure the frontiers
of the Roman province. But in the beginning of
Nero's reign the command in Britain was devolved
on Suetonius Paulilus, a soldier of merit and expe.
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 195rience, who, when he came to view the theatre of his future operations, and had well considered the nature
of the country, discerned evidently that the war must
of necessity be protracted to a great length, if he
should be obliged to penetrate into every fastness to which the enemy retired, and to combat their flying parties one by one. He therefore resolved to make such a blow at the head as must of course disable all the inferior members.
The island then called Mona, now Anglesey, at
that time was the principal residence- of the Druids.
Here their councils were held, and their commands
from hence were dispersed among all the British nations. Paulinus proposed, in reducing this their favorite and sacred seat, to destroy, or at least greatly to weaken, the body of the Druids, and thereby to extinguish the great actuating principle of all the Celtic
people, and that which was alone capable of communicating order and energy to their operations.
Whilst the Roman troops were passing that strait
which divides this island from the continent of Britain, they halted on a sudden, -not checked by the
resistance of the enemy, but suspended by a spectacle of an unusual and altogether surprising nature.
On every side of the British army were seen bands of
Druids in their most sacred habits surrounding the
troops, lifting their hands to heaven, devoting to
death their enemies, and animating their disciples to
religious frenzy by the uncouth ceremonies of a savage ritual, and the horrid mysteries of a superstition
familiar with blood. The female Druids also moved
about in a troubled order, their hair dishevelled,
their garments torn, torches in their hands, and,
with an horror increased by the perverted softness
? ? ? ? 196: ABRIDGMENT OF: ENGLISH HISTORY.
of their sex, howled out the same curses and incanta.
tions with greater clamor. * Astonished at this sight,
the. Romans for- some time neither advanced nor returned the darts of the enemy. But at length, rousing from their trance, and animating each other with
the shame of yielding to the impotence of female and
fanatical fury, they found the resistance by- no means
proportioned to the horror and solemnity of the preparations. These overstrained efforts had, as frequently happens, exhausted the spirits of the men, and stifled that ardor they were intended to kindle. The Britons were defeated; and Paulinus, pretending to
detest the barbarity of their superstition, in reality
from, the cruelty of his own nature, and that. he might
cut off the occasion of future disturbances, exercised
the most unjustifiable severities on this unfortunate
people. He burned the Druids in their own fires;
and that no retreat might be afforded to that order,
their consecrated woods were everywhere destroyed.
Whilst he was occupied in this service, a general rebellion broke out, which his severity to the Druids
served rather to inflame than allay.
From the manners of the republic a custom had
been ingrafted into the monarchy of Rome altogether
unsuitable to that mode of government. In the time
* There is a curious instance of a ceremony not unlike this in a
fragment of an ancient Runic history, which it may not be disagreeable to compare with this part of the British manners. "~Ne vero
regem ex improviso adoriretur Ulafus, admoto sacculo suo, eundem
quatere coepit, carmen simul magicum obmurmurans, hac verborum
formula: Duriter increpetur cum tonitru; stringant Cyclopia tela; in.
jiciant manum Parche;. . . . acriter excipient monticolm genii plurimi, atque gigantes. . . . contundent; quatient; procelle. . . .
disrumpent lapides navigium ejus. . . . " --Hickesii Thesaur. Vol.
II. p. 140.
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF:. ENGLISH HISTORY. 197
of the Commonwealth, those who lived in a dependent and cliental relation on the great men used frequently to show marks of their acknowledgment by
considerable bequests at their death. But when all
the scattered powers of that state became united in
the emperor, these legacies followed the general current, and flowed in upon: the common patron. In
the will of every considerable person he inherited
with the children and relations, and such devises
formed no inconsiderable part of his revenue: a
monstrous practice, which let an absolute sovereign
into all the private concerns of his subjects, and
which, by giving the prince a prospect of one day
sharing in- all the great estates, whenever he was
urged by avarice or necessity, naturally pointed out
a resource by an anticipation always in his power.
This practice extended into the provinces. A king
of the Iceni * had devised a considerable part of his
substance to the emperor. -But the Roman procurator, not satisfied with entering into his master's portion, seized upon the rest, - and pursuing his injustice to the most horrible outrages, publicly scourged Boadicea, queen to the deceased prince, and violated
-his daughters. These - cruelties, aggravated by the
shame and scorn that attended them -- the general
severity of the government, - the taxes, (new- to a
barbarous people,) laid on without; discretion, extorted without mercy, and,- even when respited, made
utterly ruinous by exorbitant usury, -- the further
mischiefs they had to dread, when' more completely
reduced, - all these, with. the absence of the legate
and the army on a remote expedition, provoked all
the tribes of the Britons,- provincials, allies, enemies,
* Inhabitants of Norfolk and Suffolk.
? ? ? ? 198 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
to a general insurrection. The command of this confederacy was conferred on Boadicea, as the first in
rank, and resentment of injuries. They began by
cutting off a Roman legion; then they fell upon the
colonies of Camelodunum and Verulam, and with a
barbarous fury butchered the Romans and their adherents to the number of seventy thousand.
An end had been now put to the Roman power in
this island, if Paulinus, with unexampled vigor and
prudence, had not conducted his army through the
midst of the enemy's country from Anglesey to London. There uniting the soldiers that remained dispersed in different garrisons, he formed an army of
ten thousand men, and marched to attack the enemy
in the height of their success and security. The army of the, Britons is said to have amounted to two
hundred and thirty thousand; but it was ill composed, and without choice or order, -women, boys,
old men, priests, -- full of presumption, tumult, and
confusion. Boadicea was at their head, - a woman
of masculine spirit, but precipitant, and without any
military knowledge.
The event was such as might have been expected.
Paulinus, having chosen a situation favorable to the
smallness of his numbers, and encouraged his troops
not to dread a multitude whose weight was dangerous only to themselves, piercing into the midst of
that disorderly crowd, after a blind and furious resistance, obtained a complete victory. Eighty thousand Britons fell ill this battle. . D. 1. Paulinus improved the terror this slaughter had produced by the unparalleled severities which he exercised. This method would probably have succeeded to subdue
? ? ? ? ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 199
to depopulate the nation, if such loud complaints
had not been made at Rome of the legate's cruelty
as procured his recall.
Three successive legates carried on the affairs of
Britain during the latter part of Nero's reign, and
during the troubles occasioned by the disputed succession. But they were all of an inactive character.
The victory obtained by Paulinus had disabled the
Britons from any new attempt. Content, therefore,
with recovering the Roman province, these generals
compounded, as it were, with the enemy for the rest
of the island. They caressed the troops; they indulged them in their licentiousness; and not being
of a character to repress the seditions that continually arose, they submitted to preserve their ease and
some shadow of authority by sacrificing the most material parts of it. And thus they continued, soldiers
and commanders, by a sort of compact, in a common
neglect of all duty on the frontiers of the Empire, in
the face of a bold and incensed enemy.
But when Vespasian arrived to the head
A. D. 69.
of affairs, he caused the vigor of his government to be felt in Britain, as he had done in all the
other parts of the Empire. He was not afraid to receive great services. His legates, Cerealis and Frontinus, reduced the Silures and Brigantes, - one the most warlike, the other the most numerous people
in the island. But its final reduction and
perfect settlement were reserved for Julius
Agricola, a man by whom it was a happiness for the
Britons to be conquered. He was endued with all
those bold and popular virtues which would have
given him the first place in the times of the free
Republic; and he joined to them all that reserve
? ? ? ? 200 ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
and'moderation which enabled him to fill great offices with safety, and made him a good subject under
a jealous despotism.
Though the summer was almost spent when he
arrived in Britain, knowing how much the vigor and
success of the first stroke influences all subsequent
measures, he entered immediately into action. After reducing some tribes, Mona became the principal
object of his attention. . The cruel ravages of Paulinus had not entirely effaced the idea of sanctity
which the Britons by a long course of hereditary reverence had annexed to that island: it became once
more a place of consideration by the return of the
Druids. Here Agricola observed a conduct very different from that of his: predecessor, Paulinus: the
island, when he had reduced it, was treated with
great lenity.
