I. . CHAP. within itfelfe: It was agitated with jealoufy or anímofity against the neighbouring ftates: And while the arts of peace were yet unknown, wars were the chief occupation, and formed the chief object of ambition, among the people. THE religion of the Britons was one of the most confiderable parts of their government; and the Druids, who were their priests, poffeffed great authority among them. Befides miniftering at the altar, and directing all religious duties, they prefided over the education of youth; they enjoyed an immunity from wars and taxes; they poffeffed both the civil and criminal jurifdiction; they decided all controverfies among ftates as well as ainong private perfons, and whoever refufed to fubmit to their decree was expofed to the most severe penalties. The fentence of excommunication was pronounced against him: He was forbidden accefs to the facrifices or public worship: He was debarred all intercourfe with his fellow-citizens, even in the common affairs of life: His company was univerfally fhunned, as profane and dangerous: He was refufed the protection of law And death itfelf became an acceptable relief from the mifery and infamy to which he was expofed. Thus, the bands of government, which were naturally loofe among that rude and turbulent pecple, were happily corroborated by the terrors of their fuperftition. No fpecies of fuperftition was ever more terrible than that of the Druids. Befides the fevere penalties, which it was in the power of the ecclefiaftics to inflict in this world, they inculcated the eternal tranfmigration of fouls; and thereby extended their authority as far as the fears of their timorous votaries. They practifed their rites in dark groves or other fecret recefies; and in order to throw a greater inystery over their religion, they communicated their f Cafar, lib. 6. Strabo, lib. 4. e Tacit. Agr. doctrines J. doctrines only to the initiated, and strictly forbad the CHAP. committing of them to writing; left they should at any time be exposed to the examination of the profane vulgar. Human facrifices were practifed among them: The spoils of war were often devoted to their divinities; and they punifhed with the fevereft tortures whoever dared to fecrete any part of the confecrated offering: Thefe treasures they kept in woods and forefts, fecured by no other guard than the terrors of their religion; and this fteady conqueft over human avidity may be regarded as more fignal than their prompting men to the moft extraordinary and most violent efforts. No idolatrous worship ever attained fuch an afcendant over mankind as that of the ancient Gauls and Britons; and the Romans, after their conqueft, finding it impoffible to reconcile thofe nations to the laws and inftitutions of their mafters, while it maintained its authority, were at laft obliged to abolish it by penal ftatutes; a violence which had never, in any other inftance, been practifed by thofe tolerating conquerors'. THE Britons had long remained in this rude but independent state, when Cæfar, having overrun all Gaul by his victories, firft caft his eye on their inland. He was not allured either by its riches or its renown; but being ambitious of carrying the Roman arms into a new world, then moftly unknown, he took advantage of a fhort interval in his Gaulic wars, and made an invafion on Britain. The natives, informed of his intention, were fenfible of the unequal conteft, and endeavoured to appease him by fubmiffions, which, however, retarded not the execution of his defign. After fome refiftance, he Annoante landed, as is fuppofed, at Deal; and having ob- C. 55. i Sueton. in vita Claudii. h Cæfar, lib. 6. B 3 tained I. CHAP. tained feveral advantages over the Britons, and obliged them to promife hoftages for their future obedience, he was conftrained, by the neceffity of his affairs, and the approach of winter, to withdraw his forces into Gaul. The Britons, relieved from the terror of his arms, neglected the performance of their ftipulations; and that haughty conqueror refolved 2 next fummer to chastise them for this breach of treaty. He landed with a greater force; and though hẻ found a more regular refiftance from the Britons, who had united under Caffivelaunus, one of their petty princes, he difcomfited them in every action. He advanced into the country; paffed the Thames in the face of the enemy; took and burned the capital of Caffivelaunus; established his ally, Mandubratius, in the fovereignty of the Trinobantes; and having obliged the inhabitants to make him new fubmiffions, he again returned with his army into Gaul, and left the authority of the Romans more nominal than real in this island. THE Civil wars which enfued, and which prepared the way for the establishment of monarchy in Rome, faved the Britons from that yoke which was ready to be impofed upon them. Auguftus, the fucceffor of Cæfar, content with the victory obtained over the liberties of his own country, was little ambitious of acquiring fame by foreign wars; and being apprehenfive left the fame unlimited extent of dominion, which had fubverted the republic, might alfo overwhelm the empire, he recommended it to his fucceffors never to enlarge the territories of the Romans. Tiberius, jealous of the fame which might be acquired by his generals, made this advite of Auguftus a pretence for his inactivity. The mad fallies of Caligula, in which he menaced Britain with an invasion, served only to expose himself and the empire to ridicule: And the Britons had now, during k Tacit. Agr. almoft I. almost a century, enjoyed their liberty unmolefted; CHA P. when the Romans, in the reign of Claudius, began to think seriously of reducing them under their dominion. Without feeking any more justifiable reafons of hoftility than were employed by the late Europeans in fubjecting the Africans and Americans, A.D.43. they sent over an army under the command of Plautius, an able general, who gained fome victories, and made a confiderable progrefs in fubduing the inhabitants. Claudius himself, finding matters fufficiently prepared for his reception, made a journey into Britain; and received the fubmiffion of feveral British ftates, the Cantii, Atrebates, Regni, and Trinobantes, who inhabited the fouth-eaft parts of the ifland, and whom their poffeffions and more cultivated manner of life rendered willing to purchase peace at the expence of their liberty. The other Britons, under the command of Caractacus, ftill maintained an obftinate refiftance, and the Romans. made little progrefs against them; till Oftorius Scapula was fent over to command their armies. This general advanced the Roman conquefts over A. D. 50. the Britons; pierced into the country of the Silures, a warlike nation, who inhabited the banks of the Severne; defeated Caractacus in a great battle; took him prisoner, and fent him to Rome, where his magnanimous behaviour procured him better treatment than thofe conquerors ufually beftowed on captive princes'. NOTWITHSTANDING thefe misfortunes, the Britons were not fubdued; and this ifland was regarded by the ambitious Romans as a field in which military honour might ftill be acquired. Under the A. D. 59, reign of Nero, Suetonius Paulinus was invefted with the command, and prepared to fignalize his name by victories over thofe barbarians. Finding that the island of Mona, now Anglefey, was the chief feat Tacit. Ann. lib. 12. CHAP. of the Druids, he refolved to attack it, and to fub I. ject a place, which was the centre of their superstition, and which afforded protection to all their baffled forces. The Britons endeavoured to obftruct his landing on this facred ifland, both by the force of their arms and the terrors of their religion. The women and priests were intermingled with the foldiers upon the fhore; and running about with flaming torches in their hands, and toffing their difhevelled hair, they ftruck greater terror into the aftonished Romans by their howlings, cries, and execrations, than the real danger from the armed forces was able to infpire. But Suetonius, exhorting his troops to defpife the menaces of a fuperftition which they defpifed, impelled them to the attack, drove the Britons off the field, burned the Druids in the fame fires which those priests had prepared for their captive enemies, deftroyed all the confecrated groves and altars; and, having thus triumphed over the religion of the Britons, he thought his future progress would be eafy, in reducing the people to fubjection. But he was disappointed in his expectations. The Britons, taking advantage of his abfence, were all in arms; and headed by Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, who had been treated in the moft ignominious manner by the Roman tribunes, had already attacked with fuccefs feveral fettlements of their infulting conquerors. Suetonius haftened to the protection of London, which was already a flourishing Roman colony; but he found on his arrival, that it would be requifite for the general fafety to abandon that place to the mercilefs fury of the enemy. London was reduced to afhes; fuch of the inhabitants as remained in it were cruelly maffacred; the Romans and all ftrangers, to the number of 70,000, were every where put to the fword without diftinction; and the Britons, by rendering the war thus bloody, feemed determined to cut off all hopes of peace or compofition with the enemy. But this cruelty was 4 revenged |