and the Britons, as the active allies of the Gauls, tions against a new world, or of furnishing himcould not expect to escape sharing in their chas-self with a pretence for prolonging his provincial tisement. command, and keeping up an army devoted to him, till the time should arrive for the execution of his projects against liberty at Rome.2

According to a curious passage in Suetonius, it was reported that Caesar was tempted to invade Britain by the hopes of finding pearls. Such an inducement seems scarcely of sufficient import- | ance, although we know that pearls were very highly esteemed by the ancients; and Pliny, the naturalist, tells us that Cæsar offered or dedicated a breastplate to Venus, ornamented with pearls, which he pretended to have found in Britain. But Cæsar might be tempted by other real and more valuable productions, and he could not be ignorant of the existence of the British lead and tin which the Phoenicians had imported into the Mediterranean ages before his time, and in which the Phocæan colony of Massilia or Marseilles was actually carrying on a trade. Cæsar himself, indeed, says nothing of this; but within a few miles of our coasts, and among a people with whom the British had constant intercourse, he must have acquired more information than appears respecting the natural fertility of the soil, and the mineral and other productions of the island. From

JULIUS CÆSAR.-From a niarble in the British Museum.

Whatever were his motives, in the year B.C. 55, Cæsar resolved to cross the British Channel, not, as he has himself told us, to make then a conquest, for which the season was too far advanced, but in order merely to take a view of the island, learn the nature of the inhabitants, and survey the coasts, harbours, and landingplaces. He says that the Gauls were ignorant of all these things; that few of them, except merchants, ever visited the island; and that the merchants themselves only knew the sea-coasts opposite to Gaul. Having called together the merchants from all parts of Gaul, he questioned them concerning the size of the island, the power and customs of its inhabitants, their mode of warfare, and the harbours they had capable of receiving large ships. He adds, that on none of these points could they give him information; but, on this public occasion, the silence of the traders probably proceeded rather from unwillingness and caution than ignorance, while it is equally probable that the conqueror received a little more information than he avows. He says, however, that for these reasons he thought it expedient, before he embarked himself, to despatch C. Volusenus, with a single galley, to obtain some knowledge of these things, commanding him, as soon as he had obtained this necessary knowledge, to return to head-quarters with all haste. He then himself marched with his whole army into the territory of the Morini, a nation or tribe of the Gauls, who inhabited the sea-coast between Calais and Boulogne-"because thence was the shortest passage into Britain.” Here he collected many ships from the neighbouring ports.

Meanwhile many of the British states, having been warned of Cæsar's premeditated expedition, by the merchants that resorted to their island, sent over ambassadors to him, with an offer of hostages and submission to the Roman authority. He received these ambassadors most kindly, and,

evident reasons, indeed, the Gauls in general might not be very communicative on these subjects; but among that people Cæsar had allies and some steady friends, who must have been able and ready to satisfy all his inquiries. His sub-exhorting them to continue in the same pacific servient instrument, Comius, who will presently appear upon the scene, must have possessed much of the information required. His love of conquest and glory alone might have been sufficient incentive to Cæsar, but a recent and philosophic writer assigns other probable motives for his expeditions into Britain-such as his desire of dazzling his countrymen, and of seeming to be absorbed by objects remote from internal ambition, by expedi

1 Vit. Jul. Cas. c. xlvii.

intentions, sent them back to their own country, despatching with them Comius, a Gaul whom he had made King of the Atrebatians, a Belgic nation then settled in Artois. Cæsar's choice of this euvoy was well directed. The Belga, at a comparatively recent period, had colonized, and they still occupied all the south-eastern coasts of Britain; and these colonists, much more civilized than the rest of the islanders, no doubt held frequent com

2 Sir James Mackintosh, Hist. Eng.

mercial and friendly intercourse with the Atrebatians in Artois, and the rest of the Belgic stock settled in other places. Cæsar himself says, not only that Comius was a man in whose virtue, wisdom, and fidelity he placed great confidence, but one "whose authority in the island of Britain was very considerable." He therefore charged Comius to visit as many of the British states as he could, and persuade them to enter into an alliance with the Romans, informing them, at the same time, that Cæsar intended to visit the island in person as soon as possible.

C. Volusenus appears to have done little service with his galley. He took a view of the Bri

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tish coast, as far as was possible for one who had resolved not to quit his vessel or trust himself into the hands of the natives, and on the fifth day of his expedition returned to head-quarters. With such information as he had, Cæsar embarked the

[infantry of two legions, making about 12,000 men, on board eighty transports, and set sail from Portus Itius, or Witsand, between Calais and Boulogne. The cavalry, embarked in eighteen other transports, were detained by contrary winds at a port about eight miles off, but Cæsar left orders for them to follow as soon as the weather permitted. This force, however, as will be seen, could never make itself available; and hence, mainly, arose the reverses of the campaign.

At ten o'clock on a morning in autumn (Halley the astronomer, in a paper in the Philosophical Transactions, has almost demonstrated that it must have been on the 26th of August), Cæsar reached the British coast, near Dover, at about the worst possible point to effect a landing in face of an enemy; and the Britons were not disposed to be friends. The submission they had offered through their ambassadors was intended only to prevent or retard invasion; and seeing it fail of either of these effects, on the return of their ambassadors with Comius, as Caesar's envoy, they made that prince a prisoner, loaded him with chains, prepared for their defence as well as the shortness of time would permit; and when the Romans looked from their ships to the steep white cliffs above them, they saw them covered all over by the armed Britons. Finding that this was not a convenient landing-place, Cæsar resolved to lie by till the third hour after noon, in order, he says, to wait the arrival of the rest of his fleet. Some laggard vessels appear to have come up, but the eighteen transports bearing the cavalry were nowhere seen. Cæsar, however, favoured by both wind and tide, proceeded at the appointed hour, and sailing about seven miles further along the coast, prepared to land his forces on an open, flat shore, which presents itself between Walmer Castle and Sandwich." The Britons on the cliffs, perceiving his design, followed his motions, and sending their cavalry and war-chariots before, marched rapidly on with their main force, to oppose his landing anywhere Cæsar confesses that the opposition of the natives Saxons would be more likely to retain the original British popuation as servants to till their grounds; and if that population were of Belgian or German descent, as were the Saxons themselves, their amalgamation with a kindred race would be speedy and complete. But it is, as yet, uncertain how far the Celts themselves were originally of German descent also."-Giles' History of the Ancient Britons, vol. i. p. 37. It is remarkable that the islands of North-Western Europe should have presented in Caesar's time what we find in those of Eastern Asia at this day— many tribes divided generally into two different races, the one inhabiting the interior and mountainous parts, short in stature, averse to the sea, and addicted to hunting; the other ranged along the shores, tall, and addicted to navigation, commerce, and agriculture.-ED.

I "It is almost impossible, at this distance of time, to ascertain how far the Belgian settlements extended inland in Britain; though there are strong reasons for supposing that they covered a large portion of the south of England. The narrative of Cæsar would lead us to infer that the Britons with whom he came in contact were not of two distinct races. He must, therefore, as is evident from his own account, have fought against the Belgian settlers, and have had nothing to do with the more ancient Celtic population. The Belge were at that time, as they are at present, a busy, commercial people; and had spread, even in the time of Caesar, as far as the Seine, towards the west of France. If this view of the extent of the Belgian settlements in Britain be correct, it removes a great deal of the difficulty which surrounds the story of the Britons having been exterminated in after ages by the Saxons. It is not likely that military invaders like the Saxons, would either slay all the peasants of the country, or drive them into Wales; and it is morally certain that so poor a country as Wales would suffer from famine, both then and now, from the sudden influx of 100,000 foreigners. The South Foreland, and landed on the flats of Romney Marsh.

2 Horsley (Brit. Rom.) shows that Caesar must have proceeded to the north of the South Foreland, in which case the landing must have been effected between Walmer Castle and Sandwich. Others, with less reason, think he sailed southward from the

was a bold one, and that the difficulties he had | ing the blame of the harsh treatment his envoy to encounter were very great, on many accounts; had met with upon the multitude or common but superior skill and discipline, and the employment of some military engines on board the wargalleys, to which the British were unaccustomed, and which projected missiles of various kinds, at last triumphed over them, and he disembarked his two legions. We must not omit the act of the standard-bearer of the tenth legion, which has been thought deserving of particular commemoration by his general. While the Roman soldiers were hesitating to leave the ships-chiefly deterred, according to Cæsar's accouut, by the depth of the water-this officer, having first solemnly besought the gods that what he was about to do might prove fortunate for the legion, and then exclaiming, with a loud voice, "Follow me, my fellow-soldiers, unless you will give up your eagle to the enemy!-I. at least, will do my

people, and entreating Cæsar to excuse a fault which proceeded solely from the popular ignorance. The conqueror, after reproaching them for sending of their own accord ambassadors into Gaul to sue for peace, and then making war upon him, without any reason, forgave them their offences, and ordered them to send in a certain number of hostages, as security for their good behaviour in future. Some of these hostages were presented immediately, and the Britons promised to deliver the rest, who lived at a distance, in the course of a few days. The native forces then seemed entirely disbanded, and the several chiefs came to Cæsar's camp to offer allegiance, and negotiate or intrigue for their own separate interests.

On the day that this peace was concluded,

and not before, the unlucky transports with the Roman cavalry were enabled to quit their port on the coast of Gaul. They stood across the channel with a gentle gale; but when they neared the British coast, and were even within view of Casar's camp, they were dispersed by a tempest, and were finally obliged to return to the port where they had been so long detained. That very night, Cæsar says, it happened to be full

moon, when the tides always rise highest

duty to the Republic and to our general!" leaped "a fact at that time wholly unknown to the into the sea as he spoke, and dashed with his ensign among the enemy's ranks. The men instantly followed their heroic leader; and the soldiers in the other ships, excited by the example, also crowded forward along with them. The two armies were for some time mixed in combat; but at length the Britons withdrew in disorder from the well-contested beach. As their cavalry, however, was not yet arrived, the Romans could not pursue them, or advance into the island, and thus render the victory complete.

The native maritime tribes, thus defeated, sought the advantages of a hollow peace. They despatched ambassadors to Cæsar, offering hostages, and an entire submission. They liberated Comius, and restored him to his employer, throw

Romans"-and the galleys which he had with him, and which were hauled up on the beach, were filled with the rising waters, while his heavier transports, that lay at anchor in the roadstead, were either dashed to pieces, or rendered altogether unfit for sailing. This disaster spread a general consternation through the camp; for, as every legionary knew, there were no other vessels to carry back the troops, nor any materials with the army to repair the ships that were disabled;

1 The operations of the Roman troops had hitherto been almost confined to the Mediterranean, where there is no perceptible tide. Yet during their stay on the coast of Gaul, on the opposite side of the Channel, they ought to have become acquainted

with these phenomena. Probably they had never attended to the irregularities of a spring-tide.

and, as it had been from the beginning Caesar's design not to winter in Britain, but in Gaul, he was wholly unprovided with corn and provisions to feed his troops. Suetonius says, that during the nine years Cæsar held the military command in Gaul, amidst a most brilliant series of successes, he experienced only three signal disasters; and he counts the almost entire destruction of his fleet by a storm in Britain, as one of the three. Nor were the invaded people slow in perceiving the extent of Cæsar's calamity, and devising means to profit by it. They plainly saw he was in want of cavalry, provisions, and ships; a close inspection showed that his troops were not so numerous as they had fancied, and probably familiarized them in some measure to their warlike weapons and demeanour; and they confidently hoped that, by defeating this force, or surrounding and cutting off their retreat, and starving them, they should prevent all future invasions. The chiefs in the camp having previously held secret consultations among themselves, retired, by degrees, from the Romans, and began to draw the islanders together. Cæsar says, that though he was not fully apprised of their designs, he partly guessed them, from their delay in sending in the hostages promised from a distance, and from other circumstances; and instantly took measures to provide for the worst. He set part of his army to repair his shattered fleet, using the materials of the vessels most injured to patch In the spring of the following year (B.C. 54) up the rest; and as the soldiers wrought with Cæsar again embarked at the same Portus Itius an indefatigability suiting the dangerous urgency for Britain. This time peculiar attention had of the case, he had soon a number of vessels fit been paid to the build and equipment of his fleet: for sea. He then sent to Gaul for other mate- he had 800 vessels of all classes, and these carried rials wanting, and probably for some provisions five legions and 2000 cavalry—an invading force also. Another portion of his troops he employed in all not short of 32,000 men.' At the approach in foraging parties, to bring into the camp what of this formidable armament the natives retired corn they could collect in the adjacent country. | in dismay from the coast, and Cæsar disembarked, This supply could not have been great, for the without opposition, at "that part of the island natives had everywhere gathered in their har-which he had marked out the preceding summer vest, except in one field; and there, by lying in as being the most convenient landing-place." ambush, the Britons made a bold and bloody at- This was probably somewhere on the same flat, tack, which had well nigh proved fatal to the in-between Walmer Castle and Sandwich, where he vaders. As one of the two legions that formed had landed the year before. Having received the expedition were cutting down the corn in intelligence as to the direction in which the that field, Cæsar, who was in his fortified camp, Britons had retired, he set out about midnight suddenly saw a great cloud of dust in that direc-in quest of them, leaving ten cohorts, with 300 tion. He rushed to the spot with two cohorts, leaving orders for all the other soldiers of the legion to follow as soon as possible. His arrival was very opportune, for he found the legion, which had been surprised in the corn-field, and which had suffered considerable loss, now surrounded and pressed on all sides by the cavalry and war-chariots of the British, who had been concealed in the neighbouring woods. He suc1 In this calculation an allowance of 500 is made for sickness. ceeded in bringing off the engaged legion, with casualties, and deficiencies. At this period the infantry of a which he withdrew to his intrenched camp, de- legion, when complete, amounted to 6100 inen.

clining a general engagement for the present. Heavy rains that followed confined the Romans for some days within their intrenchments. Meanwhile the British force of horse and foot was increased from all sides, and they gradually drew | round the intrenchments. Cæsar, anticipating their attack, marshalled his legions outside of the camp, and, at the proper moment, fell upon the islanders, who, he says, not being able to sustain the shock, were soon put to flight. In this victory he attaches great importance to a body of thirty horse, which Comius, the Atrebatian, had brought over from Gaul. The Romans pursued the fugitives as far as their strength would permit; they slaughtered many of them, set fire to some houses and villages, and then returned again to the protection of their camp. On the same day the Britons again sued for peace, and Cæsar, being anxious to return to Gaul as quickly as possible, "because the equinox was approaching, and his ships were leaky," granted it to them, on no harder condition than that of doubling the number of hostages they had promised after their first defeat. He did not even wait for the hostages, but a fair wind springing up, he set sail at midnight, and arrived safely in Gaul. Eventually only two of the British states sent their hostages; and this breach of treaty gave the Roman commander a ground of complaint by which to justify his second invasion.

horse, behind him on the coast, to guard his camp and fleet. After a hurried night-march, he came in sight of the islanders, who were well posted on some rising grounds behind a river-probably the Stour, near Canterbury. The confederate army gallantly disputed the passage of the river with their cavalry and chariots; but being repulsed by the Roman horse, they retreated to

within his fortified camp. Although the ancient galleys were small and light compared to our modern men-of-war, and the transports and tenders of his fleet in all probability little more than sloops and barges, this was a laborious operation, and occupied the soldiers ten days and nights. Having thus secured his fieet, he set off in pursuit of the enemy, who had made a good use of his absence, by increasing their army, and appointing one chief to the supreme command of it. The choice of the confederated states fell upon Cassivellaunus (his Celtic name was perhaps Caswallon), whose territories were divided from the maritime states of the river Thames, at a point which was between seventy and eighty miles from Cæsar's camp on the Kentish coast. This prince had hitherto been engaged in almost constant wars with his neighbours, whose affection to him must have therefore been of recent date, and of somewhat doubtful continuance; but he had a reputation for skill and bravery, and the dread of the Romans made the Britons forget their quarrels for a time, unite themselves under his command, and intrust him with the whole con

wards the woods, to a place strongly fortified both by nature and art, and which Cæsar judged had been strengthened before, on occasion of some internal native war; "for all the avenues were secured by strong barricades of felled trees laid upon one another." This stronghold is supposed to have been at or near to the spot where the city of Canterbury now stands. Strong as it was, the soldiers of the seventh legion (the force that had suffered so much the preceding campaign in the corn-field) carried it, by means of a mound of earth they cast up in front of it; and then they drove the British from the cover of the wood. The evening closed on their retreat, in which they must have suffered little loss; for Cæsar, fearful of following them through a country with which he was unacquainted, strictly forbade all pursuit, and employed his men in fortifying their camp for the night. The Roman eagles were scarcely displayed the following morning, and the trumpets had hardly sounded the advance, when a party of horse brought intelligence from the coast that nearly all the fleet had been driven on shore and wrecked during the night. Cæsar flew to the sea-shore, whither, | duct of the war. Cæsar found him well posted at or

1

Scale of Feet.

2

ROMAN GALLEY, from the model presented by Lord Anson to Greenwich Hospital.-1, Side Elevation; 2, Plan; 3, Midship Section; 4, Elevation of Stem; 5, Elevation of Stern.

near to the scene of the last battle. Cassivellaunus did not wait to be attacked, but charged the Roman cavalry with his horse, supported by his chariots. Cæsar says that he constantly repelled these charges, and drove the Britons to their woods and hills; but that, after making great slaughter, venturing to continue the pursuit too far, he lost some men. It does not appear that the British retreated far; and some time after these skirmishes they gave the Romans a serious check. Sallying unexpectedly from the wood, they fell upon the soldiers, who were employed, as usual, in fortifying the camp or station for the night, and cut up the advanced guard. Cæsar sent two cohorts to their aid, but the Britons charged these in separate parties, broke through them, routed them, and then retired without loss. A military tribune was slain; and, but for the timely arrival of some fresh

he was followed by the legions in full retreat. | cohorts, the conflict would have been very disThe misfortune had not been exaggerated: forty of his ships were irretrievably lost, and the rest so damaged that they seemed scarcely capable of repair. With his characteristic activity, he set all the carpenters of the army to work, wrote for more artisans from Gaul, and ordered the legions stationed on that coast to build as many new ships as they could. Apprehensive alike of the storms of the ocean and of the fierce attack of the natives, Cæsar ordered that all his ships should be drawn up on dry land, and inclosed

astrous. Even as it was, and though Cæsar covers the fact by a somewhat confused narrative, it should appear that a good part of his army was beaten on this occasion. He says that from this action, of which the whole Roman army were spectators, it was evident that his heavyarmed legions were not a fit match for the active and light-armed Britons, who always fought in detachments, with a body of reserve in their rear, which advanced fresh supplies when needed, and covered and protected the forces when in retreat;