The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon : a history of the early inhabitants of Britain, down to the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, illustrated by the ancient remains brought to light by recent research / by Thomas Wright.

  • Thomas Wright
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon : a history of the early inhabitants of Britain, down to the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, illustrated by the ancient remains brought to light by recent research / by Thomas Wright. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    43/568 (page 23)
    CHAP. I.] PROPRIETORSHIP OF OSTORIUS SCAPULA. Land’s-Eml, and tbeuce to the extreme point of Kent, had at this time, voluntarily or by compulsion, submitted to the power of Koine. Among those who had submitted voluntarily was the extensive and powerful tribe of the Iceni, who occupied the modern counties of Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridge, and Huntingdon. The Iceni w'ere jealous of the attempt of the Romans to establish their power by these forts, and, confident in their own strength, which bad not yet been tried with the Romans, they put themselves at the head of a confederacy, with some of the neighbouring tribes, and when Ostorius marched against them, they prepared for battle in a place which they had enclosed with ramparts of earth, with a narrow entrance to hinder the approach of cavalry. * But this W’as of little avail against the discipline of their opponents, and Ostorius, with only a few cohorts of auxiliaries, attacked them in their entrenchments, made a breach for the entrance of his cavalry, and defeated them with great slaughter The Iceni now returned to their obedience, and other tribes, w'hich had before hesitated, submitted. Beyond the boundary which Ostorius had formed by his line of forts, the interior of the island was inhabited by tribes who were fiercer and less civilised than the southern nations. The chief of these was the great tribe of the Brigantes, extending through the mountainous and wooded districts from the bordei's of Lincoln- shire, through Yorkshire, Lancashire, Westmoreland, Cumberland, and Northumberland. The lesser tribes, such as the Cornavii and Corilavi, which were intermediate between the tribes subject to the Romans and the Brigantes, probably acknowledged the supe- riority of the latter. The Brigantes seem to have been so much discouraged by the defeat of the Iceni, that they sought the alliance of, or rather bought their peace with, the Romans. Ostorius, relieved from the hostilities of the various tribes just mentioned, carried his army into Shropshire and North Wales, and had proceeded as far as the tribe of the Cangii on the shores of the Irish sea, when he was recalled by a revolt of the Brigantes, which was apparently partial and easily subdued. The only formidable enemy now in arms on the borders of the Roman * “ Locum piignsB delegcre, Bcptnm ngresti aggere, et aditu angusto ne pcrvius equiti foret.”—Tacitus, Annal., lib. xii., c. 31.