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
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.
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![been, as if it tied before the enemy. Women were seen as if mad, singing wild songs, in which they foretold the destruction of the colony [perhaps they were native women, aware of the conspi- racy, and employed to create alarm]. Strange noises were heard in the house of assembly, and loud bowlings in the theatre. In the estuary of the Thames there was an appearance like that of a sunken town. The sea assumed the colour of blood, and human forms appeared to be left on the shore by the ebbing tide. All these things were of a nature to encourage the Britons, wliilst they overwhelmed the veterans with terror.” The inhabitants of Camu- lodunum, in their alarm, applied for assistance to the procurator Catus Decianus, who commanded in the absence of Suetonius, but who appears to have slighted the warning. “ He sent them only two hundred men, very imperfectly armed, and to these were added a small body of soldiers belonging to the town. The temple of Claudius was taken possession of by these troops, as a citadel, but their measui'es of defence were thwarted by those around them who were in the secret of the conspiracy ; so that they had neither dug a fosse nor cast up an earth rampart for protection, and the precaution, usual in such cases, of sending away the old men and the women, and retaining only the young and active, had been entirely neglected. They were, indeed, taken by sur- prise in time of profound peace, and found themselves suddenly surrounded by the barbarians. Everything but the temple was plundered and burnt at the first attack, and the temple itself, in w'hich the soldiers had taken refuge, was captured after a siege of two days.” The success of the attack on Camulodunum gave courage and force to the insurgents. It appears that the ninth legion, commanded by its lieutenant, Petilius Cerealis, had its stationaiy camp within the territory of the Trinobantes. Cerealis hurried to the relief of Camulodunum, but he arrived too late, and, rashly engaging the insurgents, he was entirely defeated, his infantry, comprising the great mass of the legion, was utterly destroyed, and the cavalry, with Cerealis himself, fled to their camp and shut them- selves up in their entrenchments. The alarm of the Romans was now so great, that the procurator Catus, fearing to expose himself to the I'esentment of the natives whom his own avarice had excited to revolt, deserted his post and fled into Gaul. Suetonius, engaged in the reduction of the distant island of](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24851462_0051.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
