[374] Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, cited by Mr. Lewin.
[375] “Qui tertia vigilia Morino solvisset a portu.” (Florus, III. 10.)
[376] Strabo, IV. 5, p. 166.
[377] “Ultimos Gallicarum gentium Morinos, nec portu quam Gesoriacum vocant quicquam notius habet.” (Pomponius Mela, III. 2.)—“Μορινὡν Γησοριακον ἑπἱνειον.” (Ptolemy, II. ix. 3.)
[378] “Hæc [Britannia] abest a Gesoriaco Morinorum gentis litore proximo trajectu quinquaginta M.” (Pliny, Hist. Nat., IV. 30.)
[379] The camp of Labienus, during the second expedition, was, no doubt, established on the site now occupied by the high town. From thence it commanded the surrounding country, the sea, and the lower course of the Liane.
[380] Histoire du Consulat et de l’Empire, tom. IV., I. 17.
[381] What is now called Romney Marsh is the northern part of a vast plain, bounded on the east and south by the sea, and on the west and north by the line of heights at the foot of which the military canal has been cut. It is difficult to determine what was the aspect of Romney Marsh in the time of Cæsar. Nevertheless, the small elevation of the plain above the level of the sea, as well as the nature of the soil, lead us to conclude that the sea covered it formerly up to the foot of the heights of Lymne, except at least in the part called Dymchurch-Wall. This is a long tongue of land, on which are now raised three forts and nine batteries, and which, considering its height above the rest of the plain, has certainly never been covered by the sea. These facts appear to be confirmed by an ancient chart in the Cottonian collection in the British Museum.
Mr. Lewin appears to have represented as accurately as possible the appearance of Romney Marsh in the time of Cæsar, in the plate which accompanies his work. The part not covered by the sea extended, no doubt, as he represents it, from the bay of Romney to near Hythe, where it terminated in a bank of pebbles of considerable extent. But it appears to us that it would have been difficult for the Roman army to land on a bank of pebbles at the very foot of the rather steep heights of Lymne. Mr. Lewin places the Roman army, in the first expedition, at the foot of the heights, on the bank of pebbles itself, surrounded on almost all sides by the sea. In the second expedition, he supposes it to have been on the heights, at the village of Lymne; and, to explain how Cæsar joined his fleet to the camp by retrenchments common to both, he admits that this fleet was drawn on land as far as the slope of the heights, and shut up in a square space of 300 mètres each side, because we find there the ruins of an ancient castle called Stutfall Castle. All this is hardly admissible.
[382] Word for word, this expression signifies that the ships set sail four days after the arrival of the Romans in England. The Latin language often employed the ordinal number instead of the cardinal number. Thus, the historian Eutropius says, “Carthage was destroyed 700 years after it was founded, Carthago septingentesimo anno quam condita erat deleta est.” Are we, in the phrase, post diem quartum, to reckon the day of the arrival?—Virgil says, speaking of the seventeenth day, septima post decimam.—Cicero uses the expression post sexennium in the sense of six years. It is evident that Virgil counts seven days after the tenth. If the tenth was comprised in this number, the expression septima post decimam would signify simply the sixteenth day. On his part, Cicero understands clearly the six years as a lapse of time which was to pass, starting from the moment in which he speaks. Thus, the post diem quartum of Cæsar must be understood in the sense of four days accomplished, without reckoning the day of landing.