Cæsar made here; but made not here his brag
Of, came, and saw, and overcame: with shame
(The first that ever touched him) he was carried
From off our coast, twice beaten; and his shipping
(Poor ignorant baubles!) on our terrible seas,
Like egg-shells moved upon their surges, cracked
As easily 'gainst our rocks.
PLAUTIUS AND CLAUDIUS VISIT BRITAIN.
During the reigns of Augustus, Tiberius, and Caligula, Britain was unmolested by foreign invasion.
At the invitation of a discontented Briton, Claudius resolved to attempt the reduction of the island. In the year of our Lord 43, he sent Aulus Plautius, with four legions and their auxiliaries, amounting in all to about fifty thousand men, into Britain. It was with difficulty that the troops could be induced to engage in the undertaking. They were unwilling, as Dion Cassius informs us, "to engage in a war, as it were, out of the world." The fears of the soldiery were not without foundation. The Britons, though their inferiors in discipline and arms, were not behind them in valour and spirit, whilst, in a knowledge of the country they had an important advantage.