[95] The rule of Postumus lasted ten years ([p. 164], note 1). That the elder son of Gallienus was already dead in 259, we learn from the inscription of Modena, C. I. L. xi. 826; the revolt of Postumus thus falls certainly in or before this year. As the captivity of Tetricus cannot well be placed later than 272, immediately after the second expedition against Zenobia, and the three Gallic rulers reigned, Postumus for ten years, Victorinus for two (Eutropius, ix. 9), Tetricus for two (Victor, 35), this brings the revolt of Postumus to somewhere about 259; yet such numbers are frequently somewhat deranged. When the duration of the expeditions of the Germans into Spain under Gallienus is definitely stated at twelve years (Orosius, vii. 41, 2), this appears to be superficially reckoned according to the Chronicle of Jerome. The usual exact numbers are unattested and deceptive.
[96] According to the biographer, c. 14, 15, Probus brought the Germans of the right bank of the Rhine into dependence, so that they were tributary to the Romans and defended the frontier for them (omnes jam barbari vobis arant, vobis jam serviunt et contra interiores gentes militant); the right of bearing arms is left to them for the time, but the idea is, on further successes, to push forward the frontier and erect a province of Germania. Even as free fancies of a Roman of the fourth century—more they are not—these utterances have a certain interest.
[97] To all appearance the political relations between Rome and Britain in the time before the conquest are to be regarded essentially as arising out of the restoration and guarantee (B. G. v. 22) of the principality of the Trinovantes by Caesar. That king Dubnovellaunus, who along with another quite unknown Britannic prince sought protection with Augustus, ruled chiefly in Essex, is shown by his coins (my Mon. Ancyr. 2d ed., p. 138 f.). We have to seek also mainly there the Britannic princes who sent to Augustus and recognised his supremacy (for such apparently we must take to be the meaning of Strabo, iv. 5, 3, p. 200; comp. Tacitus, Ann. ii. 24). Cunobelinus, according to the coins the son of king Tasciovanus, of whom history is silent, dying as it would seem in advanced years between 40 and 43, and thus contemporary in his government with the later years of Augustus and with Tiberius and Gaius, resided in Camalodunum (Dio, lx. 21); around him and his sons the preliminary history of the invasion turns. To what quarter Bericus, who came to Claudius (Dio, lx. 19), belonged we do not know, and other British dynasts may have followed the example of those of Colchester; but these stand at the head.
[98] Tacitus, Agr. 13, consilium id divus Augustus vocabat, Tiberius praeceptum.
[99] The exposition in Strabo, ii. 5, 8, p. 115; iv. 5, 3, p. 200, gives evidently the governmental version. That, after annexation of the island, the free traffic and therewith the produce of the customs would decline, must doubtless be taken as conceding the proposition that the Roman rule and the Roman tribute affected injuriously the prosperity of the subjects.
[100] Suetonius, Claud. 17, specifies as cause of the war: Britanniam tunc tumultuantem ob non redditos transfugas; which O. Hirschfeld justly brings into connection with Gai. 44: Adminio Cunobellini Britannorum regis filio, qui pulsus a patre cum exigua manu transfugerat, in deditionem recepto. By the tumultuari are doubtless meant at least projected expeditions for pillage to the Gallic coast. The war was certainly not waged on account of Bericus (Dio, lx. 19).
[101] Mona was in like manner afterwards receptaculum perfugarum (Tacitus, Ann. xiv. 29).
[102] Tacitus, Ann. xii. 37: pluribus gentibus imperitantem.
[103] The three legions of the Rhine were the 2d Augusta, the 14th, and the 20th; from Pannonia came the 9th Spanish. The same four legions were still stationed there at the beginning of the government of Vespasian; the latter called away the 14th for the war against Civilis, and it did not return to Britain, but, in its stead, probably the 2d Adiutrix. This was presumably transferred under Domitian to Pannonia; under Hadrian the 9th was broken up and replaced by the 6th Victrix. The two other legions, the 2d Augusta and the 20th, were stationed in England from the beginning to the end of the Roman rule.
[104] The identification, based only on dubious emendations, of the Boduni and Catuellani in Dio. lx. 20, with tribes of similar name in Ptolemy, cannot be correct; these first conflicts must have taken place between the coast and the Thames.