XXXVII. 4400. Assistance being again entreated, the Romans came, and with the aid of the Britons drove the enemy beyond sea, and built a wall from sea to sea, not as before with earth, but with solid stone, between the fortresses erected in that part to curb the enemy. On the southern coast, where an invasion of the Saxons was apprehended, he erected watch towers. This was the work of Stilicho, as appears from Claudian.
XXXVIII. 4411. Rome, the seat of the fourth and greatest of the monarchies, was seized by the Goths, as Daniel prophesied, in the year one thousand one hundred and sixty-four after its foundation.
From this time ceased the Roman empire in Britain, four hundred and sixty-five years after the arrival of Julius Cæsar.
XXXIX. 4446. The Roman legion retiring from Britain, and refusing to return, the Scots and Picts ravaged all the island from the north as far as the wall, the guards of which being slain, taken prisoners, or driven away, and the wall itself broken through, the predatory enemy then poured into the country. An epistle was sent filled with tears and sorrows to Fl. Ætius, thrice consul, in the twenty-third year of Theodosius, begging the assistance of the Roman power, but without effect.
FOOTNOTES:
[683] Probably from Cæsar, though the precise date seems to be fixed without authority.—Cæs. de Bell. Gall. lib. v., § 9.
CHAP. II.
1. Having followed truth as far as possible, if any thing should occur not strictly consistent with it, I request it may not be imputed to me as a fault. Confining myself closely to the rules and laws of history, I have collected all the accounts of other persons which I found most accurate and deserving of credit. The reader must not expect any thing beyond an enumeration of those emperors and Roman governors who had authority over this island. With an account of these I shall close my book.
2. Julius Cæsar the dictator was the first of the Romans who invaded Britain with an army, during the reign of Cassibelinus; but, although he defeated the inhabitants in one battle, and occupied the coast, as Tacitus observes, he rather seems to have shown the way to his successors than to have given them possession.