It was not till the reign of Claudius that any effectual attempt was renewed to subject the British tribes to the Roman yoke; but the second conquest under that emperor speedily assumed a more permanent character than the first under Julius Cæsar, and the conquered territory was formed into a province of the Roman empire. During this intervening period of nearly a century, we know nothing of the internal history of the population of Britain; but the indications which have reached us of a marked and easily-recognised distinction between two great classes of the inhabitants, and of the progressive immigration of one of them from Belgium, and the analogy of history, lead to the inference that during this period—ample for such a purpose—the stronger and more civilised race must have spread over a larger space of the territory, and the ruder inhabitants of the interior been gradually confined to the wilder regions of the north and west. The name of Britannia having gradually superseded the older appellation of Albion, and the latter, if it is synonymous with Alba or Alban, becoming confined to the wilder regions of the north, lead to the same inference.

As soon as the conquests of the Romans in Britain assumed the form of a province of the empire, all that they possessed in the island was termed ‘Britannia Romana,’ all that was still hostile to them, ‘Britannia Barbara.’ The conquered tribes became the inhabitants of a Roman province, subject to her laws, and sharing in some of her privileges. The tribes beyond the limits of the province were to them ‘Barbari.’ An attention to the application of these terms affords the usual indication of the extent of the Roman province at different times, and, if the history of the more favoured southern portion of the island must find its earliest annals in the Roman provinces of Britain, it is to the ‘Barbari’ we must turn in order to follow the fortunes of the ruder independence of the northern tribes. It will be necessary, therefore, for our purpose, that we should trace the gradual extension of the boundary of the Roman province and the advance of the line of demarcation between what was provincial and what was termed barbarian, till we find the independent tribes of Britain confined within the limits of that portion of the island separated from the rest by the Firths of Forth and Clyde.

It was in the year of our Lord 43, and in the reign of the Emperor Claudius, that the real conquest of Britain commenced under Aulus Plautius, and in seven years after the beginning of the war a part of the island had been reduced by that general and by his successor into the form of a province, and annexed to the Roman empire,—a result to which the valour and military talent of Vespasian, then serving under these generals, and afterwards Emperor, appears mainly to have contributed. In the year 50, under Ostorius, and perhaps his successor, the Roman province appears to have already extended to the Severn on the west, and to the Humber on the north.[[28]]

Beyond its limits, on the west, were the warlike tribes of the Silures and the Ordovices, against whom the province was defended by a line of forts drawn from the river Sabrina or Severn, to a river, which cannot be identified with certainty, termed by Tacitus the Antona.[[29]] On the north lay the numerous and widely-extended tribes of the Brigantes, extending across the entire island from the Eastern to the Western Sea, and reaching from the Humber, which separated them from the province on the south, as far north, there seems little reason to doubt, as the Firth of Forth.[[30]] Beyond the nation of the Brigantes on the north, the Romans as yet knew nothing save that Britain was believed to be an island, and that certain islands termed Orcades[[31]] lay to the north of it; but the names even of the more northern tribes had not yet reached them.

A.D. 50. War with the Brigantes.

It is to the war with the Brigantes that we must mainly turn, in order to trace the progress of the Roman arms, and the extension of the frontier of the Roman province beyond the Humber. The Romans appear to have come in contact with the Brigantes for the first time in the course of the war carried on by Publius Ostorius, appointed governor of Britain in the year 50. That general had arrived in the island towards the end of summer; and the Barbarians, or those of the Britons still hostile to the Romans, believing he would not undertake a winter campaign, took advantage of his arrival at so late a period of the year to make incursions into the territory subject to Rome. Among these invading tribes were probably the Brigantes; but the general, by a rapid and energetic movement, put the enemy to flight, and it was on this occasion that the province was protected against the western tribes by a chain of forts. Having defeated the powerful nation of the Iceni, who endeavoured to obstruct his purpose by an attack from a different quarter, and who were destined at a subsequent period to place the Roman dominion in Britain in the utmost jeopardy, Ostorius reduced the tribes within the limits of the subjugated territory to entire obedience, and now turned his attention to more aggressive measures against those beyond its boundary.

His first attack was directed against the hostile tribes of the west, and he had penetrated into their mountain territory nearly as far as the sea, when he was obliged to turn his steps towards the north by the threatening aspect of the powerful nation of the Brigantes, whom, however, on this occasion he soon reduced to subjection. Those he found in arms were cut to pieces, and the rest of the nation submitted.

On again turning his steps towards the west, he found the nations of the Silures and Ordovices assembled under the command of the celebrated native chief Caractacus, and a great battle took place, in which the discipline of the Roman troops prevailed over the acknowledged bravery of the natives, even although the latter occupied a well-chosen position of unusual strength. The army of Caractacus was defeated, his wife and daughter taken prisoners, while he himself fled for protection to Cartismandua, queen of the Brigantes, but that queen, being then at peace with the Romans, delivered him up to them.

On the death of Ostorius, which took place in the same year, Aulus Didius was sent to Britain as the next commander, and under him a more prolonged war with the Brigantes commenced, which throws some light on their internal condition. After the defeat and death of Caractacus, the most distinguished native leader was Venusius, a Brigantian, who belonged to a sept of that nation termed by Tacitus the ‘Jugantes.’[[32]] He had married Cartismandua, the queen of the whole nation, and, while this marriage subsisted, had remained equally faithful to the Romans. Dissensions, however, arose between them. Venusius was driven from his throne, and his brother, with the rest of his kindred, seized by the queen, who raised Villocatus, his armour-bearer, to her throne and bed. This quarrel led to a civil war between the adherents of Venusius and those of the queen, and this great nation became divided into two factions.[[33]] That part of the nation which adhered to Venusius, and which there is reason to believe consisted of the more northern tribes, was from that time in active hostility to the Romans. They had attacked Cartismandua, who was only enabled to maintain her position by obtaining the assistance of the Roman army. The short but significant expressions of Tacitus show that the war was not an easy one for the Romans, and that they could do little more than maintain their own ground and the position of their ally.

We hear no more of this war till after that great insurrection of the Roman provincials under Boadicea or Bondiuca, queen of the Iceni, which shook the Roman power in Britain to its foundation, and had nearly resulted in their entire expulsion from the island. A struggle such as the language of the historians shows this to have been must necessarily have been a vital one on both sides; and hence, when the Roman arms eventually prevailed, the result produced a firm consolidation of their power in that part of the island which formed the Roman province. The immediate subject before us—the extension of the Roman power towards the north, and the gradual advance of the northern frontier of the province—renders it unnecessary for us to dwell with any minuteness upon their contests with the native tribes in other quarters. It is sufficient to notice that Veranius succeeded Aulus Didius, but died within the year, and that under Suetonius Paulinus, one of the most distinguished of the Roman commanders in Britain, and the governor by whom the great insurrection of the Iceni was finally quelled, the western tribes were finally brought under the dominion of the Romans.