Jussit, etc.
[30]. See chap. ii. note [63].
[31]. Pomponius Mela (A.D. 45) mentions them—‘Triginta sunt Orcades, angustis inter se ductæ spatiis: septem Hæmodæ, contra Germaniam vectae’ (De s. orb. iii. 6). Eutropius has ‘quasdam insulas etiam ultra Britanniam in Oceano positas Romano imperio addidit (Claudius) quae appellantur Orcades’ (Hist. Rom. lib. iv. c. 13). It is difficult to reconcile this statement with that of Tacitus, that Agricola first made the Orcades known. That any conquest took place in either case is unlikely, and they were probably annexed to the Roman Empire in the sense in which an island in the Pacific, when first observed, is declared to belong to Britain, and named Victoria. The existence and position of the Orkneys may have become known under Claudius, and first actually seen under Agricola.
[32]. The anonymous geographer of Ravenna gives a list of the towns of Britain when the Romans left the island. Though plainly not stated in any regular order, they are still manifestly grouped according to situation, and those north and south of the walls can be clearly distinguished. Among those north of the wall, between the Solway and the Tyne, is the town called by him Venusio, and the identity of the name shows its connection with Venusius.
[33]. Tacit. Annal. lib. xii. c. 40. The expression ‘regnum ejus invadunt’ shows that Cartismandua’s kingdom was now distinguished from that in the interest of Venusius. ‘Acre prælium fecere cujus initio ambiguo finis lætior fuit.’
[34]. Tacit. Hist. lib. iii. c. 45. Tacitus, in his Life of Agricola, implies that Vettius did nothing, and was not equal to his position; but in his sketch of the previous governors it is manifest that he endeavours to enhance the fame of his hero by lessening the merits of his predecessors. The account of the war is taken from his History, where, although he does not name Vettius, it is plain that the events there narrated happened during his government, and this accords with the lines of Statius (see Note [38]), which, making due allowance for a panegyrist, certainly imply a war, the result of which had reflected credit upon him. The allusion to the Rex Britannus, from whom he took the ‘thorax,’ is curious. Venusius is probably meant.
[35]. This narrative of the wars of the Romans with the provincials and the Brigantes is condensed from Tacitus’s account in the Annals, the History, and the Life of Agricola.
[36]. Lucan (A.D. 65) is the first who mentions them—
Aut vaga quum Tethys, Rutupinaque litora fervent,
Unda Caledonios fallit turbata Britannos.—(vi. 67.)