their præfect, a Briton was was their justiciary, and a Briton was their tax-gatherer. Every inhabitant of such a town that had borne the office of prætor, or quæstor, was immediately entitled to the privilege of a Roman citizen. These rights the Romans first communicated to the conquered Latins, and afterwards extended to all the Italians. Cæsar seems to have been the first that carried them beyond the bounds of Italy, and conferred them upon a provincial town. Novum Comum certainly, and probably Nemausis, in Gaul, received this distinction from him, and were, perhaps, the first provincial towns that received it. It was afterwards bestowed upon several of our cities in Britain; such as Durnomagus or Caster, near Peterborough, Ptoroton or Inverness, Victoria or Perth, Theodosia or Dunbarton, Lugubalia or Carlisle, and Sorbiodunum or Salisbury;

Cornicum or Cirencester, Cataracton or Catarick in Yorkshire, Cambodunum or Slack in Longwood, and Coccium or Blackrode in Lancashire.

These were the names and these were the constitutions of the towns which were inhabited principally by the Britons. But there were others which were chiefly possessed by the Romans, and had therefore a very different polity. These were colonies and municipies.

The commencement of the Roman colonies were nearly coeval with that of the Roman conquests. But the first that was planted in any of the provinces, was projected by the genius of Caius Gracchus, and settled upon the site of the memorable Carthage. Others were established on the same principle in Britain; Claudius settling a strong body of legionary veterans at Camulodunum or Colchester, the first of all the Roman colonies in Britain; and he, and the succeeding legates, fixing no less than eight others in other quarters of the island, at Richborough, London, Gloucester, Bath, Caerleon on Usk, Chesterford near Cambridge, Lincoln, and Chester.

That colony was esteemed

the

the head-quarters of the legion, where some of the principal cohorts were lodged, the eagle was reposited, and the commander was resident. Such was Deva, for the twentieth Valerian Victorious, Eboracum for the sixth Victorious, Caerleon the second Augustan, and Glevum for the seventh Twin Claudian. The rest were peopled by the other cohorts of those legions: so Caerleon, London, and Richborough, were all peopled by those of the second Augustan; and the tenth Antonian was lodged in the common stations, as the tenth legion had three, the twelfth five, and the twentysecond six, in Germany and Gaul. Thus were large bodies of the soldiery kept together by the Romans, at Richborough, London, Colchester, Chesterford, Lincoln, and York, along the eastern side of the island; and at Bath, Gloucester, Caerleon, and Chester, upon the western; ready at once to suppress any insurrection at home, and repel any invasion from abroad. The Roman legionaries lived together without any great intermixture of the natives; allowing few probably to reside with them, but the useful traders and necessary servants.

As their government was partly civil, the legionary co

lonists were subject to the Roman laws, were governed by their own senators or decuriones, and enjoyed all the privileges of Roman citizens. As it was equally military, they strengthened their towns with regular fortifications and guarded them with regular watches, had their names retained on the quartermaster's roll, and were obliged to march at the general's command. But, as in a series of years the males in the colonies would necessarily increase, and as they were all of them legionaries by birth, upon any military exigence a draught would be made out of the colonists, and such a number levied as was requisite to the occasion. And these towns naturally assumed the names of the legions to which the colonists belonged, frequently in accompaniment, and sometimes in supersedence of their British appellations.

re

of them. In the towns distinguished by the Latin liberties, as before observed, it became the common right of all that had borne the offices of ædile or quæstor in them. But when philosophy and Antoninus Pius were invested with the imperial authority, these narrow straints were taken away, and the Roman citizenship was extended to every Briton of property and worth. It ought to have been extended to all. And the cunning avarice of Caracalla communicated what the virtuous wisdom of Pius should have bestowed. By this act the lower orders of Britons were freed from a disgraceful punishment, and no longer liable to be scourged with rods. The higher were delivered from a disgraceful exclusion, and admitted to a participation of marriages and a communion of honours with the Romans. All the inhabitants being now created citizens of Rome, were raised on a footing of equality with their Roman masters, empowered to elect their own officers, and at liberty to be governed by their own townsmen *. From which it may be justly inferred, that the Romans granted

only what they were afraid or unable to withhold.

Having shewn in the former part of this sketch, that the Britons, when Cæsar visited them, were not in that rude and barbarous state which many have supposed, yet it must be owned, as will also appear from the subsequent pages, that the country underwent many important improvements in consequence of its becoming a part of the Roman empire. The arts of civil and social life, with all the learning and knowledge which distinguished the Roman people, were soon introduced among our ancestors, and produced a vast effect on the state of the country and character of the nation. New towns, on an improved model, were built in great numbers, and new roads formed to facilitate the intercourse or communication between those towns, as well as between the different parts of the country. Woods and forests were cleared, fens and morasses drained, and salt or sea marshes embanked; agriculture, trade, and commerce, universally encouraged and wonderfully ad

vanced.

vanced. Such superabundance of corn was produced, that near a thousand sail of ships were said to be employed to export it to foreign countries. In short, this island appears to have been, while connected with the Romans, justly considered as a very important part of their empire: and whatever obligations our ancestors were laid under to their Roman masters, for promoting the improvement of the country, or on any other account, it is pretty certain that they were all amply repaid by the numerous and important benefits derived from the country by the imperial government.

But though it may be said that the Britons were much indebted to the Romans for promoting the improvement of the country and disseminating among the people much of that useful

knowledge in which they themselves excelled; yet the case is far otherwise with regard to the effeminate luxuries, vicious habits, and dissipated manners, of their mother-country, which they were also but too diligent to introduce and promote among our ancestors. This appears to have produced very unhappy effects on the national character, and may account for that effeminate and unpatriotic appearance which the Britons exhibited at the time of the departure of the Roman legions-so very different from the disposition they manifested, when the Romans first invaded their country, and when they so gallantly resisted them under the conduct of Caractacus. In fine, it seems pretty evident that the Romans left this island in a much worse condition than that in which they found it.

HISTORICAL

GODODIN.

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