Part 10 (1/2)

[16] It was usual for generals to admit young men of promising characters to this honorable companions.h.i.+p, which resembled the office of an aide-de- camp in the modern service. Thus, Suetonius informs us that Caesar made his first campaign in Asia as tent-companion to Marcus Thermus the praetor.

[17] This was the fate of the colony of veterans at Camalodunum, now Colchester or Maldon. A particular account of this revolt is given in the 14th book of the Annals.

[18] This alludes to the defeat of Petilius Cerialis, who came with the ninth legion to succor the colony of Camalodunum. All the infantry were slaughtered; and Petilius, with the cavalry alone, got away to the camp.

It was shortly after this, that Suetonius defeated Boadicea and her forces.

[19] Those of Nero.

[20] The office of quaestor was the entrance to all public employments.

The quaestors and their secretaries were distributed by lot to the several provinces, that there might be no previous connections between them and the governors, but they might serve as checks upon each other.

[21] Brother of the emperor Otho.

[22] At the head of the praetors, the number of whom was different at different periods of the empire, were the Praetor Urba.n.u.s, and Praetor Peregrinus. The first administered justice among the citizens, the second among strangers. The rest presided at public debates, and had the charge of exhibiting the public games, which were celebrated with great solemnity for seven successive days, and at a vast expense. This, indeed, in the times of the emperors, was almost the sole business of the praetors, whose dignity, as Tacitus expresses it, consisted in the idle trappings of state; whence Boethius justly terms the praetors.h.i.+p ”an empty name, and a grievous burthen on the senatorian rank.”

[23] Nero had plundered the temples for the supply of his extravagance and debauchery. See Annals, xv. 45.

[24] This was the year of Rome 822; from the birth of Christ, 69.

[25] The cruelties and depredations committed on the coast of Italy by this fleet are described in lively colors by Tacitus, Hist. ii. 12, 13.

[26] Now the county of Vintimiglia. The attack upon the munic.i.p.al town of this place, called Albium Intemelium, is particularly mentioned in the pa.s.sage above referred to.

[27] In the month of July of this year.

[28] The twentieth legion, surnamed the Victorious, was stationed in Britain at Deva, the modern Chester, where many inscriptions and other monuments of Roman antiquities have been discovered.

[29] Roscius Caelius. His disputes with the governor of Britain, Trebellius Maximus, are related by Tacitus, Hist. i. 60.

[30] The governors of the province, and commanders in chief over all the legions stationed in it.

[31] He had formerly been commander of the ninth legion.

[32] The province of Aquitania extended from the Pyrenean mountains to the river Liger (Loire).

[33] The governors of the neighboring provinces.

[34] Agricola was consul in the year of Rome 830, A.D. 77, along with Domitian. They succeeded, in the calends of July, the consuls Vespasian and t.i.tus, who began the year.

[35] He was admitted into the Pontifical College, at the head of which was the Pontifex Maximus.

[36] Julius Caesar, Livy, Strabo, Fabius Rusticus, Pomponius Mela, Pliny, &c.

[37] Thus Caesar: ”One side of Britain inclines towards Spain, and the setting sun; on which part Ireland is situated.”--Bell. Gall. v. 13.

[38] These, as well as other resemblances suggested by ancient geographers, have been mostly destroyed by the greater accuracy of modern maps.

[39] This is so far true, that the northern extremity of Scotland is much narrower than the southern coast of England.

[40] The Orkney Islands. These, although now first thoroughly known to the Romans, had before been heard of, and mentioned by authors. Thus Mela, in.

6: ”There are thirty of the Orcades, separated from each other by narrow straits.” And Pliny, iv. 16: ”The Orcades are forty in number, at a small distance from each other.” In the reign of Claudius, the report concerning these islands was particularly current, and adulation converted it into the news of a victory. Hence Hieronymus in his Chronicon says, ”Claudius triumphed over the Britons, and added the Orcades to the Roman empire.”