fresh discoveries of Roman generals.

CHAPTER IX

THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND PLINY

In the year 43 A.D. the Emperor Claudius resolved to send an expedition
to the British coast, lying amid the mists and fog of the Northern
Ocean.

A gigantic army landed near the spot where Caesar had landed just a
hundred years before. The discovery and conquest of Britain now began
in real earnest. The Isle of Wight was overrun by Romans; the south
coast was explored. Roman soldiers lost their lives in the bogs and
swamps of Gloucestershire. The eastern counties, after fierce
opposition, submitted at the last. The spirit of Caractacus and
Boadicea spread from tribe to tribe and the Romans were constantly
assailed. But gradually they swept the island. They reached the banks
of the river Tyne; they crossed the Tweed and explored as far as the
Firths of Clyde and Forth. From the coast of Galloway the Romans beheld
for the first time the dim outline of the Irish coast. In the year
83 A.D. Agricola, a new Roman commander, made his way beyond the Firth
of Forth.

"Now is the time to penetrate into the heart of Caledonia and to
discover the utmost limits of Britain," cried the Romans, as they began
their advance to the Highlands of Scotland. While a Roman fleet
surveyed the coasts and harbours, Agricola led his men up the valley
of the Tay to the edge of the Highlands, but he could not follow the
savage Caledonians into their rugged and inaccessible mountains. To
the north of Scotland they never penetrated, and no part of Ireland
ever came under Roman sway, in that air "the Roman eagle never
fluttered." The Roman account of Britain at this time is interesting.
"Britain," says Tacitus, "the largest of all the islands which have
come within the knowledge of the Romans, stretches on the east towards
Germany, on the west towards Spain, and on the south it is even within
sight of France.... The Roman fleet, at this period first sailing round
this remotest coast, gave certain proof that Britain was an island,
and at the same time discovered and subdued the Orkney Islands, till
then unknown. Thule was also distinctly seen, which winter and eternal
snow had hitherto concealed.... The sky in this country is deformed
by clouds and frequent rains; but the cold is never extremely rigorous.
The earth yields gold and silver and other metals--the ocean produces
pearls."

The account of Ireland is only from hearsay. "This island," continues
Tacitu