coast; this time, presumably, crossing the Thames in the regular way
at London.

G. 7.--After a short wait, in vain expectation of the sixty ships
which Labienus had built in Gaul and which could not beat across the
Channel, Caesar crowded his troops and the hordes of British captives
on board as best he could, and being favoured by the weather, found
himself and them safe across, having worked out his great purpose, and
leaving a nominally conquered and tributary Britain behind him. This,
as we have seen from Cicero's letter, was on September 26, B.C. 54.

G. 8.--We have seen, too, that Cicero's cue was to belittle the
business. But this was far from being the view taken by the Roman "in
the street." To him Caesar's exploit was like those of the gods and
heroes of old; Hercules and Bacchus had done less, for neither had
passed the Ocean. The popular feeling of exultation in this new glory
added to Roman fame may be summed up in the words of the Anthologist
already quoted:

Libera non hostem, non passa Britannia regem, Aeternum nostro
quae procul orbe jacet; Felix adversis, et sorte oppressa
secunda, Communis nobis et tibi Caesar erit. ["Free Britain,
neither foe nor king that bears, That from our world lies
far and far away, Lucky to lose, crushed by a happy doom,
Henceforth, O Caesar, ours--and yours--will be."]

G. 9.--Caesar never set foot in Britain again, though he once saved
himself from imminent destruction by utilizing his British experiences
and passing his troops over a river in coracles of British build.[109]
He went his way to the desperate fighting, first of the great Gallic
revolt, then of the Civil War (with his own Labienus for the most
ferocious of his opponents), till he found himself the undisputed
master of the Roman world. But when he fell, upon the Ides of March
B.C. 44, it was mainly through the superhuman reputation won by
his invasion of Britain that he received the hitherto unheard of
distinction of a popular apotheosis, and handed down to his successors
for many a generation the title not only of Caesar, but of "Divus."

CHAPTER III

THE ROMAN CONQUEST, B.C. 54--A.D. 85

SECTION A.

Britain after Julius Caesar--House of Commius--Inscribed coins--House
of Cymbeline--Tasciovan--Commians overthrown--Vain appeal to
Augustus--Ancyran Tablet--Romano-British trade--Lead-mining--British
fashions in Rome--Adminius banished by Cymbeline--Appeal to
Caligula--F