the southward of
the Thames, the best cultivated and most accessible parts of the island.
But the inhabitants of the rough inland countries, the people called
Cattivellauni, made a more strenuous opposition. They were under the
command of Caractacus, a chief of great and just renown amongst all the
British nations. This leader wisely adjusted his conduct of the war to
the circumstances of his savage subjects and his rude country. Plautius
obtained no decisive advantages over him. He opposed Ostorius Scapula,
who succeeded that general, with the same bravery, but with unequal
success; for he was, after various turns of fortune, obliged to abandon
his dominions, which Ostorius at length subdued and disarmed.

This bulwark of the British freedom being overturned, Ostorius was not
afraid to enlarge his plan. Not content with disarming the enemies of
Rome, he proceeded to the same extremities with those nations who had
been always quiet, and who, under the name of an alliance, lay ripening
for subjection. This fierce people, who looked upon their arms as their
only valuable possessions, refused to submit to terms as severe as the
most absolute conquest could impose. They unanimously entered into a
league against the Romans. But their confederacy was either not
sufficiently strong or fortunate to resist so able a commander, and only
afforded him an opportunity, from a more comprehensive victory, to
extend the Roman province a considerable way to the northern and western
parts of the island. The frontiers of this acquisition, which extended
along the rivers Severn and Nen, he secured by a chain of forts and
stations; the inland parts he quieted by the settlement of colonies of
his veteran troops at Maldon and Verulam: and such was the beginning of
those establishments which afterwards became so numerous in Britain.
This commander was the first who traced in this island a plan of
settlement and civil policy to concur with his military operations. For,
after he had settled these colonies, considering with what difficulty
any and especially an uncivilized people are broke into submission to a
foreign government, he imposed it on some of the most powerful of the
British nations in a more indirect manner. He placed them under kings of
their own race; and whilst he paid this compliment to their pride, he
secured their obedience by the interested fidelity of a prince who knew,
that, as he owed the beginning, so he depended for the dur