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V.—Observations on the hitherto unnoticed Expedition of the Emperor Augustus into Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2012

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Extract

It is the common and inveterate opinion of modern writers, and it seems to be accepted by all antiquaries in the present day, that Britain remained unvisited by the Romans, and free from subjection to the Roman empire, from the time when Julius Cæsar left our shores to the expedition of Claudius and his conquest of the south-eastern part of the island, almost a century afterward. That is a long interval, extending from B.C. 54 to a.d. 43, a period of not less than ninety-five years; and, if the common opinion be true, there is a great and terrible blank in our national history, immediately following the events which had made our nation known to the Roman world.

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Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1873

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References

page 66 note a De vita Agricolœ, c. 13.

page 66 note b De vita Claudii, c. 17.

page 66 note c De vita Julii, c. 25.

page 66 note d De vita Calig. c. 44.

page 68 note a The following is the Latin text of this passage:—“Et caussa scribendorum Bucolicorum hæc est: Cum post occisum iii. iduum Martiarum die in Senatu Cæsarem, Augustus ejus films contra percussores patris et Antonium, civilia bella movisset: -victoria potitus, Cremonensium agros, qui contra eum senserant, militibus suis dedit: qui cum non sufficerent, etiam Mantuanorum jussit distribui, non propter culpam, sed propter vicinitatem. Unde est, ‘ Mantua væ! miseræ nimium vicina Cremonæ.’ Perdito ergo agro, Virgilius Romam venit, et potentium favore meruit ut agrum suum solus reciperet. Ad quern accipiendum profectus, ab Ario centurione, qui earn tenebat, pene est interemptus, nisi se præcipitasset in Mincium. Unde est allegoricôs, ‘ Ipse aries etiam nunc vellera siccat.’ Postea ab Augusto missis Triumviris, et ipsi integer ager est redditus, et Mantuanis pro parte.” (Servius Comm. in Virg. Ecl. i. inter Prolegomena, p. 2.) [Donatus, in his Life of Virgil, gives the same facts more in detail, following probably the same ancient authority.]

In the celebrated verse “Et penitus,” &c. the text and commentary of Servius read diversos for “divisos;” and his notes on it are as follow:—“Penitus.] Id est, omnino. Diversos.] Quia olim juncta fuit orbi terrarum Britannia. Est enim insula sita in Oceano Septentrionali; et, a poetis, alter orbis terrarum dicitur.” (Ibid. ed. Col., p. 7.)

page 72 note a The Latin text of the whole passage is as follows: —

Vel scena ut versis.] Apud majores, theatri gradus tantum fuerunt. Nam scena de lignis tantum ad tempus fiebat; unde hodieque permansit consuetudo, ut componantur pegmata, a ludorum theatralium editoribus. Scena autem quse fiebat, aut versilis erat, aut duetilis. Versilis tune erat, cum subito tota machinis quibusdam convertebatur, et aliam picture faciem ostendebat. Ductilis tune, cum, tractis tabulatis hac et iliac, species picturæ nudabatur interior. Unde perite utrunque tetigit, dicens, Versis discedat frontibus, singula singulis complectens sermonibus. Quod Varro et Suetonius commemorant.

Purpurea intexti tollant aulcea Britanni.] Hoc secundum Historiam est locutus. Nam Augustus, postquam vicit Britanniam, plurimos de captivis, quos adduxerat, donavit ad officia theatralia: dedit etiam aulæa, id est, velamina in quibus depinxerat victorias suas, et quemadmodum Britanni, ab eo donati, eadem vela portarent, quse re vera portare consueverant. Quam rem mira expressit ambiguitate, dicens, intexti tollant: nam in velis ipsi erant picti, qui eadem vela portabant. Aulœa autem dicta sunt ab aula Attali, in qua primum inventa sunt vela ingentia, postquam is Populum Romanum scripsit hæredem.” Servius, ad Georg. lib. i. ed. Basil. 1544, pp. 97, 98: Basil. 1618, col. 270 ; Col. Allob. 1620, p. 126.)

page 73 note a [Servius is not only quoted by Macrobius, but is introduced as an interlocutor, and styled “doctissimus doctor,” “doctorum maxime,” in Saturnalia, lib. vi. c. 8.]

page 74 note a [Acron, nearly contemporary with Servius, comments thus on this passage :—“Adjectis Britannis, etc. Per has gentes, ab ultimo occidente usque ad orientem continuâsse imperium, provincias acquirendo, confirmat Augustum,” ed. Hauthal. Berolini, p. 278. Porphyrion's note, ibid, is to the same effect.]

page 76 note a 1849, folio, pp. xxxviii-ix.

page 76 note b Eleg. xi. I.

page 77 note a Cicero ad Familiares, apud Mormmenta Hist. Brit. p. lxxxvii.

page 77 note b Suet, in vita Augusti, c. 76.

page 77 note c Propert. Eleg. xi. 14.

page 77 note d Ibid. xi. 20.

page 78 note a See an ample notice of the editions in Saxii Onomasticon Literarium. (Traj. ad Rhenum, 1775, 8vo.) i. 205–8, under a.d. 15.) [See also Zell's Delectus Inscriptionum Romanarum, pp. 358–364.]

page 78 note b Mon. Hist. Brit. p. cvi.

page 79 note a Dio Cassius, xlix. 38, a.c. 35.

page 79 note b Ibid. 1. 24. a.c. 32.

page 79 note c Ibid. liii. 7, a.c. 27.

page 79 note d Ibid. liii. 22, a.c. 27.

page 79 note e Ibid. liii. 25, a.c. 26.

page 80 note a Fabricii Chronographia Augusti, pp. 40, 41. [A further allusion to an expedition undertaken by Augustus against Britain is to be found in Xipliilinus' Epitome of Dio Cassius, lib. lxii. It is contained in a speech of Boadicea (or Bunduica, as Dio calls her,) to her army, in which she says, “We have been ourselves the cause of all these evils in permitting them (i.e. the Romans) at the beginning to land on this island, and not straightway driving them away as we did Julius Cæsar, in not making the very attempt to sail hither terrible, even at a distance from our shores, as we did to Augustus and Caius Caligula.”

‘Ημεῖς δὲ δὴ πάντων τῶν κακῶν τούτων αἴτιοι (ὥς γε τἀληθὲς εἰπεῖν) γεγόναμεν, οἵτινες αὐτοῖς ἐπιβῆναι τὴν νήσου ἐπιτρέψαμεν, καὶ οὐ παραχρῆμα αὐτοὺς, ὥσπερ καὶ τὸν Καίσαρα τὸν Ιούλιον ἐκεῖνον, ἐξηλάσαμεν, οἵτινες οὐ πόῤῥωθεν σϕίσιν, ὥσπερ καὶ τῷ Άὐγούστῳ καὶ τῷ Γαϊῳ τῶ Καλίγολᾳ, ϕοβερὸν τὸ πειράσαι τὸν πλοῦν ἑποιήσαμεν—Xiphilin. lib. lxii.

It is possible that Propertius (quoted in the text) alludes to this, when he says, “Seu pedibus Parthos

“Sequimur, seu classe Britannos, &c.”]

page 80 note b Allusion is here made to the “Neglected fact in English History,” for which we are indebted to our learned and sagacious Fellow, H. C. Coote, Esq. published in 1864, 8vo.