The Leading Facts of English History | Page 8

for
life or liberty. "Can it be possible," said he, as he was led through the
streets, "that men who live in such places as these envy us our wretched
hovels!" "It was the dignity of the man, even in ruins," says the Roman

historian, "which saved him." The Emperor, struck with his bearing and
his speech, ordered him to be set free.
21. The Romans plant a Colony in Britain, Llyn-din.
Meanwhile the armies of the Empire had established a strong colony at
Colchester in the southeast of Britain. (See map facing p. 14.) There
they built a temple and set up the statue of the Emperor Claudius,
which the soldiers worshiped, both as a protecting god and as the
representative of the Roman Empire.
The army had also conquered other places. One of these was a little
native settlement on a bend in the Thames where the river broadened
slightly. It consisted of a few miserable huts and a row of intrenched
cattle pens. It was called in the British tongue Llyn-din or the
Fort-on-the-pool. This name, which was pronounced with difficulty by
Roman lips, eventually became known wherever ships sail, trade
reaches, or history is read,--London.
22. Expedition against the Druids.
But in order to complete the conquest of the country, the Roman
generals resolved to crush the power of the Druids (S3), since these
priests exhorted the Britons to refuse to surrender. The island of
Anglesey, off the northwest coast of Wales, was the stronghold to
which the Druids had retreated. (See map facing p. 14.) As the Roman
soldiers approached to attack them, they beheld the priests and women
standing on the shore, with uplifted hands, uttering "dreadful prayers
and imprecations."
For a moment the Roman troops hesitated; then they rushed upon the
Druids, cut them to pieces, and cast their bodies into their own sacred
fires. From this blow Druidism as an organized faith never recovered,
though traces of its religious rites still survive in the use of the
mistletoe at Christman and in May-day festivals.
23. Revolt of Boadicea (61).

Still the power of the Latin legions was only partly established, for
while the Roman general was absent with his troops at Anglesey, a
formidable revolt had broken out in the east. A British chief, in order to
secure half of his property to his family at his death, left it to be equally
divided between his daughters and the Emperor. The governor of the
district, under the pretext that Boadicea, the widow of the dead chief,
had concealed part of the property, seized the whole of it.
Boadicea protested. To punish her presumption, the Romans stripped
and scourged her, and inflicted still more brutal and infamous treatment
on her daughters. Maddened by these outrages, Boadicea appealed to
her countrymen for vengeance. The enraged Britons fell upon London,
and other places held by the Romans, burned them to the ground, and
slaughtered many thousand inhabitants. But in the end Roman forced
gained the victory, and Boadicea took her own life rather than fall into
the hands of her conqueror.
The "warrior queen" died, let us trust, as the poet has represented,
animated by the prophecy of the Druid priest that,--
"Rome shall perish--write that word In the blood that she has spilt;--
Perish, hopeless and abhorred, Deep in ruin, as in guilt." [1]
[1] Cowper's "Boadicea."
24. Christianity introduced into Britain.
Perhaps it was not long after this that Christianity made its way to
Britain; if so, it crept in so silently that nothing certain can be learned
of its advent. The first church, it is said, was built at Glastonbury, in the
southeast of the island. (See map facing p. 38.) It was a long, shedlike
structure of wickerwork. "Here," says an old writer,[1] "the converts
watched, fasted, preached, and prayed, having high meditations under a
low roof and large hearts within narrow walls."
[1] Thomas Fuller's "Church History of Britain."
At first no notice was taken of the new religion. It was the faith of the

poor and the obscure, and the Roman generals treated it with contempt;
but as it continued to spread, it caused alarm.
The Roman Emperor was not only the head of the state, but the head of
religion as well. He represented the power of God on earth: to him
every knee must bow (S21). But the Christians refused this homage.
They put Christ first; for that reason they were dagerous to the state,
and were looked--[SECTION MISSING]--rebels, or as men likely to
become so.
25. Persecution of British Christians; [SECTION MISSING]
________________ last of the third century the Roman Emperor / \
root out this pernicious belief. The first | | He refused to sacrifice to the
Roman | | | | But the ancient historian[2] says, with