THE ROMAN CONQUEST. CHAPTER I. FROM THE LANDING OF CESAR TO THE COMING OF THE SAXONS. B.C. 55. THE country in which we live, a little more than two Cæsar, thousand years ago, was inhabited by the Britons, or Celts, whose descendants are now called Welsh. About that time the Celts of Britain went over to France to help its people, who were of the same race as themselves, against the Romans under the famous Julius Cæsar. Cæsar, after he had conquered the Gauls of France, made up his mind to defeat the Celts also. So he sailed over to Britain, B.C. 55. The Celts were not afraid of him. And when they saw the Roman ships coming near their country they ran into the sea to meet and fight the Roman soldiers. A storm helped them. Cæsar came a second time into this country, and B.C. 54. subdued part of it, B.C. 54. The chief tribes of England and Wales were the Iceni, occupying Norfolk and Suffolk, and the bordering counties: the Brigantes, in the North: the Silures, in South Wales and part of England: the Ordovices, to the north of the Silures: the Trinobantes, whose capital was London, lived in the vicinity of the Thames. The Roman general Ostorius Scapula defeated the Ostorius Iceni and the Brigantes. The Ordovices were also A Scapula. |