[16] Inhabitants of Norfolk and Suffolk.

[17] Rem Romanam huc satietate gloriae provectam, ut externis quoque gentibus quietem velit.—­Tacit.  Annal.  XII. 11.

[18] Nam duces, ubi impetrando triumphalium insigni sufficere res suas crediderant, hostam omittebant.—­Tacit.  Annal.  IV. 23.

[19] Sigonii de Antiquo Jure Provinciarum, Lib. 1 and 2.

[20] Cic. in Verrem, I.

[21] Duobus insuper inserviendum tyrannis; quorum legatus in sanguinem, procurator in bona saeviret—­Tacit.  Annal.  XII. 60.

[22] Ne vim principatus resolveret cuncta ad senatum vocando, eam conditionem esse imperandi, ut non aliter ratio constet, quam si uni reddatur.—­Tacit.  Annal.  I. 6.

[23] Tacit.  Annal.  XV. 21, 22.

[24] The four roads they called Watling Street, Ikenild Street, Ermin Street, and the Fosseway.

[25] Cod. lib.  XII.  Tit. lxii.

CHAPTER IV.

THE FALL OF THE ROMAN POWER IN BRITAIN.

[Sidenote:  A.D. 117.]

After the period which we have just closed, no mention is made of the affairs of Britain until the reign of Adrian.  At that time was wrought the first remarkable change in the exterior policy of Rome.  Although some of the emperors contented themselves with those limits which they found at their accession, none before this prince had actually contracted the bounds of the Empire:  for, being more perfectly acquainted with all the countries that composed it than any of his predecessors, what was strong and what weak, and having formed to himself a plan wholly defensive, he purposely abandoned several large tracts of territory, that he might render what remained more solid and compact.

[Sidenote:  A.D. 121.]

[Sidenote:  A.D. 140.]

This plan particularly affected Britain.  All the conquests of Agricola to the northward of the Tyne were relinquished, and a strong rampart was built from the mouth of that river, on the east, to Solway Frith, on the Irish Sea, a length of about eighty miles.  But in the reign of his successor, Antoninus Pius, other reasonings prevailed, and other measures were pursued.  The legate who then commanded in Britain, concluding that the Caledonians would construe the defensive policy of Adrian into fear, that they would naturally grow more numerous in a larger territory, and more haughty when they saw it abandoned to them, the frontier was again advanced to Agricola’s second line, which extended between the Friths of Forth and Clyde, and the stations which had been established by that general were connected with a continued wall.

[Sidenote:  A.D. 207]

[Sidenote:  A.D. 208]

[Sidenote:  A.D. 209]