i .
172 CEANIA BRITANNICA. [CHAP. VI .
times styled miliana, from its being composed of full a thousand men, though it appears, from
the explanation given by Vegetius, that such cohorts considerably exceeded that number. The
fii-st took precedence of the other cohorts, not only in numerical strength, but also in being
composed of picked men, and possessing the privilege of carrying the chief standards.^ The
Cohwsprmia Britannica, which was in Dacia ^mder Trajan, bore the additional distinction of
Cives Bomani, shomng that they had obtained the rights of Roman citizenship. The style of
the British cohorts is also, sometimes, equitata, denoting that in such cases they were composed
of horse and foot mixed*."
But more important for our estimation is the evidence that numbers of foreign auxüiary
troops, besides the legionary soldiers from Italy, were brought over into Britain during the
Roman dominion, and aU this in addition to miütitudes of other Romans who, during the
lapse of about 500 yeai-s in the whole, came hither as civU officers connected with the revenues
derived from the island, as merchants, as planters, and for numerous other purposes.
The FII-st invasion of Julius Csesar took place in the year 55 B.C., and it was not until
A.D. 436 that the Romans finaUy took their leave of Britain. During the greater part of this
long interval (a period as prolonged as is the lapse of time from the era of the wars of the
Black Prince to the present day—an interval which has not yet been trebled since the departure
itself of the Romans) large and continuous accessions of Italians and other Roman subjects
must have been made to the population of Britain. The attractions of so fertile and productive
a province, enjoying a climate at once so temperate and, comparatively with the possessions of
modern states, so little removed from that of the Italian peninsula itself, even if we admit that
the idea of expatriation may have been pretty equal, would ensure this. And although the
aggressive spirit of the Romans caused conquest and military organization to assume a great
precedency in their minds, and to exercise a far more intimate influence over civil afPairs than
among most nations of the present day, Roman civilians were largely settled in Britain for purposes
of commerce and for the exercise of the professions t , as many antiquities and the remains
of villas and other buildings, constructed with all those conveniences and requirements
necessai-y for the natives of müder skies, which are thickly strewed over the island, fuUy
attest!. It has been long since remarked that the Roman inscriptions in Britain are " to
foreigners snatched away in the prime of life" §; and the mode of constructing the Roman
houses with furnaces and flues for the hot air to circulate under the floors, caUed hypocausts,
built in imitation of those which were in Italy attached to baths, renders it apparent that the
winters of our climate were felt severely by the Romans, and were found to be prejudicial to
health.
The inscriptions which have been brought to light along the course of the Wall of Hadrian,
* Illustrations of Roman London, 1859, p. 32. We have
not thought it requisite to quote Mr. Roach Smith's authorities
for this account of the cohorts of Britons, memorials
of which are preserved in inscriptions. The list is probably
far from being complete. Camden's " Britannia," by Gongh,
2nd ed. 1806, I. cxi. Wright, " The Celt, the Roman, and
the Saxon," p. 255.
t The Roman medicine-stamps prove the presence of many
persons from Italy, and probably other countries, who practised
the Artes medidna.
I The inscriptions afford the chief means of reliable instruction
upon this point, as well as so many others. That
remarkable one, upon a stone sarcophagus at York, and made
during his lifetime for M. Verecundius Diogenes, Sevir of the
colony of Eboracum, surmised by Mr. Kenrick, in his luminous
memoir, to refer to a merchant who dealt in incoctilia, or
the tinned, plated, and gilt metallic articles imported from
Gaul, may be referred to. (Proceedings of the Yorkshire Phil.
Soc. i. 52, previously illustrated in Wellbeloved's "Eburacum,"
102). See also the remarks of Camden (Britannia, I. cxi.),
who in another place, alluding to the trade carried on with the
island, tells us, no doubt on the authority of Zosimus, that not
less than 800 vessels laden with corn left its shores annually.
§ See also Bruce's " Roman Wall," 2nd ed. 1853, p. 410.
CHAP. VI.] ETHNOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF SUCCESSIVE POPULATIONS. 173
as well as the many others from the Roman stations in Britain, contain the names of auxiliaries
from almost every province of the empire. In return for the Britons engaged with the Emperor
Hadrian in his famous Dacian wars, at Amboglanna, now Birdoswald on the Wall, no less than
seventeen inscriptions have been found, all of which mention the Pirst Cohort of the Dacians,
which was quartered there according to the "Notitia Imperii," considered to have been composed
at the beginning of the 5th century, and therefore near the close of the Roman period *. In the
vicinity of the modern Carvoran, inscribed stones have been found, reading CIVITAS DVMNI and
CiviTAS DVMNONI, which Dr. Bruce refers to the British Dumnonii of Devon and Cornwall t,
where their descendants stiU live, thus elevated into custodiers of the Barrier; which shows
that the Dumnonii were thoroughly incorporated into the Roman state, and supports what we
have just observed on the enlistment of the Britons. At Pons iElii, now Newcastle, the "Notitia"
informs us that the tribune of the Cohort of Cornovii was stationed, which name the learned Mr.
Hodgson says he was unable to refer to any ancient people. But it seems probable that it indicates
a cohort derived from another British tribe, the Cornavii. The stations at Condercum, Cilurnum,
and iEsica were garrisoned by Astm-es, a people from the north-western part of Hispania, from
wliom the name of the modern proviace Asturias is derived f. At Aballaba, according to the
" Notitia," there was a mmerus, or troop of Moors from Africa; at Procolitia, a cohort
of Batavians from the island of Batavia, whose inhabitants are so celebrated by Tacitus, and
their cohorts enumerated by him in Agricola's engagement with Galgacus, which is confirmed by
an inscription; at the magnificent station of Borcovicus, a cohort of Tungrians, in the like case
(for they also were in Agricola's host), from Belgic Gaul, whose valour appears to have entitled
them to the honour of advancing to battle in the van of the army (the presence of these troops
is fully substantiated by an affecting sepulchral inscription to Anicius Ingenuus, the surgeon of
the regiment, who perished at the early age of twenty-five §); at Vindolana, the Pourth Cohort
of Gauls, which is abundantly supported by inscriptions discovered at Little Chesters; at Magna,
the Second Cohort of Dalmatians; at Gabrosentum, the Second Cohort of Thracians.
The same authority, the " Notitia " (which, as we have said, is late, and belongs to the period
when the Roman powers were threatened by the incursions of the northern tribes, and therefore,
probably, on account of its date may describe a greater abundance of foreign troops in the
island), enumerates among other forces stationed at the Castella on the southern coast, known
as the " Saxon shore," Portensians at Othona, which have been referred to Portia in Asiatic
Sarmatia; Tungricans at Dover, supposed to be Tungrians from Belgic Gaul; a Turnacensian
detachment at Portus Lemanus (Lymne), who are regarded as Gauls from Tournay; Dalmatians
at Branodunum (Brancaster); Stablesians at Gariannonum (Burgh Castle); Vctasians from
Belgic Gaul at Regulbium (Reculver); and other troops derived from various parts of the vast
Roman empire ||.
It was the policy of the Romans to plant colonies of veterans where the native population
was unsettled and rebellious, for the piu-pose of keepiag it in check. One such colony, Tacitus
says, was placed by Ostorius at Camoludunum; and probably other British colonies may have
been of the same kind, as for instance, those at Ebiu-acum and at Glevum (Gloucester), which are
evidenced by inscriptions, the latter seen by Camden at Bath, DEC.COLONIAB GLET. VIXIT ANN.
* Bruce's "Roman Wall," 2ud ed. 1853, p. 243.
t « . 234. i J6. 110. §1 6 . 1 9 6 .
II Mr. Wright has a curious chapter devoted to this subject,
showing the great variety of people who were congregated in
the island during the Roman sway, as attested by inscriptions
and other antiquities, which he has been at much pains to
collect.—" The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon," p. 249.
2 A