il
I H:
"ÎC
174 CRANIA BEITANNICA. [CHAP. VI.
LXXXVI.* Like modern military and also civil colonization, and like modern colonial
agriculture and commerce, we have every reason to believe those of the Romans resulted in the
importation of a large preponderance of males, and these in the early periods of life. It seems
likely that, although the earliest Roman troops who invaded the island would consists of soldiers
alone, a few women might accompany some of the later legionaries, especially those who were
settled in the island for years, garrisoning the Barrier and important stations; and stUl more
so that some of the commanding officers and that (as a weighty difference exists between an
invading army and an army of occupation) the veterans of these military colonies wotild be
landed with their wives and children. When the colonia of Camulodunimi was attacked by the
Iceni and Trinobantes, Tacitus expressly censures the neglect of the commander in not sending
the women out of the garrison beforehand The superior military officers, and those persons
engaged in professions, in commerce, and the higher branches of trade, would frequently be married
in Italy or the provinces from which they came, and enter Britain in the enjoyment of all the
domestic relations. The skull of the fair Roman of om" Plate 30, from the grave at the Bartlow
HiUs, in the immediate neighbourhood of Roman elegance and luxui-y, may be taken as one
proof of this. And the legend on the sarcophagus of Theodorianus (Plates 8 and 17, Description,
p. (1)), renders it very probable that his mother, Theodora, of Greek descent, was at Eburacum
at the period of his early death i.
Among the sepulchral inscriptions of the Romans in. Britain there is only occasional
mention of the names of women, which, whilst it confirms the view that Roman ladies came
hither, perhaps also shows that they were not very numerous. The generality of these names
may be taken to have belonged to matrons of Roman lineage, yet the evidence that the
provincials adopted the Roman system of appellations and Roman names must not be overlooked.
Their associations almost always display gratifying testimony of conjugal affection, either as
evidenced in the expressions of their husbands, or as proved by their own faitliful care in
erecting memorials to these when deceased. Julia Casta and Vicana occur at Corinium § ;
Jamiana Marina, Claudia Martima, Alhia Faustina, and Orata Bagobiti filia, at Londinium ||
(the latter exhibiting German descent); Ingenua, the wife of Seliiis, a Greek, at Lindum If;
Titia Fintia, on a slab found near Hovingham in Yorkshire **. Upon an altar dedicated to the
Nymjilis, discovered on the banks of the Greta, in the same county, the names of those who
made the vow of it have been read, Inebrica and Januaria f t ; Aurelia Egliciane occurs at
Cilurnum, and Aurelia Faia at Carvoran tJ.
* Gough's "Camden," i. 85, 381. See Description of
Ancient Roman Skulls from Kingsholrae, Plate 36, and from
Bath, Plate 26. This senator of Glevum, who probably died
at Aquie Solis, is a remarkable instance of Koraan longevity
in Britain. Before the close of the third century, Probus sent
Bnrgundtans and Vandals into Britain, and settled them here,
with the view of preventing revolts (Zosimus, L. i. c. 68).
They have been supposed to be traced in Cambridgeshire,
where a camp, named Vandalsburg, is said to have been mentioned
by Gervase of Tilbury; and at Wandlesbury, on the
river Wandle, in Surrey. Other names and places confirm
the tradition of a settlement of Vandals.—Kemble's " Saxons,"
i. 62.
f Annals, lib. xiv. c. 32.
J "It is evident from several inscriptions, as it would
be evident without them, that the Romans in general, the
common soldiers as well as the officers, had their wives and
children along with them."—"The History of Manchester," by
Jno.Whitaker, 1771,p. 41. This is probably mnch too strongly
expressed.
§ Camden, i. 410.
II lb. ii. 92, Plate iii. Roach Smith's " Roman London,"
22-24. Dagvaldas was a Pannonian soldier on the Wall, whose
wife Fusinna (perhaps a mere variation of Pusilla) erected a
funeral slab there to his memory.—Bruce, 220.
% Camden, ii. 392.
** n . iii. 329.
t t Ii- iii. 338. Phillips's Rivers, &c., of Yorkshire, 48.
itt Bruce, 409, 410. " We seek in vain for any evidence of
the Romanized Britons having been employed in any offices of
trust or dignity, or permitted to share in the really valuable
results of civilization. There is no one Briton recorded of whom
CHAP. VI.] ETHNOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OE SUCCESSIVE POPULATIONS. 175
Yet the bulk of the Roman troops would be either unmarried or would have left their
wives behind. Besides, as we see at the present day among all colonizing people, the Spanish,
Dutch, English, and others, the great majority of those who settle in new countries are young
men, in the vigour of their days, without female relations. They generally attach themselves to
the native women of the country selected for settlement, and the result is a progeny of mixed
blood. With a people of so independent a spirit and so tenacious of right and honoxir as the
ancient Britons, this, we may reasonably conclude, would be a source of frequent discordancy.
Such a connexion with a peregrina appears not to have been recognized as marriage, by the
Roman law, except in special eases. As a probable instance of such mingling of Roman and
British blood, we may refer to the cranium from a stone coffin at Bath (PI. 26) *.
With the knowledge of these facts, and with such abundant evidence of Roman and provincial
persons dwelling in Britain, from almost every part of the empire, and even remaining after the
final declension of the Roman power, it becomes a cm-ious question. What was the state of
the population in the island about the close of the Roman period, and what permanent results
have ensued ? Data for a satisfactory solution of these queries may not be forthcoming; but
they admit of a sufficient approximate reply. That a great mixture of races must have taken
place at the seaports most visited, at the chief seats of commerce, in and about the towns garrisoned
by the Roman legionaries and auxiliaries, and along the two Walls, cannot be questioned.
StiU the great mass of the Britons left in their native villages, which must have grovm up after
the desolating wars of an earlier period—the pagani in the remote wild or rural districts, in
which the Roman presence might be acknowledged, but could not be very distinctly and
personally expressed,'—must have remained tolerably pure and unmixed t- Being a civUizable
race, unlike many others with which the modern thirst for exploration and extension have
brought us into contact on every obscure and inaccessible portion of the sui-face of our planet,
the Britons would be able to stand up in the presence of their conquerors J. These could not
we can confidently assert that he held any position of dignity
or power under the imperial rule. The historians, the geographers,
nay, even the novelists (who so often supply incidental
notices of the utmost interest) are here consulted in vain ; nor
in the many inscriptions which we possess relating to Britain
can we point out one single British name."—Kemble's "Saxons
in England," ii. 280.
* "Their beautiful daughters might serve to amuse the
softer hours of their lordly masters, but there was to be no
conmibium; and thus a half-caste race inevitably arose among
them, growing up with all the vices of the victors, and all the
disqualifications of the vanquished."—Kemble, ii. 283. That
such a breed of half-castes would ensue from the Roman conquest
of Britain was inevitable. It is, however, by no means
certain that it would have within itself such vitality as to perpetuate
itself. Judging from all that has been ascertained
upon the ill-investigated subject of hybridity, there are good
grounds for inferring that a breed produced between the people
of sunny Italy and the ancient Britons wotdd be frail, delicate,
prone to disease and short-lived, and would prob'ably come
under the category of the Hyhridite faragenesique of Dr.
Broca—a probabiUty entirely supported by the absence of any
valid traces of Roman blood in the descendants of both Gauls
and Britons. (Rech'. snr I'Hybr. Anim. p. 536. Dr. Nott,
"Types of Mankmd," p. 373. Morton's "Essay on Hybridity,"
1847.) M. Broca's definition of Hybridite parag&ésique
is, " lis sont peu ou point féconds entr'eux, et lorsqu'ils
produisent des descendants directes, ceux-ci n'ont qu'une fécondité
décroissante nécessahement épuisée au bout de quelques
générations," p. .536.
t This view is fully confirmed by a remark of a learned
writer ;—" They were rather garrisoned in the towns, which
they built and fortified, than mmgled with the conquered
people."—Kenrick's "Roman Sepulchral Inscriptions,"
1858, 5. Mr. Price's conclusion is "that the mixture of
Roman blood in Britain is but small."—Essay, 55.
Î J. H. Hinde, on the West. Portion of the Anc. Kingd.
of Northnmberl., Trans. Hist. Soc. of Lane, and Chesh. viii.
The power of supporting the presence of a greatly superior
race is not possessed by many of the children of nature. The
North American Indians almost inevitably fall away before
the face of the self-appropriating white man. A few tribes
only have hitherto imperfectly resisted. The Tasmanians and
Australians are wholly incapable of withstanding his withering
infiuence, alas ! it must be confessed, in defeat of the most
judicious efforts to civilize and christianize them ; and the
bold and independent Maori of New Zealand are fast succumbing
to it.—" Report of Select Committee of Legislative
2 A 2