than eighty thousand fell, and the very horses and oxen were
slaughtered by the maddened soldiery to swell the heaps of slain.
Boadicea, broken-hearted, died by poison; and (being reinforced by
troops from Germany) Suetonius proceeded "to make a desert and call it
Peace."[181]

E. 13.--The punishment he dealt out to the revolted districts was
so remorseless that the new Procurator, Julius Classicianus, sent a
formal complaint to Rome on the suicidal impolicy of his superior's
measures. Nero, however, did not mend matters by sending (like
Claudius) a freed-man favourite as Royal Commissioner to supersede
Suetonius. Polycletus was received with derision both by Roman and
Briton, and Suetonius remained acting Governor till the wreck of some
warships afforded an excuse for a peremptory order to "hand over
the command" to Petronius Turpilianus. Fighting now ceased by mutual
consent; and this disgraceful slackness was called by the new Governor
"Peace with Honour" [_honestum pacis nomen segni otio imposuit_].

SECTION F.

Civil war--Otho and Vitellius--Army of
Britain--Priscus--Agricola--Vespasian Emperor--Cerealis--Brigantes put
down--Frontinus--Silurians put down--Agricola Pro-praetor--Ordovices
put down--Pacification of South Britain--Roman civilization
introduced--Caledonian campaign--Galgacus--Agricola's
rampart--Domitian--Resignation and death of Agricola.

F. 1.--Disgraceful as the policy of Petronius seemed to Tacitus
(under the inspiration probably of his father-in-law Agricola), it did
actually secure for Britain several years of much-needed peace. Not
till the months of confusion which followed the death of Nero [June
10, A.D. 68] did any native rising take place, and then only in Wales
and the north. The Roman Army of Britain was thus free to take sides
in the contest for the throne between Otho and Vitellius, of which all
that could be predicted was that the victor would be the worse of the
two [_deteriorem fore quisquis vicisset_]. They were, however, so
much ahead of their date that, before accepting this alternative,
they actually thought of setting up an Emperor of their own, after the
fashion so freely followed in later centuries. Fortunately the popular
subaltern [[Greek: hupostrategos]] on whom their choice fell, one
Priscus, had the sense to see that the time was not yet come for such
action, and sarcastically refused the crown. "I am no more fit," he
said, "to be an Emperor [[Greek: autokrator]