began to think seriously of reducing them under their dominion.
Without seeking any more justifiable reasons of hostility than were
employed by the late Europeans in subjugating the Africans and
Americans, [MN A.D. 43.] they sent over an army under the command of
Plautius, an able general, who gained some victories, and made a
considerable progress in subduing the inhabitants. Claudius himself,
finding matters sufficiently prepared for his reception, made a
journey into Britain, and received the submission of several British
states, the Cantii, Atrebates, Regni, and Trinobantes, who inhabited
the south-east part of the island, and whom their possessions and more
cultivated manner of life rendered willing to purchase peace at the
expense of their liberty. The other Britons, under the command of
Caractacus, still maintained an obstinate resistance, and the Romans
made little progress against them, till Ostorius Scapula was sent over
to command their armies. This general advanced the Roman conquests
over the Britons; [MN A.D. 50.] pierced into the country of the
Silures, a warlike nation who inhabited the banks of the Severn;
defeated Caractacus in a great battle; took him prisoner, and sent him
to Rome, where his magnanimous behaviour procured him better treatment
than those conquerors usually bestowed on captive princes [l].
[FN [k] Tacit. Agr. [l] Tacit. Ann. lib. 12.]

Notwithstanding these misfortunes, the Britons were not subdued; and
this island was regarded by the ambitious Romans as a field in which
military honour might still be acquired. [MN A.D. 59.] Under the
reign of Nero, Suetonius Paulinus was invested with the command, and
prepared to signalize his name by victories over those barbarians.
Finding that the island of Mona, now Anglesey, was the chief seat of
the Druids, he resolved to attack it, and to subject a place which was
the centre of their superstition, and which afforded protection to all
their baffled forces. The Britons endeavoured to obstruct his landing
on this sacred island, both by the force of their arms and the terrors
of their religion. The women and priests were intermingled with the
soldiers upon the shore; and running about with flaming torches in
their hands, and tossing their dishevelled hair, they struck greater
terror into the astonished Romans by their howlings, cries, and
execrations, than the real danger from the armed forces was able to
inspire. But Suetonius, exhorting