ce the greater number of the plays that are
acted, and of the novels that are read, all over the civilised world.

III.

After a second journey, during which he passed the Thames, Caesar
departed with hostages, this time never to return. The real conquest
took place under the emperors, beginning from the reign of Claudius, and
for three centuries and a half Britain was occupied and ruled by the
Romans. They built a network of roads, of which the remains still
subsist; they marked the distances by milestones, sixty of which have
been found, and one, at Chesterholm, is still standing; they raised,
from one sea to the other, against the people of Scotland, two great
walls; one of them in stone, flanked by towers, and protected by moats
and earth-works.[21] Fortified after the Roman fashion, defended by
garrisons, the groups of British huts became cities; and villas, similar
to those the remains of which are met with under the ashes of Pompeii
and in the sands of Africa, rose in York, Bath, London, Lincoln,
Cirencester, Aldborough, Woodchester, Bignor, and in a multitude of
other places where they have since been found. Beneath the shade of the
druidical oaks, the Roman glazier blew his light variegated flasks; the
mosaic maker seated Orpheus on his panther, with his fingers on the
Thracian lyre. Altars were built to the Roman deities; later to the God
of Bethlehem, and one at least of the churches of that period still
subsists, St. Martin of Canterbury.[22] Statues were raised for the
emperors; coins were cast; weights were cut; ore was extracted from the
mines; the potter moulded his clay vases, and, pending the time when
they should be exhibited behind the glass panes of the British Museum,
the legionaries used them to hold the ashes of their dead.

However far he went, the Roman carried Rome with him; he required his
statues, his coloured pavements, his frescoes, his baths, all the
comforts and delights of the Latin cities. Theatres, temples, towers,
palaces rose in many of the towns of Great Britain, and some years ago a
bathing room was discovered at Bath[23] a hundred and eleven feet long.
Several centuries later Gerald de Barry passing through Caerleon noticed
with admiration "many remains of former grandeur, immense palaces ... a
gigantic tower, magnificent baths, and ruined temples."[24] The emperors
could well come to Britain; they found themselves at home. Claudius,
Vespasian, Titus, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius