- Book
I, Chapter III
IN the year of Rome 798, Claudius, fourth emperor from Augustus,
being desirous to approve himself a beneficial prince to the republic,
and eagerly bent upon war and conquest, undertook an expedition into
Britain, which seemed to be stirred up to rebellion by the refusal
of the Romans to give up certain deserters. He was the only one, either
before or after Julius Caesar, who had dared to land upon the island;
yet, within a very few days, without any fight or bloodshed, the greatest
part of the island was surrendered into his hands. He also added to
the Roman empire the Orcades, which lie in the ocean beyond Britain,
and then, returning to Rome the sixth month after his departure, he
gave his son the title of Britannicus. This war he concluded in the
fourth year of his empire, which is the forty-sixth from the incarnation
of our Lord. In which year there happened a most grievous famine in
Syria, which, in the Acts of the Apostles is recorded to have been
foretold by the prophet Agabus. Vespasian, who was emperor after Nero,
being sent into Britain by the same Claudius, brought also under the
Roman dominion the Isle of Wight, which is next to Britain on the
south, and is about thirty miles in length from east to west, and
twelve from north to south; being six miles distant from the Southern
coast of Britain at the east end, and three only at the west. Nero,
succeeding Claudius in the empire, attempted nothing in martial affairs;
and, therefore, among other innumerable detriments brought upon the
Roman state, he almost lost Britain; for under him two most noble
towns were there taken and destroyed.
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