himself, instead of his generals. One British chief, whose name
was Caractacus, who had fought very bravely against the Romans, was
brought to Rome, with chains on his hands and feet, and set before
them emperor. As he stood there, he said that, when he looked at all
the grand buildings of stone and marble in the streets, he could not
think why the Romans should want to take away the poor rough-stone
huts of the Britons. The wife of Caractacus, who had also been
brought a prisoner to Rome, fell upon her knees imploring for pity,
but the conquered chief asked for nothing and exhibited no signs of
fear. Claudius was kind to Caractacus; but the Romans went on
conquering Britain till they had won all the part of it that lies
south of the river Tweed; and, as the people beyond that point were
more fierce and savage still, a very strong wall, with a bank of
earth and deep ditch was made to keep them out, and always watched
by Roman soldiers.

The Romans made beautiful straight roads all over the country, and
they built towns. Almost all the towns whose names end in _chester_
were begun by the Romans, and bits of their walls are to be seen
still, built of very small bricks. Sometimes people dig up a bit of
the beautiful pavement of colored tiles, in patterns, which used to
be the floors of their houses, or a piece of their money, or one of
their ornaments.

For the Romans held Britain for four hundred years, and tamed the wild
people in the south, and taught them to speak and dress, and read and
write like themselves, so that they could hardly be known from the
Romans. Only the wild ones beyond the wall, and in the mountains,
were as savage as ever, and, now and then, used to come and steal the
cattle, and burn the houses of their neighbors who had learnt better.