faults, and use severity to great ones; yet did not always punish, but was
frequently satisfied with penitence. He chose rather to confer offices and
employments upon such as would not offend, than to condemn those who had
offended. The augmentation [91] of tributes and contributions he mitigated
by a just and equal assessment, abolishing those private exactions which
were more grievous to be borne than the taxes themselves. For the
inhabitants had been compelled in mockery to sit by their own locked-up
granaries, to buy corn needlessly, and to sell it again at a stated price.
Long and difficult journeys had also been imposed upon them; for the
several districts, instead of being allowed to supply the nearest winter
quarters, were forced to carry their corn to remote and devious places; by
which means, what was easy to be procured by all, was converted into an
article of gain to a few.

20. By suppressing these abuses in the first year of his administration,
he established a favorable idea of peace, which, through the negligence or
oppression of his predecessors, had been no less dreaded than war. At the
return of summer [92] he assembled his army. On their march, he commended
the regular and orderly, and restrained the stragglers; he marked out the
encampments, [93] and explored in person the estuaries and forests. At the
same time he perpetually harassed the enemy by sudden incursions; and,
after sufficiently alarming them, by an interval of forbearance, he held
to their view the allurements of peace. By this management, many states,
which till that time had asserted their independence, were now induced to
lay aside their animosity, and to deliver hostages. These districts were
surrounded with castles and forts, disposed with so much attention and
judgment, that no part of Britain, hitherto new to the Roman arms, escaped
unmolested.

21. The succeeding winter was employed in the most salutary measures. In