revolution; and the venerable names and forms of the old organisation were
religiously preserved. Still, the Consuls were elected, the Senate met and
legislated, Praetors and Legates went forth into the provinces, the
Legions watched upon the frontiers, the lesser Magistrates performed their
office; but above them was Caesar, directing all things, controlling all
things; the _Imperator_ and Universal Tribune, in whose name all was done;
the "Praesens Divus," on whom the whole depended; at once the master of
the Imperial Commonwealth, and the minister of the Roman People.

"The Annals," and the history of Tiberius, have detained us, for the most
part, within the capital: "The Agricola" brings us into a province of the
Empire; and "The Account of Germany" will take us among the savages beyond
the frontier. I need scarcely mention, that our country was brought within
the Roman influence by Julius Caesar; but that Caesar's enterprise was not
continued by Augustus, nor by Tiberius; though Caligula celebrated a
fictitious triumph over the unconquered Britons: that a war of about forty
years was undertaken by Claudius, maintained by Nero, and terminated by
Domitian; who were respectively "the most stupid, the most dissolute, and
the most timid of all the Emperors." It was in the British wars, that
Vespasian began his great career, "monstratus fatis"; but the island was
not really added to the Empire, until Agricola subdued it for Domitian.
"The Life of Agricola" is of general interest, because it preserves the
memory of a good and noble Roman: to us, it is of special interest,
because it records the state of Britain when it was a dependency of the
Caesars; "adjectis Britannis imperio." Our present fashions in history
will not allow us to think, that we have much in common with those
natives, whom Tacitus describes: but fashions change, in history as in
other things; and in a wiser time we may come to know, and be proud to
acknowledge, that we have derived a part of our origin, and perhaps our
fairest accomplishments, from the Celtic Britons. The narrative of Tacitus