After Agricola's victory over the Britons at Mount Graupius, in 85 A.D., the Emperor Domitian, jealous of his successful generalship, recalled him to Rome. Tacitus says that he "handed over a peaceful and safe province to his successor." His seven years' rule had been so fruitful that one cannot help wondering how much he would have achieved if he had been allowed to continue his work of tranquil colonization, and his conquest over the affections of the people of Britain. He was only forty-five when recalled to Rome, and nine years later he died, poisoned, as is thought, by the still jealous Emperor. {13} Tacitus cannot pity him: "The true blessings of life which lie in character he had fulfilled"; and he closes his essay with these magnificent lines, so often quoted and so eternally true, whether spoken of the avowed Christian, or of the so-called pagan, who has practised Christian virtues in a Christian spirit, and in doing so has indeed been led by the Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world: "Vain alike and passing is the face of man and the similitude thereof; only the fashion of the soul remains, to be known and shown not through alien substances and arts, but in your very life and walk. Whatever we have loved in Agricola, whatever we have admired, abides, and will abide, in the hearts of men, in the procession of the ages, in the records of history. Many of the ancients has Forgetfulness engulfed as though fame nor name were theirs: Agricola, whose story here is told, will outlive death, to be our children's heritage." And as, looking southwards from the line of the Wall, we trace the course of his road and note the positions of his forts, we also can be grateful for his upright life and his disinterested service. Nerva succeeded Domitian, and was in his turn succeeded by Trajan, who reigned till 117 A.D. At about this date the forts of Agricola, which had held the country for thirty years, were entirely swamped during a great native rising. The Ninth {14} Legion, then stationed at York, disappears from history, having been annihilated by the Britons. And next comes Hadrian, the actual inventor of the Roman frontier system. He became Emperor in 117 A.D., and initiated his policy in Britain about two years later. It is now generally agreed that he was responsible for the works of the Vallum, as well as for the Stone Wall, with its forts, mile-castles and turrets. Here was an Emperor who lived no life of self-indulgent ease, nor used his imperial rank merely to serve his own private ends.