Having given an account of the preparation made by the Romans towards gaining this vast tract of fen-land, the Lincolnshire levels, by securing it from the fresh water of the high countries in that noble cut called Cardike; we must imagine their next care was to render it safe from the flux of the Ocean, by making a great bank all along upon the sea coasts: this was done as to the wapentake of Elho by what we call the Old Sea-dike, which by the people at this day is said to be made by Julius Cæsar and his soldiers; as if they had knowledge of its being a Roman work: at the mouths of all the rivers no doubt they made gotes and sluices as at present, which was an invention of Osiris, the great king of Egypt, as Diodorus Siculus tells us, I. 19. We may well suppose it was performed after the time of Lollius Urbicus, scarce fully accomplished before: possibly in Severus his time, which seems not obscurely hinted at by Herodian, III. _Sed in primis curæ habuit pontibus occupare paludes, ut stare in tuto milites possint atque in solido præliari. Siquidem Britanniæ pleraque loca frequentibus oceani alluvionibus paludescunt. Per eas igitur paludes barbari ipsi natant excursantque ad ilia usque demersi._ But he had it in his particular care to make passes over the fens, that the soldiers might stand firm and fight upon hard ground; for many places in Britain are marshy through the frequent overflowings of the ocean, over which the inhabitants will swim, and walk though up to the middle in water. To which description no place so well corresponds.