The history of England, from the earliest times to the Norman ConquestHodgkin, Thomas
History
The history of England, from the earliest times to the Norman Conquest
Hodgkin, Thomas
Great Britain -- History -- To 1066
Far away in Monmouthshire there was another suicide, the result of
this great encounter. “Poenius Postumus, prefect of the camp of the
Second legion” (who had presumably held the command in the temporary
absence of the _legatus_), “when he heard how well things had gone with
the Fourteenth and the Twentieth, enraged with himself because he had
cheated his own legion of like glory, and had, contrary to military
rule, disobeyed the orders of his superior, pierced himself through
with his own sword.” Possibly he was neither a coward nor a mutineer,
but a man suddenly called to assume a crushing load of responsibility
in a terrible crisis, who had failed to read aright the signs of the
times. The Fourteenth legion, which had borne the greatest part of the
work in the suppression of the rebellion, was called, when its officers
would stimulate its military pride, the “Tamers of Britain” (_Domitores
Britanniæ_). The renown which it had acquired caused its services to
be eagerly sought for in the great game of Cæsar-making which followed
upon the death of Nero. It was transferred to Belgic Gaul in A.D. 70,
helped to quell the insurrection of Civilis, and never afterwards
returned to Britain.
The tenure of office by Suetonius Paulinus was a very short one. He had
indeed shown himself
A daring pilot in extremity;
but Nero, who with all his viciousness was not destitute of
statesmanlike ability, probably considered that the pilot ought not to
have taken his ship into such dangerous channels. After replacing the
losses of the Ninth legion by the transfer of some 7,000 soldiers from
Germany, the emperor sent a certain Julius Classicianus as successor to
the detested _procurator_ Catus. Suetonius seems to have been in favour
of stern repression, laying waste with fire and sword the territories
of all the tribes of doubtful loyalty. Classicianus, on the other hand,
held that the real foe that had now to be fought was famine, especially
since the insurgents, intent on the plunder of the Roman warehouses,
had neglected the sowing of their spring corn. Differences soon arose
between the merciful _procurator_ and the stern _legatus_. To settle
the quarrel Nero sent one of his freedmen, named Polyclitus, who
travelled with great pomp and a long train of attendants, burdensome
to the provinces through which he passed, but calculated to impress
the Roman soldiery with a sense of his importance. The barbarians, on
the other hand, who had heard from what a low and servile condition
Polyclitus had risen, marvelled that so great a general and so brave an
army should tamely submit to the arbitrament of a slave. They profited,
however, by that docility; for Polyclitus, though, as his after career
showed, not averse from plundering on his own account, made a report to
the emperor in favour of the lenient policy of the _procurator_, and
Suetonius, after an eventful lieutenancy of not more than two years,
was recalled to Rome (A.D. 61).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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