V. MEN OF THE IRON AGE. THE ROMANS IN EAST YORKSHIRE. In the last chapter we saw that the later Britons had some knowledge of iron, as well as of copper and tin. But with the Romans the use of iron was much more extensive, and hence they may be called MEN OF THE IRON AGE. The first Roman general to enter the territory of the Brigantes was Ostorius Scapula, who came north in A.D. 50. Twenty-eight years later came Julius Agricola, who penetrated as far north as the rivers Forth and Clyde. By Agricola the ancient British camp CAER EBURAC—the camp on the Ebura, or, by its modern name, the Ure—was made into a Roman walled city under the latinised name Eburacum. From this time EBURĀCUM,[5] or EBORĀCUM as later Roman writers spelt its name, became the proud capital of Britain—_altera Roma_, a second Rome in importance. Here died the great Roman Emperor Severus in A.D. 211, and here was born the still greater Emperor Constantine, under whose reign Christianity was established in the Roman Empire. Footnote 5: Pronounced _Eb-oo-ráh-kum_. [Illustration: STATUE OF A ROMAN SOLDIER IN THE YORK MUSEUM. ] For nearly three and a half centuries the Roman armies ruled the land of the Brigantes, during which time great alterations were taking place in the lives of its people. Northwards came troop after troop of German and Italian soldiers to subdue and enslave the people of the land north of the Humber, and to wage incessant war against Rome’s enemies still farther north. And southwards marched troop after troop of the men of the Brigantes, on their way to Gaul and Italy and Spain, there to serve as Roman soldiers. In A.D. 117 came to Eboracum the famous Sixth Legion—LEGIO SIXTA, surnamed VICTRIX, the ‘All Conquering’—and Eboracum was its headquarters thenceforth till A.D. 406, when it was withdrawn to help in defending Rome against the enemies mustering on her threshold. * * * * * For the constant movement of troops the Roman invaders needed roads, and the military highways which they constructed across Britain remain foremost among the evidences of their occupation of the country. The fact that their roads have existed for so many centuries—centuries of hard use but of constant neglect—is due to the great care bestowed upon their construction.