The Count of the Saxon Shore; or The Villa in Vectis.<br />A Tale of the Departure of the Romans fro, Church and Putnam [summer beach reads TXT] 📗

With us tables are cleared after a meal; with the Romans they seem to have been actually removed. 29. Theodosius ordered a massacre at Thessalonica on account of some offence offered to him by the populace of that city. 30. Chichester. 31. Pevensey. 32. Boulogne. 33. Commonly known by his Romanized name of Caractacus. 34. Streets of Rome. 35. This river, of course, must have been the Avon. 36. Winchester. 37. Salisbury. 38. Now known as Downton, a small market town, about five miles south of Salisbury. 39. A trilith consists of two upright stones with a third placed across. 40. “How say ye then to my soul that she should flee as a bird unto the hill?”—Psalm xi. 1. 41. Commonly called Jerome. 42. John Chrysostom, at Antioch 386-398, at Constantinople 398-404. 43. Winchester. 44. Calleva Attrebatium, now known as Silchester, one of the most perfect specimens of a Roman camp to be seen in this country. 45. Princeps Civitatis. 46. The wall of Antoninus, built to defend Northern Britain from the Caledonians, and held by Roman forces till far on in the fourth century. 47. Daniel iii. 19. 48. It may be as well to say a few words about Stilicho. He was the son of a Vandal captain, and attracted by his skill and courage the favourable notice of the Emperor Theodosius, who gave him his niece Serena in marriage. His influence continued to increase, and in course of time Theodosius made him and his wife guardians of his young son Honorius, whom he shortly afterwards proclaimed Augustus, and Emperor of the West. In 394 Theodosius died, and the Empire was divided between his two sons, Honorius taking the West and Arcadius the East. Stilicho’s daughter Maria was now betrothed to Honorius, and his influence continued to increase. He restored peace to the Empire, conquering the Franks, chastising the Saxon pirates, and driving back, it is said, the Picts and Scots from Britain by the very terror of his name. For six years (398-404) he was engaged in a struggle with Alaric, King of the Goths, over whom he won, in the year 403, a great victory at Pollentia, near the modern Turin, and whom he defeated again in the following year under the walls of Verona. He is said to have conceived the idea of securing the Empire for his own son, and for this purpose to have entered into intrigues with his old enemy Alaric. However this may be, it is certain that he fell into disgrace. His end is related in this chapter. The poet Claudian employed himself in writing the praises of Stilicho and invectives against his rivals Rufinus and Eutropius. 49.