were expelled from the island of Mona where they had their religious centre (modern Anglesey off the northern coast of North Wales). But the people's resistance grew to a pitch in 59-61 A.D. when the Celts of what is now Norfolk rallied and, increasing their numbers with their progress like a rolling snowball, in an irresistible avalanche poured upon the Roman strongholds; Roman military camps were razed to the ground, separate Roman detachments were annihilated, and Camulodunum, Verulamium and Londinium were destroyed and burnt down; thousands of Roman settlers and tneir adherents were killed. The rebellion was headed by Boadicea whom the Celts called their queen (a statue to this brave lady can be viewed as a monuof historical importance in Lon to-day); she used to rush at the invaders in her war chariot, with her daughters to fight, at the head of the vast army of freedom-loving Celtic people. After the defeat of the uprising, to escape humiliation she took poison together with her daughters.
The suppression of the Celts was a hard enough job, it tasked the Roman legions to the utmost. Frightened by its scope, the Romans must have decided to think twice before they violated the Celtic people's rights too impudently.
All this while the Romans kept pushing on; at the end of the 1st c. A.D. when Agricola was the chief Roman governor of Britain (78-85 A.D.), he invaded Caledonia and in the battle of Mons Grampius defeated the chief oi the Picts, Galgacus. However, the Picts of Caledonia must have produced a strong impression upon the Romans, for in 121 A.D. the Emperor Hadrian caused a wall to be erected from the Tyne to the Solway Firth, that is in a line cutting through what is Newcastle today. They had erected another wall somewhat earlier, nearer south, so Hadrian's wall was a step further to the North. From the Forth to the Clyde the wall of Antonine was built (140 A.D.), later called Grime's Dyke.
Ireland was in those days inhabited by the Scots (some of the Scots must have migrated in their fight against the Romans later) in the 4th c.
The Romans made no attempt to subdue Ireland; as to Wales, it belonged to the so-called military districts of Roman Britain together with the other mountainous areas of the north and west (as opposed to the civil districts of the east and south where the greater part of the large towns were located).
The mountainous parts must have seemed prohibitive, inhabited as they were by those disobedient Celts who had retreated there to retain their in-dependence; the same applied to Corn, or West Wales as it was called.
So forts were built at Carleon, Chester and York with a legion in each to ensure the safety of the occupation zone where the towns were restored and walled with ditches supplementing the protective power of walls. Thus, for instance, the wall around Londinium built after the Boadicea fright, was about 2 and a half metres thick at the base. London was made an inland port and lively trade was concentrated there since Roman Britain exported grain for the needs of the metropolis and of other Roman proas well, skins of wild and domesanimals, tin, pearls — and slaves, too.
London's position was especially for-tunate for it was a centre of both external and internal trade: the Romans built roads leading to the garrison towns, for they couldn't have kept the country without reliable and efficient means of transportation. Three of those roads converged upon London making it a veritable commercial centre (not administrative centre, however, for though it was by far the largest of the towns, it was not given the Roman municipium status).
There were four principal roads: Ermine Street, leading to Lincoln and York (from York a special road led to Hadrian's Wall); Watling Street from London to Chester; Icknield way conLondon with Cirencester, Glou-cester and Caerleon in South Wales, and the Fosse way that passed through the Cotswolds and connected Lincoln with Exeter, the extreme south-western Roman fort.
The roads were certainly an improveon an otherwise impassable terriry (though, of course, they made it accesible for numerous future invaders); the extensive cleared areas along the roads and rivers as well as the general improvement on agriculture that the rapacious Romans introduced using the cheap or practically free provincial labour — all that was no doubt benefifor Britain's agricultural develop
There's something to be said for the cultural influence as well: Christianity was a step forward as compared to the heathenish Druidical rites; there was a handful of Latin words to enrich the Celtic vocabulary. There were some brutal laws that stayed on after the Romans left, chiefly concerned with the institution of slavery, such as the one mentioned by Mark Twain in his "Con-necticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court", saying "if one slave killed his master all the slaves of