SMITS ITALICUS.
The Cantabrians having sought the alliance of the Gallicians and Asturians, ventured to engage the Roman army on the plain of Vittoria, where they were totally defeated, and driven to their mountains.
Cantaber, Agrippa, Claudi virtute Neronis Armcnius eceidit.
House!.
The Romans finding themselves unable to conquer the Cantabrians by force, endeavoured to subdue them by famine, and so completely environed their retreats, that they were reduced to the utmost extremities. -Then, it is reported, that, to avoid the slavery destined for them by their invaders, most of these brave peo ple committed. suicide ; and Augustus having entered Biscay, partitioned it among his soldiers. Neverthe less, hostilities were frequently renewed by the sur vivors, until at length the Romans, in the uncertainty of human affairs, were, in their turn, over-run by the irruptions of barbarous nations. Biscay was in the next
place conquered by the Moors ; though not without a resistance equally resolute as that which had been of fered to the arms of the Romans. After a revolt in the tenth century, we find it. governed by a chief called Suria or Zuria, who, tradition says, was de scended from the royal blood of Scotland. He con stituted the province into an independent lordship, the sovereignty of which was enjoyed by his posterity, until subsequent revolutions followed, and at length ended in the lord of Biscay acknowledging the do minion of the king of Castile. In the fourteenth cen tury, Pete the Cruel, king of Castile and Leon, killed the lord of Biscay, usurped his possessions, and united them to his own ; and since that period the kings of Spain have assumed the title of Lord of Biscay, which is still retained. (c)