After this the Roman frontier was pushed steadily forward, especially by the famous gen eral Julius Agricola (78-84) till it nearly coin cided with that which is now the northern boundary of England. About the year 120 the Emperor Hadrian is believed to have built that noble stone wall from the estuary of the Tyne to the Solway, of which important fragments still remain, forming one of the most interest ing memorials of Roman domination north of the Alps. Another wall, of turf, was drawn by Hadrian's successor, Antoninus Pius, across the lowlands of Scotland from Forth to Clyde, but it was probably not maintained for long as a boundary of the empire, and the hold of the Roman legions on any part of Caledonia was always precarious. We cannot now do more than briefly allude to the expedition of the aged Emperor Severus, in which he is said to have reached the northern extremity of the island and carefully noted the duration of the long midsummer days.
Notwithstanding many incursions of the bar barians, and the obviously failing strength of the empire, the 3d and 4th centuries were prob ably not on the whole calamitous times for the now reconciled and submissive inhabitants of Roman Britain. At last in 383 a general named Maximus rebelled against the Emperor Gratian, assumed the purple robe, and carried his legions into Gaul to enforce his claim. It may be doubted whether the wealthy and timid provin cials ever slept soundly after that fatal depart ure. True, the rebellion was in course of time suppressed, and some portion of the legions struggled back to Britain, but more mutinies followed, Rome itself was in danger from Alaric and his Goths, and at last about 407, the last of the Roman legions quitted the island' never to return.
Of the next act in the great drama, the con quest of England by the English, we have hardly any trustworthy information. The broad outlines of the conquest may be traced. Three tribes of the Low German stock from the shores of the Baltic and the North Sea cer tainly established themselves here in the course of the Sth century. The Jutes settled in Kent and the Isle of Wight, the South Saxons gave their name to Sussex, the East Saxons to Essex, the West Saxons established themselves in Hampshire and Wilts, the East Angles in Nor folk and Suffolk, the Middle Angles in the Mid land counties where they founded the kingdom of Mercia. Deira and Berman, the two king doms which sometime coalesced into Northum bria, were also Anglian settlements: but how and when all these territorial changes took place we really cannot state with certainty. Even the 'Saxon Chronicle,' which professes to give dates for the foundation of the kingdoms of Kent, Sussex and Wessex, tells us scarcely anything about Northumbria in these early years, and nothing at all about the other three kingdoms.
' The ordinary story of the Saxon conquest is thus told. On the departure of the Roman legions the Britons, sore pressed by the incur sion. of the Northern and Irish barbarians, the Picts and Scots, called on "Aetius, thrice con sul,'" for aid which he was unable to give them. Thereupon they foolishly turned to the Saxon and kindred continental tribes for help. Hen gist and Horsa, Jutish princes, came at the call, landed on the coast of Kent, repelled the Cale donians, but refused to quit the country after the work of liberation was accomplished. The infatuated passion of Vortigern, the elderly British king, for Rowena, daughter of Hengist, aided the designs of the invaders, who sent over to the continent for more and ever more of their countrymen till the conquest at least of the eastern half of the island was accomplished.
For the story thus told the evidence is not satisfactory. It chiefly consists of the narrative of a Welsh ecclesiastic named Gildas, who lived a century and a half after the legions quitted Britain, and who, though an earnest Christian patriot, was evidently but slenderly furnished with historical knowledge. Nor do the very meagre details of the conquest which are sup plied by the 'Saxon Chronicle' carry us much further. That Chronicle was itself probably not compiled till three or four centuries after the invasion, though some of the material included in it may be of a much earlier date.
On the whole all that we can safely say ap pears to be that apparently throughout the 5th century a series of attacks on the Romano British population was being made by the Ger manic tribes which the Romans had known by the name of Saxons. These attacks had begun even in the 4th century and, in order to guard against them, the emperors had created a high official who bore the name of "Count of the Saxon Shore." The invasion may possibly have culminated in the year 449, the year assigned by the