Publius Helvius Pertinax, who attempted to restore discipline in their ranks, but only partially succeeded. The habit of obedience was broken, and the same troops who had so clamorously demanded his appointment soon afterwards solicited his recall.
He returned to fill a civil employment in Rome, where fortune held in store for him supreme grandeur and a cruel fall.
Decimus Clodius Albinus, who succeeded him, was successful not only in reducing the army to obedience, but in obtaining their affection. He administered the province so well that the emperor, in a fit of gratitude, conferred on him the title of Cæsar; an honour which, in all probability, would very soon have been repented of, or led to his disgrace, had not a revolution in the palace removed Commodus from the throne, and raised Pertinax in his stead.
The new reign lasted but three months; Pertinax fell a victim to his attempt to reform the abuses which were corroding the very heart of the empire. He was massacred by the Pretorian guards.
The election of his successor shows to how fearful a state Rome had degenerated. The empire was put up to auction and sold, like common merchandise, to the highest bidder. Didius Julianus by his great wealth purchased the empire: though bought by gold, it could not be retained by the same means. Septimus Severus no sooner heard of the death of Pertinax than he hastened to Rome, at the head of his legions, and the crime was quickly avenged by the death of the assassins, and that of the feeble prince whom they had placed upon the throne.
After the death of Albinus, who, driven to extremities by the secret practices against his life, had marched into Gaul, and was defeated at Lyons, Severus, at an advanced age, visited Britain, and defeated the Caledonians, whom he compelled to sue for peace. It was whilst engaged in this memorable expedition that his son, Caracalla, tried to poison him.
At the termination of the war, the conqueror made York his residence, and employed his army in constructing the gigantic wall whose remains still bear his name. It was seventy-eight miles long, and ran parallel with the remains of the one built by Adrian; its height, twelve feet, without comprising the parapet; its width, eight feet; and it was still further strengthened by a succession of towers and fortresses. The wall was completed in 210 of the Christian era.
Falling into a severe sickness, his unworthy son took occasion to seduce the allegiance of a portion of the army, who proclaimed him emperor. The aged prince was carried to his tribunal, before which he compelled the usurper, his tribunes and centurions, to appear: the guilty son prostrated himself, and demanded pardon.
"What!" exclaimed his father, in a tone of bitter irony, "have you yet to learn that it is the head and not the feet which govern?" The reproach was the more bitter as the disease from which the speaker was dying had settled in his feet, and rendered him incapable either of mounting on horseback or walking.
Shortly afterwards he expired at York.
Septimus Severus died the 4th of April, 211, after a reign of eighteen years: his last words were, "I received the republic divided and weak at every point; I leave it at peace and consolidated, even in Britain: old and disabled in my legs, I bequeath to my sons a powerful empire, if they are prudent; if not, a feeble one."
During the third century, the empire was agitated by numerous competitions for the purple, which were somewhat appeased on the accession of Diocletian. Britain afforded to these pretenders not only an asylum, but the means of advocating their claims to the purple. One of these, Carausius, was only got rid of by assassination.
The murderer, Allectus, attempted to succeed him, and maintained himself in the island till defeated by Constantius, who had been elevated to the rank of Cæsar: thus Britain was once more united to the empire.
The victor made himself loved by the Britons, by his equitable and wise administration, and continued to reside amongst them till the abdication of Diocletian and Maximian elevated him to the imperial throne.
At his death, which occurred in York, in 306, he recommended to the army, who were devoted to him, his son, the celebrated Constantine, who was immediately saluted emperor and Augustus.
The tradition that St. Paul and St. Peter preached the gospel in the island found, at one period, general credence. It must be looked upon with extreme suspicion, there not being the slightest historical evidence to support it, and the probabilities highly against it; still, it is certain that, at a very early age, Christianity was introduced amongst us. Many of the Romans, who had received the new religion and fled from the persecutions of Claudius and Nero, found refuge in Britain, where the imperial edicts were less rigorously obeyed, till the persecution of Diocletian, when the churches throughout the empire were ordered to be closed, and the refusal of the new sect to offer sacrifice to the gods of Rome punished with death.
Much as Constantius condemned, he dared not annul the impious mandate he had received. Ascending his tribunal, before which the principal officers, both of his army and household, had been summoned, he read aloud the edict, and added that those who professed the new faith must decide on abandoning either their faith or their employments. Many, doubtless, chose the former alternative; since we are told that the prince, in great indignation, dismissed the apostates from his service, observing that it was impossible for him to trust those who had denied their convictions. His lieutenants, however, were less scrupulous, and Christian blood, no doubt, was shed to maintain the state religion of the empire.
Alban, the proto-martyr—as the latter designation implies—was the first who suffered; and the names of Julius and Aaron, citizens of Caerleon, upon the Usk, have also been handed down to posterity as two of the earliest victims.
On the accession of Constantine to the throne, religious toleration was restored throughout the empire.
Christianity now made rapid progress in the island. A hierarchy became established, and at the Council of Arles, in 314, three English bishops assisted—those of York, London, and Camalodunum.
After the death of Constantine, we see two people disappear, in name at least, from the page of history—the Maætæ and the Caledonians, who were replaced by the Picts and the Scots. There is every reason to believe that the warlike nation, the Caledonians—who so long resisted the Romans—and the Picts are the same race; the last
