200 Notes on the Evidence bearing
confined to the Brythons, the inhabitants of our island be-
came known to foreigners as Britons.
Roman Britain nearly coincided with Brythonic Britain.
Its northern boundary was the Barrier of Antoninus Pius,
which consisted of an earthern rampart having a deep ditch
on its northern side and a military road on the south, and
ranged from the Clyde, near Dumbarton, to Caeriden on the
Forth. Much better known than the Barrier of Antoninus is
the Wall, of Hadrian, between Wallsend on the Tyne and
Bowness on the Solway. From the Notitia Imperii we learn
to what nations the troops that garrisoned the stations along
this wall belonged towards the end of the fourth century.
Each station was held by a cohort of infantry or an equiva-
lent force of cavalry. The nations or tribes manning the
stations when the Notitia was compiled were Lingones,
Cornovii, Astures, Frisii, Batavians, Tungri, Gauls, Dal-
matians, Dacians, Moors, Lergi, Spaniards, Thracians,
Morini, and Nervii.19 The absence of Britons by no means
implies a want of respect for their military qualities, but in
accordance with Roman policy it was felt that British valour
was more sure to be exerted in a way useful to Borne if em-
ployed on the continent. It is evident also that fidelity to
the Roman Standard, in a remote part of the empire like
Hadrian's Wall, was the more assured by the small numbers
of each nationality, which would prevent dangerous combina-
tions among the various cohorts. When it is remembered
that the veteran soldiers were settled on the public lands, it
is clear that a very considerable number of foreigners of the
most diverse races must have been introduced into Britain
during the Roman Occupation from this source alone. But
in addition to these military settlements, it was a common
Roman custom, after a war, to export a certain number of
families belonging to some warlike and troublesome nation
to another country under Roman rule, and thus convert
people, likely to become enemies on the first opportunity,
into peaceful citizens, powerless for evil, and loyal because
owing their lands to the Roman government. Many families
19 Bruce's 'Handbook to the Roman Wall.'