This
armament, pursuant to his orders, steered to the northward, and there
subdued the Orkneys; then making the tour of the whole island, it
arrived in the port of Sandwich, without having met with the least
disaster.
During these military enterprises, Agricola was ever attentive to the
arts of peace. He attempted to humanize the fierceness of those who
acknowledged his power, by introducing the Roman laws, habits, manners,
and learning. He taught them to desire and raise all the conveniences of
life, instructed them in the arts of agriculture, and, in order to
protect them in their peaceable possessions, he drew a rampart, and
fixed a train of garrisons between them and their northern neighbors,
thus cutting off the ruder and more barren parts of the island and
securing the Roman province from the invasion of a fierce and
necessitous enemy. In this manner the Britons, being almost totally
subdued, now began to throw off all hopes of recovering their former
liberty, and, having often experienced the superiority of the Romans,
consented to submit, and were content with safety.
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