Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/442

Ghtp,$II. O F 7 M.-A JNC HE S T B R. 40; period of tjpe ; and the native Romans of the ifland muft have keen nearly half a million of men at the conclpfi'on of it. And hiftory remarkably coincides with the reasoning, a&ually men- tioning /the Roman inhabitants of the ifland as a diftin& nation pf jth'emfelves, and confideriqg them equally with the populous nations of the Britons the Angles the Pi&s and the Scots within, it*. In this gradual multiplication of the Roman legionaries, and in that gradual increafe of the Roman power which muft have been the natural refult of it, the neceffity of maintaining fb» many troops in the ifland muft have. been regularly taken away,. A*jd about the clofe of the third or the commencement of the fourth century feveral of the legions muft have been nearly fu- pcrfluous in Britain*. Hence we find the twentieth Valerian* Vi&orious the tenth Antonian Auguftan ancl the feveathu Twin Claudian ta have been recalled from the iflaiid before the fifth century . And hence we find the firft of them in particu- lar tolvave not been recalled nearly till the middle of the fourth century, till fome time after the date of Antonine's Itinerary andi fche conftru&ioji of the famous Gonftantinople . Having very large bodies of native legionaries in. her municipies and colo- nies, the ifland was fufficiently able to difmiis three of her five?: legions, and was fufficiently defended againft her. enemies by the remaining two. The full legionary complement of men muft have been* draughted put of the military citizens that refpe&ively belonged to each of the three legions, muft have marched away undei; the, legionary ftandard, and muft have embarked with their r wives and children for the continent* The reft remained :be* hind. And thefe, together with the military citizens that wera afterwards left by the two other legions upon the final depar- ture of all, muft have neceflarily formed a very ooofidera^le, fi-> gpr* in the tflami, the amount of their difp^fed mimWf en- titling them to the collective appellation of a nation, aqdthe Ro- mans being denominated as one of the fcve tribes that divided* the ifland betwixt them* Th>is Bede declares the. Divinity to? •t 3 hav ^