Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-10-07

Story of Carausius.

/ +l.lt VINO,
If he did not found British sea power,
first grasped its meaning and POSSIBLE
tiles, should be 50 little known to the
/ members of a race which claims to
rule the waves. This humble Channel
pilot who, by his seamanship and his
use Of our insular position raised him
self to the Imperial purple and for
seven years was the absolute ruler of
what afterwards became England, was
| brought wildly to my mind a little
time age when walking over the site
of tie old Roman town or village of
| Magma Castro, near Hereford The
least practiced eye might have realized
that we were treading historic ground
The circle of the old ramparts was
| still family visible, enclosing within it
a large area of cultivated land. At
| enc point, lurking under the hedge,
was a mass of the original masonry of
the walls. When the harvest is stand
| ing tho course of the original street
| which ran through the town can be
| Giscerned, it is said, by the differing
1 color OF the corn which springs over
| the old trodden surface. This is no
fable, for the same phenomenon may
| be seen on any August day over the
| site of old Verulamum. The surface
IF the fields within the faint grassy
| circle that marks the old walls was lit
| orally strewn with shards of earthen-
ware and pavement which have obNl-
/ ously "noated'' upwards from the
buried relics underneath. | was walk
ling over these fields with TREND
VIXEN he suddenly stopped down ana
picked up two unmistakable coins ~
| ing on a glebe of the ploughed land.
/ A sudden visible apparition of an old
Roman legionary or an aboriginal Bfl-
| ton could scarcely have surprised us
more These thin and faded but IN
| aubitable bits of metal, upon which
we quickly exposed an equally indubl-
10 hIe human face, seemed like direct
message. from an age long before the
first Angle or Saxon or Dane mao ar
rived in this country. 1t seemed 10
| bring us into immediate ana quite
| awe-inspiring touch with the power
and splendour of the old Roman EN-
| pire. We took the coins subsequently
| 10 the British Museum. Where we were
a little disappointed with the nilpre9
| sion we created. The coins were gem
| zine. but not particularly rare Oh Nai-
| ,,able One was Il coin OF Hostuiiiu9
end tae other of Carauslus. we iooh-
| cd nm al that was known ABOUT .iiis
| latter person. and We're especially az
troetea by a sentence in Gibbons az
| eount of his remarkable career CARA
ns.,,s. we read, invited from the On
| event n great number of skii1ai an
| is+s and displayed on a variety u
| oains that are still extant his TASTE
I'D ont,lence" Need | say 1hae w
| ta.,i,a OIL win renewed interest on .iie
s,rone and rather heavy features pe
aa,,ino those of our own Olivef FROM
III, ~ the usnrper who held Bfl'aih
| - saxen wears against all cofieis'
a,.a,, a. ainst the might of the holman
Empire? told even
=, Tho iuaicfous Gibbon. reads ihe u
.s,,,anca of fiction. The future r.iii
,loror ~ britain and colleague Oh pio-
l,a.ia, and Naximian was q Meiis'pi-
an If the meanest origin -,
an ~, VIM has read the Com
or,taries" will remember the Me"s'
iiier .s. .r;,a eff Belgian Gaul who haa
pr ,,r,,qele with the Usipetes anu
,n'..1.ari an the opposite bank OF tiie
pbine. In those DAYS ehe =, tho
VHTlDuSiy
records as Saxons Germans VI ,,,hSror,,
had begun their raos NIT
tbrongh the Fretum eiaiicuih tho
;sb channel upon the si,.i =. f.ov-
ocean provinces and the i'oi =. &C.
o.,ment had found 1t necessai I'm, Ire
tahlish a ."channel meet pou.
hoaaouarters at Gessoriaeui' "a u .,1,a
1--we Tn this feet Cafausius Wv eo
mice as pilot and fightihs me-. nm.
ooa indeed, that he rapluls ~
~ he became it's Admiral INT
-, ,s such he took an ihsei.io ~
,,aetionable advantage. ,,odi-
-tonn:ne the pirates on l'ie, aoss
80 south he connived a, ,heii 80 "a
.,e straits, and only lh'e, ~.
-, &c they returned laden "i'n ~.
TINS he distributed aiiiohs AZ,
po'.s and captains keeping sooeas
ere"s ear. himself BY this meahs 20
sns .;.,s waved rich, and eAsieea
ia"'. .'sas of the Emperor MaNii' ,.'i
,,,os ioint Emperor at tiat -
VIZ ,,tao,otiap. An order was ioeo
VIZ. ,amirars arrest and eNeeue 80
ioi r,a,,sins had not wor the
w ..ha e;set which he coiiiIh.nu
.ioi'9 .t,;ng He set sail from
io' Dr;ta;n with the Roman .,s,,i,'
' ~ he had made mis- own' p eue
a Mlnu the Roman troops IN ni RES
as,lv perhaps provincial au ,anseaed
, sno,n their allegiance, ana pre .,t,e Of
IRON. stablish himself with the ,a a.aa
70 as sovereign of an 'ioepe''
dent kingdom. -. thanks to his
For ses =. Tho sea. he held TINS ao-
c .'an,nrous and astonishing position position,
Thai he took himself quite se'iouss
&c attested by the coins OF Wiiieh ""
ourselves had found specimen anu
which had been discovered in CONSIDER
bile numbers in many places. Giobon
tells us that Carausius fleets fode
triumphant in the channel, command
ed the mouths of the Seine and OF the
Rhine, ravaged the coasts of the ocean,
and diffused, beyond the columns oi
Hercules, the terror of his name. ne
was the spiritual ancestor OF DRAKE
and Nelson, the first who asserted ioi
these islands that sea supremacy
| which is the secret of their power anu
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