Page:The child's pictorial history of England; (IA childspictorialh00corn).pdf/21

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  • cated, and wrote a great number of books in

Latin, for that was their language, and many of those books are used in our schools to this day.

3. They had large armies, and had conquered a great many countries, when Julius Cæsar, a great Roman General, brought an army to Britain, about fifty years before the birth of our Saviour, to try to conquer the Britons also; but thousands of British warriors went down to the sea shore, by Dover cliffs, to fight the Romans as soon as they landed; and they took a great many war chariots with them, and fought so bravely, that after two or three battles, Cæsar offered to make peace with them, and go away, if their princes would pay tribute to the Roman government; which they consented to do.

4. However, the Romans thought no more about Britain for nearly a hundred years, when they came again, and went to war in earnest with the natives, who at length were obliged to submit to them; and Britain became a part of the Roman Empire, just as India is at this time a part of the British Empire.

5. Now this was a good thing for the Britons, although they did not then think so; for as soon as they left off fighting, the Romans began to teach them all they knew, and to make a much