Page:The Evolution of British Cattle.djvu/45

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THE ROMAN CONTINGENT
33

not drive away the Britons as the Europeans drove away the red Indians, but settled among them much as the English have settled in India. Their policy was to bring civilisation, industry, and commerce to the people they had conquered; to build towns and cities; to set up such a system of military stations as would secure their enterprise from enemies both within and without; and to lay down such a net-work of roads as would afford ready and easy communication between all parts of the country. Only a small proportion of the Romans took to farming, and these only in the neighbourhood of towns and military stations, or in districts with a comparatively dense and homogeneous Roman population. Consequently the Roman cattle were confined to the vicinity of towns and military stations, and, a large number being required for transport and other military purposes, it is inconceivable that many got into the hands of the natives.

The nature of the Roman evacuation of Britain is well known. It was almost a rout: a kind of forced march in which every impediment was left behind and only fighting gear and the minimum of food supplies were carried. The necessary transport animals were taken away, but cows and young stock, which would have been an insufferable encumbrance, were left behind. We know also the state of the country after the flight of the Romans; how the unsettled natives had