The only fordable passage which he could find over the Thames was defended by a row of palisadoes which lined the opposite bank; another row of sharpened stakes stood under water along the middle of the stream.  Some remains of these works long subsisted, and were to be discerned in the river[6] down almost to the present times.  The Britons had made the best of the situation; but the Romans plunged into the water, tore away the stakes and palisadoes, and obtained a complete victory.  The capital, or rather chief fastness, of Cassibelan was then taken, with a number of cattle, the wealth of this barbarous city.  After these misfortunes the Britons were no longer in a condition to act with effect.  Their ill-success in the field soon dissolved the ill-cemented union of their councils.  They split into factions, and some of them chose the common enemy for their protector, insomuch that, after some feeble and desultory efforts, most of the tribes to the southward of the Thames submitted themselves to the conqueror.  Cassibelan, worsted in so many encounters, and deserted by his allies, was driven at length to sue for peace.  A tribute was imposed; and as the summer began to wear away, Caesar, having finished the war to his satisfaction, embarked for Gaul.

The whole of Caesar’s conduct in these two campaigns sufficiently demonstrates that he had no intention of making an absolute conquest of any part of Britain.  Is it to be believed, that, if he had formed such a design, he would have left Britain without an army, without a legion, without a single cohort, to secure his conquest, and that he should sit down contented with an empty glory and the tribute of an indigent people, without any proper means of securing a continuance of that small acquisition?  This is not credible.  But his conduct here, as well as in Germany, discovers his purpose in both expeditions:  for by them he confirmed the Roman dominion in Gaul, he gained time to mature his designs, and he afforded his party in Rome an opportunity of promoting his interest and exaggerating his exploits, which they did in such a manner as to draw from the Senate a decree for a very remarkable acknowledgment of his services in a supplication or thanksgiving of twenty days.  This attempt, not being pursued, stands single, and has little or no connection with the subsequent events.

Therefore I shall in this place, where the narrative will be the least broken, insert from the best authorities which are left, and the best conjectures which in so obscure a matter I am able to form, some account of the first peopling of this island, the manners of its inhabitants, their art of war, their religious and civil discipline.  These are matters not only worthy of attention as containing a very remarkable piece of antiquity, but as not wholly unnecessary towards comprehending the great change made in all these points, when the Roman conquest came afterwards to be completed.

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