VI.—Further Observations on the Expedition of the Emperor Augustus into Britain

The evidence of an important fact which. I have lately made known to the Society of Antiquaries, bridging over (as it does) a whole century of our unwritten history, consists principally in the direct and positive assertion of it by the ancient commentator and critic, Servius; and the only objection that I have heard, publicly or privately, against the veracity of his statement, and the consequent view that I have taken of those passages in the Augustan Poets which relate to Britain, amounts to this, that we are required thereby to impugn or reject the opinions of two respectable historians more ancient than the commentator, namely, Cornelius Tacitus and Suetonius Tranquillus. I have thought proper therefore to vindicate in this second paper the authority of Servius, against the negative opinions of those other Roman writers, and their numerous followers.