208. The emperor Severus comes into Britain, repulfes the Caledonians, and builds a wall of stone where the emperor Adrian's wall of earth ftood; and was killed at York.

211. Severus dying at York, his brother Caracalla was chofen ; who ordered his brother Geta, &c. to be put to death.

212. Scotland received the christian faith, when gold and filver coin was first introduced there.

217. Caracalla died, and the Britons revolted.

220. Afclepiadotus,duke of Cornwall, chofen king of Britain, for deftroying Alectus a tyrant.

238. The fixth perfecution by Maximus. 253. The feventh perfecution by Trajanus. 255. The eighth perfecution by Valerianus. 259. Afclepiadotus flain in battle with the duke of Colcbefter.

270. Conftantine, afterwards the Great, born at York. He was a grandfon to Coil, a chief of the Cumbrians.

272. The ninth perfecution by Valerius Aurelianus.

276. Wines firft made in Britain. 282. Victorinus arrived in Britain and fuppreffed a revolt.

283. The tenth perfecution by Diocletian and Maximianus, when the chriftians of Britain, as well as the other provinces of the empire, endured a sharp perfecution; and St. Alban, faid to have been the first martyr in Britain, was beheaded at Holmeburst, now St. Albans.

284 Caraufius arrived, and proclaimed Emperor in Britain, and is faid to be the first who bestowed Scotland on the Pics, as a recompence for their affiftance. Till this period the Pics are not mentioned in history, yet are fuppofed to be the Caledonians, who having adopted the manners of their conquerors; yet the practice of painting their fkin was ftill in ufe among the meaner clafs of them.

293. Caraufius affaffinated by Alectus, who then affumed the purple.

Conftantius arrived with a fleet and landed

in the ifle of Wight, and is received by the Britons as their deliverer.

294. Conftantius repulfes the Scots. He married Helena, daughter of Coilus, Duke of Colchester, by whom he had Conftantine the Great; the first walled the city of London.

306. Conflantius died at York, and was fucceeded by his fon Conftantine, who with the affiftance of British forces, defeated Maxentius who had affumed the purple at Rome; and being in quiet poffeffion of the empire, embraced the chriftian religion, and was unanimously faluted by the name of Conftantine the Great.

310. He divided Britain into four governments, viz. Britannia Prima, com prehending the country between the river Thames and the fea; Britannia Secunda, confitting of all that lay weft of the Severn to the Irish fea; Flavia Cæfarienfis, comprehending Cornwall, Devonshire, Somersetshire, and part of Wilts and Gloucestershire; and the fourth divifion was named Maxima Cafarienfis, including the northern counties of England, with Nottinghamshire, Derbyfbire, Staffordshire, and Lincolnshire.

312, June 10. Conftantine the Great, the first chriftian Emperor, called the firft general council of Nice, againft Arius the heretick.

314. Three British Bishops deputed, go to the council of Arles in France.

337, May 22. Conftantine died, and was buried at Conftantinople.

338. Conftantinus fucceeded to that divifion of the empire which included Britain; but by invading his brother Confans' territories he was flain, and the victor inherited Britain, and arrived here to repel the Pias, ftill turbulent and willing to improve all advantages.

340. Conftans' vices fubjected him to the contempt of his fubjects, and he was deprived of his crown and life by Magnentius, a Gaul of British extraction, who affumed the regal dignity; but the friends of Confantius, the youngest fon of Conftantine the Great, prevailing against him, after a struggle of three years, the ufurper put an end to his own life at Lyons, [344] and the whole province of Britain acknowledged the authority of the victor.

346. Conftantius erected a court of confifcation in Britain, under the direction of Paulus, a Spanish notary, who profecuted with rigour the adherents of Magnentius, on whom he committed the greatest outrages. 347. The

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