....(a) Of Britain itself.
(b) Of the contumacy [of the Britons].
(c) Of the subjection [of Britain by the Romans].
(d) Of the rebellion [of the Britons].
(e) Of the second subjection [of Britain by the Romans] and their dire slavery.
(f) Of religion.
(g) Of the persecution.
(h) Of the holy martyrs.
(i) Of divers heresies.
(j) Of tyrants [especially Maximus, 383-388].
(k) Of two devastating nations [Picts and Scots}.
(l) Of the defence.
(m) Of the second devastation.
(n) Of the second vengeance.
(o) Of the third devastation.
(p) Of the famine.
(q) Of the Letter to Agitius [i.e. Aëtius, A.D. 446].
(r) Of victory.
123(s) Of the crimes [of the Britons].
(t) Of enemies suddenly announced [i.e. a fourth devastation by Picts and Scots].
(u) Of the famous pestilence.
(v) Of counsel.
(w) Of a foe more bloody than the former [i.e. the Saxons].
(x) Of the overthrow of cities.
(y) Of the remnants [of the Britons].
(z) Of the final victory of the fatherland granted by Godâs will in our times.
Britain, an island, in almost the extreme limit of the world, towards the north-west and the west, poised on the divine balance, as it is called, which bears the weight of the whole earth; stretching from the south-west somewhat towards the north pole; being in extent eight hundred miles long, two hundred broad, excepting more far reaching tracts of diverse promontories, which are surrounded by curved gulfs of the ocean; protected by the circuit of which, more expansive and, as I may so say, uncrossable in every direction save at the strait on the south side, where one sails to Belgic Gaul; enriched by the estuaries of two noble rivers, the Thames and the Severn, arms, as it were, along which of old foreign luxuries were conveyed to the same, and other smaller streams; adorned by twenty-eight cities and some fortifications, great works built in no despicable 124 manner of walls, serrated towers, gates, houses, whose tops, stretching aloft to a menacing height, were fastened in strong juncture; beautified by widespread plains, and hills pleasantly situated, adapted for superior tillage, mountains particularly convenient for the alternate pasturage of cattle, whose flowers of diverse colours, trodden by human steps, gave to them the appearance of a no unsightly picture, even like to a chosen bride in divers jewels; irrigated by numerous lucid springs, with waters impelling as it were snow-white gravel, and by shining streams creeping with gentle murmur and extending to those reclining on their banks a pledge of sweet slumber, and by lakes pouring forth a cool torrent of living water.
1 Britannia here means Britain throughout, i.e. the whole island from John oâ Groats to Landâs End. The story is that of the supposed loss of the whole island by the Britons, i.e. the Welsh, whom the author supposes to have held it in its entirety until after the Revolt of Maximus in A.D. 383-388, when, first, the Picts, got possession of Pictland beyond the Firths of Forth and Clyde; and, secondly, no small interval after A.D. 446, the Saxons got possession of the whole of the south-east from those two Firths to the English Channel, having bundled the Britons into the wilds of Strathclyde, Wales, and the Devonian peninsula. Hence the story begins with this account of Britain itself, the whole island.
This [island] of proud neck and mind, since it was inhabited, (2) rises ungratefully, now against God, at 125 times against fellow-citizens, sometimes also against transmarine kings and their subjects. For what more odious and what more unequal can there be, or be introduced, in human enterprises than to deny to God fear, to good fellow-citizens love, to those placed in higher position the honour due to them, without detriment to the faith, and to break faith with divine and human feeling, and that anyone, fear of heaven and earth being cast off, should be governed by oneâs own inventions and lusts? Omitting, therefore, those ancient errors, common, too, to all nations, whereby before the advent of Christ in the flesh the whole of mankind was held bound; and not enumerating those diabolical monstrosities of the fatherland, almost surpassing the Egyptian in number, of which we still see some with decayed features within or without deserted walls as was customary still with grim countenances; and not declaiming in detail against the very mountains or hills or rivers, at one time destructive, but now useful for human purposes, whereon divine honour was then wont to be heaped by a blind people; and keeping silence as to ancient years of savage tyrants, who were spoken of in other far off regions, so that Porphyry, the rabid eastern, anti-Church dog, in the style of his madness and vanity, added this also, saying, ãBritain, a province fertile in tyrantsä; (3) I will attempt to put 126 forward only those evils which [the island] has both suffered and inflicted upon other and far off citizens in the times of the Roman emperors. This, however, as well as I can, not so much from writings of the fatherland or records of authors, which indeed, or if there were any, having been burnt by enemiesâ fires, or carried too far away in the citizensâ fleet of exile, are not at hand, as from transmarine record, which, broken by frequent gaps, is not very clear.
2. The author sweeps his eye over the history of the Island of Britain from the time it was first inhabited down to the very year, nay, the very month in which he was writing, see (z). The Britons were a contumacious people from the start. (1) They rebelled against God, to whom they owed fear; (2) they rebelled against themselves, to whom they owed love; (3) they rebelled against transmarine rulers and their subjects who had been placed over them, to whom, therefore, they owed honour.
He will not speak of pre-Christian errors, which the Britons held in common with the whole earth, nor of the idols of Britain, nor of natural features to which they paid divine honour. In all these the Britons were contumacious against God. Nor will he speak o ancient times, pre-Roman, when savage tyrants held sway, to whom he supposes that Porphyry referred. In those days the Britons were contumacious against themselves. He will confine himself to the contumacy of the Britons against transmarine kings and their subjects who had been placed over them, i.e. against Roman emperors and Roman citizens, whose fellow-citizens the Britons were, being the Romano-Britons or Welsh.
äBritons,ä of course, must have been comparatively a recent name for the inhabitants of Wales and the West Country, whose ancestors were the Ordovices, Silures, Dumnonii, etc., as, too, of the inhabitants of Strathclyde, whose ancestors were the Selgovæ, etc., of which ancient peoples our author knew nothing. ãBritons,ä the first general name for the inhabitants of Wales and the West, was a legacy of Rome, cherished by them in the sub-Roman age. This, therefore, must be accounted the first capital blunder of our author, who makes believe that the Welsh, under the name of ãBritons,ä had held the whole Island of Britain ãsince it was inhabited.ä
3 These words are not by Porphyry, but Jerome (Epistle 133), who, answering Coelestius, the Irish companion of Pelagius, says, ãLastly (an objection which your friend Porphyry is wont to make against us), what reason is there that the compassionate and merciful God has suffered whole nations, from Adam to Moses, and from Moses till the Advent of Christ, to perish through ignorance of the Law and his Commandments? For neither Britain, a province fertile in tyrants, nor the people of Ireland, etc., knew Moses and the prophets.ä Jerome is clearly girding at Pelagius the Briton as well as Coelestius the Irishman. Moreover, he was not referring to any supposed pre-Roman tyrants of pre-historic Britain, but to the Romano-British tyrants of his own time, such as Maximus.
For when the kings of the Romans had acquired the empire of the world, and, all neighbouring regions or islands being subdued towards the east, had by merits of superior fame secured their first Peace with the Parthians, (5) who border on the Indians, by the completion of which [peace] wars at that time ceased in almost every land, the keenness of the flame in the measure of its inflexible course towards the west could not be either hindered or extinguished by the blue tide of ocean, but crossing the strait carried to the island laws for obedience, no one resisting, (6) and subdued an unwarlike but faithless people not so much by sword, fire, and engines, like other nations, as by threats alone or menaces of judgements, who proffered obedience to the edicts only on the surface of the countenance, with resentment suck deep in the heart of them.
5. The first Parthian Peace (B.C. 20) referred to by Orosius (i, 1; iii. 8; vi, 21). that the author begins with the Roman conquest under Claudius, omitting any reference to the invasions by Julius Cæsar, is one of several indications, see for example (q), (r), and (y), that the Britannia, underlying his narrative, is not always the Island of Britannia, as he would have it, or even Roman Britain, but the Britannia of the west, i.e. Welshland, which the Romans did not enter till after the Claudian conquest began.
6. Orosius (vii, 6), quoting Suetonius, Claudius xvii: ãWithin a very few days he reduced the greater part of the island to submission without fighting or bloodshed.ä
Immediately on their return to Rome, owing, as they said, to the poorness of the soil, and suspecting nothing as to rebellion, the treacherous lioness (6) massacred the rulers who had been left behind among them to declare more fully or to confirm the enterprises of Roman rule. Which things being so done, when such were reported to the senate and it was hastening with a speedy army to take vengeance on the crafty little foxes, as it conceived them, there are no preparations of fighting fleet ready on sea to fight bravely for the fatherland, no marshalled army on shore, or right wing, or war equipment of other sort, but backs are presented for a shield to those pursuing, and necks to swords, whilst cold terror runs through their bones, and hands are held out to be bound like women, so that it was spread far and wide as a proverb and a derision that the Britons ãare neither brave in war, nor faithful in peace.ä (7)
6 The ãtreacherous lionessä is Britain, as the ãbarbaric lionessä below in (w) stands for the home of the Saxon hordes.
7 Vergilâs Æneid, ii, 120. 127
The Romans, therefore, many of the perfidious being slain, some being reserved for slavery, lest the land should be entirely reduced to a desert, the fatherland, destitute as it was of wine and oil, being left behind, return to Italy, leaving certain of their own as taskmasters to be scourges for the backs of the natives, a yoke for their necks, to make the name of Roman slavery to stick to the soil, and to vex the crafty nation not so much with military force as with whips, and, should the occasion so call for it, to apply to its side a sword unsheathed, as it is said, so that it might be regarded not as Britannia, but Romania, (8) and that whatever it 128 might have of copper, silver, or gold might be stamped with Cæsarâs image. (9)
8 Here we have a distinct reminiscence of a thorough Romanization of Britain, where he states that gens, the nation of the Britons, was to be regarded no longer as Britannia but Romania. He seems to be translating the early Welsh Rumein, which (from Romani Romans, as Ffrainc, France, from Franci, Franks) meant people at first and then country. Today Rhufain and Ffrainc mean Rome and France, with fresh formations Rhufeiniaid and Ffrancod for Romans and French. If we suppose our author had some memoranda before him, which stated that the Britons were Rumein rather than Britein, meaning Romani rather than Britanni, he may conceivably have translated these two words into Romania and Britannia respectively. In (j) the island is made to retain ãthe Roman name.ä In (n) ambassadors are sent to ask help of the Romans, lest ãthe name of the Romansä should grow vile, being already a mere word with the Britons, and a taunt among the aliens. In (y) Ambrosius Aurelianus is said to be the last of the Romans in the island, and yet his descendants still dwell here.
9 The three sections, (c,), (d), (e), constitute the authorâs account of the Roman conquest of Britain, taken in hand during the reign of Claudius Cæsar in A.D. 43. (1) After subduing the island, not with swords but with threats, the Romans return to Rome owing to the poverty of the soil. They leave behind them rectores, rulers, to confirm their sovereignty. The idea is that a Roman army came to conquer the island, and, having subdued it without any fighting, but merely by frightening the inhabitants, went back to Italy, leaving only officials behind. (2) When the Romans were gone, the Britons rose against the rectores and slew them. On hearing of this, the Roman Senate despatched an army a second time to wreak vengeance on the islanders. Again there was no fighting. But the Romans slew many, reserving the rest for slavery lest the land should be reduced to a desert. Then, because Britain lacked oil and wine, they withdrew, as before, to Italy. The Britons were now reduced, not to mere political subjection as formerly, under rectores, but to servile subjection under præpositi, taskmasters, with whips. These were to make the epithet of Roman slavery to cling to the soil, harassing the natives not so much with military weapons as with the lash. (3) In this state of servitude (there is not mention of Roman legions with their auxiliary forces in permanent occupation in Britain) the author leaves them until the Revolt of Maximus in A.D. 383.
Meanwhile, to the island stiff with icy cold and as being in a far distant corner of the earth, remote from the visible sun, he, the true sun, Christ, displaying to the whole world the exceeding bright lightning of himself, 129 not only from the firmament of time, but even from the supreme height of the heavens surpassing all times, first yields his rays, that is his precepts, in the latest time, as we know, of Tiberius Cæsar, when his religion was propagated without any impediment, death being threatened by the emperor contrary to the will of the senate against the informers of the soldiers of the same religion. (10)
10 This section refers, not to any introduction of the Christian religion into Britain, but that the light of the Gospel, which came by Christ, shone for Britain as for the rest of the world. He is referring to the passage in the Latin translation of Eusebiusâs ãChronicle,ä which reads ãWhen Pilate sent information to Tiberius of the doctrine of the Christians, Tiberius referred it to the Senate, so that it should be received among the other sacred records. But when it was decided by the city fathers that the Christians should be expelled from Rome, Tiberius, in an edict, threatened the accusers of the Christians with death. Tertullian writes so in his Apologeticus.ä
Which precepts, although they were tepidly received by the inhabitants, yet with some they continued unimpaired, and with others less so, up to the nine yearsâ persecution of the tyrant Diocletian, (11) wherein churches were overthrown throughout the whole world, and all Holy Scriptures, which could be found, were burnt in the open streets, and chosen priests of the Lordâs flock were butchered along with innocent sheep, so that not even a vestige of the Christian religion, if it could be accomplished, might appear in some provinces. At that time what flights there were, what slaughters, what punishments of diverse deaths, what ruins of apostates, what crowns of glorious martyrs, what raving wraths of persecutors, on the contrary what ãpatience of the saints,ä (12) the Ecclesiastical History (13) narrates, so that 130 the whole church in close array was eagerly hastening to the pleasant realms of heaven, as to her proper seat, mundane darkness being left behind.
11 From February, 303, till near the end of 312, when by the Edict of Milan the State persecution of the Church ceased.
12 Rev. xiii. 10; xiv, 12.
13 I.e. the Latin version of Eusebiusâs Historia Ecclesiastica, by Rufinus, which gives a general account of the persecution under Diocletian, of which 9g) is a résumé.
God, therefore, magnified his mercy to us, willing ãthat all men should be saved,ä (14) and calling sinners no less than those who think themselves righteous. Who of his own free gift in the above said time of persecution, as we conjecture, (15) lest Britain should be totally enveloped in thick darkness of black night, kindled for us lamps most bright of holy martyrs, the graves of whose bodies and the places of whose sufferings, if they had not, very many of them, (16) been taken away from 131 citizens on account of our crimes by the lugubrious dividing asunder (17) of barbarians, would now be inspiring the minds of those gazing on them with an ardour far from small of divine charity. Of saint Alban of Verulam, (18) Aaron and Julius, citizens of Caerleon, (19) and the rest of both sexes in diverse places, standing firm with supreme magnanimity in Christâs battle, do I speak.
Of whom the former, after that for charityâs sake had hid a confessor, pursued by his persecutors and on the point of being apprehended, first in his own house and then by exchanging clothes with him, even imitating in this Christ laying down his life for the sheep, and had willingly exposed himself to the danger of being pursued in the garments of the aforesaid brother, he was so wonderfully adorned with miraculous signs, pleasing 132 as he was to God between his holy confession and cruel death in the presence of the impious men then carrying the Roman standards in hideous delusion, that by fervent prayer he opened an unknown way through the bed of the noble river Thames, (20) like to that dry and little trodden Israelitish way when the ark of the covenant stood long on the gravel in Jordanâs mid-channel, (21) entering on dry foot with a thousand men, the rushing waters on either side suspended like abrupt precipices, and converted first his executioner, seeing such prodigies, from a wolf into a lamb, and caused him together with himself to thirst more vehemently for the triumphant palm of martyrdom and more bravely to seize it.
But the rest were so tortured with diverse torments and lacerated with unheard of tearing of limbs, that without delay they raised trophies of their glorious martyrdom as it were in the excellent gates of Jerusalem.
On the other hand, those who survived hid themselves in woods and deserts and hidden caves, (22) awaiting from the just ruler of all, God, for the executioners, some time, severe judgements, but for themselves protection of their lives.
Thus, ten years of the aforesaid storm being not yet entirely ended, and the nefarious edicts disappearing through the death of their authors, all the soldiers of Christ with joyful eyes, as if after wintry and protracted 133 night, take in the serene moderation and light of the heavenly atmosphere. They renew the churches, (23) destroyed to the ground. They found, construct, complete basilicas to the holy martyrs, and throw them open in every direction as victorious emblems. They celebrate feast days. They perform sacred rites with clean heart and mouth. All exult as children cherished in the bosom of mother church.
14 1 Tim. ii. 4.
15 The author is not certain. These first-known martyrdoms in Britain occurred probably either under Decius (251) or under Valerian (257). For Constantius Chlorus, who ruled in Britain (296-306), and his son Constantine, who succeeded him, were tolerant.
16 Seeing that the whole island of Britain had been reduced to servitude, the ãnationä being now Romania and not Britannia, till after the revolt of Maximus in 383, our author might reasonably have conjectured that very many, if not most, of the graves of his supposed Diocletian martyrs and of the sites of their sufferings had fallen into the hands of the barbarians, that is of the Picts in the north and of the Saxons to the south, except Strathclyde, Wales, and the West Country. But it is evident he had his eye also on supposed graves and sites which had not been taken away. He seems to be referring to the merthyr place-names of Wales and the West, which were formerly far more numerous than they are today. The Welsh merthyr is from Latin martyrium, which last denotes a place of martyr or martyrs, i.e. a church built in memory of a martyr, and generally over his grave. This is what our author may have taken it to mean, but erroneously in Welsh place-names, for merthyr here simply denotes ãsaintä as the Irish martir. It is generally followed by a personal name, whether male as Cynog in Merthyr Cynog, or female as Tudful in Merthyr Tudful, which may partly account for our authorâs mention of martyrs of both sexes in diverse places. They are names of saints who flourished in the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries, and are found particularly in those parts where Irish influences can be shewn to have prevailed.
17 divortium seems too specific to mean merely destruction. The ãdivorceä could refer to the gaps which, according to our authorâs notion, the barbarians had made between Strathclyde and Wales and between Wales and the West Country, when they reached the western ocean, as he says in (x).
18 The author does not say that Alban suffered at Verulam, or Julius and Aaron at Caerleon, only that Alban was a man of Verulam, and that the other two were of Caerleon.
19 Legionum Urbs, a translation of Cair Legion, later Caerlleon, which really stands for ãthe Fortress of the Legion.ä In Monmouthshire it became Caerllion, anglicized into Carleen, but spelt Caerleon. The Roman name was Isca from the river, on the western bank of which it stands, viz. the Wysg or Usk. It was the fortress of the Second Legion Augusta which occupied the site c. A.D. 75. A ninth century charter purports to restore the whole territory of the martyrs, Julius and Aaron, which had once belonged to St. Dubricius. The estate lay along the south bank of the Usk south of Kemeys Inferior and opposite to the old fortress of Caerleon. In this southern district are churches not of Julius and Aaron, but of Julius (at St. Julians) westwards and of Alban (on Mount St. Albans in Caerleon-ultra-pontem) eastwards (B.L.D., 225).
On the northern banks opposite the estate just mentioned was another belonging to St. Cadog, whence the parish was known as Llangattock juxta Caerleon, with the Church of Cadog in the township of Caerleon and in the very centre of the old Roman fortress of Isca. It was in this district, at Penrhos, between the lower reaches of Afon Lwyd and Sor Brook, where they enter the Usk, that the Church of Aaron stood.
20 Our author places the site of St. Albanâs death near the Thames. Bede (i, 7) does not name the river, but fixes the site at Verulam (i.e. St. Albans, Hertfordshire). The objection is that the legend postulates a river of some size, not a mere brook as at St. Albans, and also a military centre such as existed neither on the Thames nor at St. Albans. The conditions are well met at Mount St. Albans, Caerleon-ultra-pontem, in Christchurch, Monmouthshire.
21 Joshua iii. 17.
22 Many places survive in Wales and the west of woods, deserts, and caves associated with saints, formerly far more numerous than now. The Latin desertum yields the Welsh place-name Dyserth, ãhermitage.ä There are examples of Cilsant, ãsaintâs retreat.ä In such place-names our author may have seen evidences of persecution, as in the merthyr names. For he is markedly observant and tries to make what remains of the past to speak.
23 A résumé of Eusebius, (ix, 10.)
For this sweet concord between Christ, the head, and the members continued, until the Arian unbelief, (24) hideous like a snake, spueing out oversea poison upon us, made brethren dwelling as one to be disunited ruinously; and so, as if by a path made across the ocean, all sorts (25) of wild beasts, injecting with horrid mouth the deadly virus of every kind of heresy, began to infix the lethal wounds of their teeth in the fatherland, ever willing to hear something new and of a truth holding nothing steadfastly.
24 A general impression derived from Eusebius. The evidence is all in favour of British orthodoxy in the fourth century (Williamsâ Christianity in Early Britain, 156-7).
25 The only heresy that is certainly known to have won ground among the Britons is that of Pelagius, which caused the two visits of St. Germanus of Auxerre in 429 and 447 respectively.
At length, also, thickets of tyrants growing up and already bursting forth into an immense forest, the island, retaining the Roman name but not the law and custom, nay rather, casting forth a shoot of its own most bitter planting, sends Maximus (26) to the Gauls, a 134 great crowd of satellites accompanying him, moreover with the insignia of an emperor as well, which he never fitly bore, not legitimately, but initiated after the manner of tyrant and amid a turbulent soldiery. Who by cunning art rather than valour first annexing to his outrageous rule against the Roman state certain neighbouring countries or provinces by nets of perjury and mendacity, and extending one of his wings to Spain, the other to Italy, and establishing the throne of his most iniquitous empire at Trèves, raged with such madness against his lords that he drove two legitimate emperors, the one from Rome, the other from a life most religious. Without delay, fortified by audacities so dangerous, he is shorn of his cursed head at the city of Aquileia, who had in a way felled the crowned heads of the empire of the whole world.
26 Magnus Maximus, the Maxen Wledig of Welsh tradition, a Spanish officer, who came to Britain as an official in the household of Theodosius in 368. His revolt occurred in 383, when he crossed over to the Continent, and (Gratian being assassinated August 25, 383) was acknowledged as co-Augustus by Theodosius. In 387 he entered Italy, driving away Valentinian II, but was overcome by Theodosius, who executed him near Aquileia on July 28, 388. His wife was Elen Luyddog, ãHelen of the hosts,ä daughter of Eudaf, from whom he got Puplicius, i.e. Peblig, the founder of Llanbeblig in Arfon. His daughter, Severa, was the wife of Vortigern.
After this Britain, (27) deprived of all her armed soldiery, military supplies, her rulers, cruel though they were, and vigorous youth, who, following on the steps of the aforesaid tyrant, never more returned home, (28) and 135 entirely ignorant of the whole practice of war, being exposed for the first time (29) to be trampled on by two transmarine (30) nations, exceedingly cruel, the Scots (31) from the north-west, the Picts (32) from the north, lies for many years stunned and groaning.
27 There are two indications in this section that the author has misunderstood some insular tradition, wherein Britannia signifies not the Island of Britain, or even Roman Britain, but the Britannia of the West, i.e. ãWelsh-land” from Man to Wight, cf. (c), (q), (y). First, there is evidence that Maximus did in some sense strip Wales and the West of regular troops, which certainly does not apply to the rest of Roman Britain. And, secondly, the only portion of Britain which could be attacked over water from the north-west by the Irish and from the north by Picts is Wales and the Devonian peninsula. St. Patrick (d. 461) speaks of Britain in the plural, Britanniæ (Confession, 23, 32, 43), but our author only knows of Britannia.
28 Maximus is made to drain the whole Island of Britain of all its armed soldiery, its military supplies, its cruel rulers (i.e. taskmasters) and its able-bodied youth, so that there remains literally 135 no human material in the island capable of defending and ruling it, whether officer, soldier, or civilian, or even a single weapon. this is actually emphasized as the narrative continues. The citizens, having no able-bodied men, were in need of soldiers; having no soldiers, had to send for them; having no rulers, failed to hold the Wall of Turf; having no weapons, had to have patterns left them for their manufacture.
29 The island, thus helpless, becomes exposed for the first time (i.e. after 383-388) to attacks of Picts from oversea and of Scots from oversea, the former from due north, and the latter from the north-west.
30 Both Picts and Scots arrive over water. When defeated by Roman troops (n), it is ãbeyond the seasä that they are put to flight, and it is ãbeyond the seasä that they annually store their plunder. Again (o), both nations emerge (like worms from holes) from the currachs in which they sail across the sea.
31 The Scots, being from Ireland, are called (o) ãIrish freebooters.ä They appear for the first time in history under this name in the account of Ammianus Marcellinus (xx, i, 1) of an invasion of Roman Britain by the Picts and Scots about the year 360. Till the tenth century Scotti meant Irishmen and Scotia Ireland.
32 Where our author imagined the original habitat of the Picts in the north to have been is uncertain. Nennius (12) thought they came from the Orkney Islands; Bede (i, 1) says Scythia, i.e. Scandinavia.
Owing to the irruption of which nations and most dire depression, [Britain] sends ambassadors to Rome with letters, entreating with lachrymose appeals an armed force to avenge her, and vowing submission on her part to the Roman empire continuously with all strength of heart if the enemy were kept at a distance. In reply a legion (33) is forthwith prepared, unmindful of 136 past evil, adequately provided with arms, which, borne in ships across the ocean to the fatherland, and having come into close combat with the oppressive enemies, and overthrowing a great multitude4 of them, both expelled all from the borders and liberated the citizens, subjected to so atrocious a tearing asunder, from imminent captivity. Whom it ordered to construct a wall (34) across the island between two seas, that, when manned by a force, it might be for a terror to the enemies to be repelled, and for a protection to the citizens. Which [wall], being made not so much of stones as of turves, did not profit the unreasoning populace, destitute of a ruler (35).
33 That a ãlegioä (whatever the term then meant) did after the death of Maximus serve against Picts and Scots is proved from Claudianâs De Bello Gothico, 416-8, where Stilicho in 402 to meet Alaric in Italy withdraws ãthe legio, which stands guard in front of the remotest Britons, which curbs the savage Scot and scans the inanimate figures tattooed on the dying Pict.ä But this ãlegioä was clearly not a new arrival in Britain, but a portion of the old permanent garrison, of which our author knew nothing. It is noticeable that whereas a ãlegioä was sent for this first ãvengeance,ä it was ãcavalry and a fleetä for the second ãvengeanceä (n).
34 This wall is that now commonly known as Antonineâs, built c. 143 from Clyde to Forth. The author is informed as to its character, made of turves rather than stones, though he is quite ignorant of its true origin. To him it must have meant that, having been built after 388, it marked the abandonment of the defence of the north, notwithstanding that he makes his ãlegioä to have expelled the foe completely out of Britain.
35 ãdestitute of a rulerä as in (k), ãBritain deprived of her rulers,ä and (m) ãno shepherd being at hand.ä
That [legion] returning home with great triumph and joy, the former enemies, like Ambrons, (36) wolves rabid with deepest hunger, leaping with parched jaws across the sheepfold, no shepherd being at hand, (37) borne with wings of oars and arms of rowers and sails bulged with wind, (38) break through the boundaries and slay everything, and what they meet with crop it like ripe corn, tread under foot, and walk through.
36 A Gallic race which lived by plunder after having lost its lands by an inundation; hence ãplunderers.ä
37 See note uner (l).
38 See note under (k).
137A second time suppliant ambassadors are sent, with rent clothes, as is said, and heads covered with dust, imploring assistance from the Romans, even like timid fowls crouching under most trusty wings of parents, that the fatherland might not be utterly destroyed and the name of Romans, (39) which sounded as mere talk to their ears or as a taunt to alien nations, might grow vile as a thing gnawed at. They, moved as much as is possible for human nature by the story of such a tragedy, first accelerating unexpected relays of horsemen on land, of sailors on sea, like flights of eagles, then plunge terrible points of swords in the necks of the enemies, and execute a slaughter on the same to be likened to the fallings of leaves at the fixed time, as if it were a mountain torrent, swollen by frequent streams after storms, and overflowing channels in sonorous motion and foaming surprisingly with furrowed crest and fierce front, its waters raised, as they say, to the clouds, whereby the pupils of the eyes, though very often refreshed by the quick movements of the eyelids, are obscured by the connected lines of broken eddies, yet in one engulfment overwhelms obstructions (40) set in the way. So did the illustrious helpers very quickly 138 put to flight the bands of the enemies, if any however had been able to escape, across the seas, because across the seas they greedily heaped up their annual plunder, with no one resisting.
The Romans, therefore, giving notice to the fatherland that in no wise could they be too frequently harassed by expeditions so laborious, and the Roman standards, such an army and so great, be wearied on land and sea on account of unwarlike vagabond thieves, but urging that [the fatherland] should rather by itself, after accustoming itself to arms and bravely fighting, defend with all its powers land, property, wives, children, and, what is greater than these, liberty and life, and that it should hold forth hands in no way armourless to be bound in fetters by nations in no wise braver than itself, unless it were rendered dissolute by idleness and torpor, but provided with shields, swords, spears, and ready for striking, because also they thought this to be of some advantage to the people to be left, level out a wall, (41) not as the other, at the public expense and private, the wretched natives being joined with them, in their accustomed mode of structure, in a straight line from sea to sea between fortresses, (42) which had been erected there perhaps from fear of enemies. They give bold counsel to the timorous people. They leave patterns (43) for the manufacture of arms. On the shore of the ocean also towards the south, where their ships were wont to ride, because thence too wild barbaric beasts (44) were feared, they erect 139 towers (45) at intervals overlooking the sea, and bid farewell as about to return no more.(46)
39 nomenque Romanorum, a mere word (says he) to the Britons, a term of contempt to aliens. That the Britons in our authorâs time commonly called themselves Britons, and not Romans, seems to be what led him astray in distinguishing so sharply and so consistently between the two. Yet he speaks of the Britons as cives, citizens of the Roman empire, and describes Ambrosius in (y) as the last Roman in Britain, after which he straightway speaks of this manâs descendants as his own contemporaries. Our author must be regarded as the originator of ãthe old idea that Britons and Romans remained two distinct and hostile elements,ä which idea (says Haverfield) ãhas of course been long abandoned by all competent inquirers.ä That the Saxons did not make this mistake is clear from their name for the Britons, namely ãWelsh,ä from Wealh, Walh = Old High German Walh, Walah, a Roman.
40 gurgite moles, cf. Vergilâs Æneid, ii, 427: Oppositaque evicit gurgite moles.
41 Now known as the Wall of Hadrian, founded c. 122, built of stone, seventy-three miles long, from the Tyne to the Solway. To our author, the building of this wall in c. 407 must have meant that the whole of Britain north of it was now abandoned.
42 The author was right in thinking that the Wall was built amid fortresses already existing. These were some ten in number, from Burgh-by-Sands on the west to Benwell on the east, standing in front of a great ditch which marked the limit of the Roman empire. The Wall with its fortlets and turrets was added a little later.
43 exemplaria, patterns, because Britain (k) had been deprived of all its armour.
44 I.e. the Saxons.
45 The forts of the Saxon Shore, some nine in number, each planted on a harbour and garrisoned by a regiment of horse and foot, under the command of an officer entitled ãthe Count of the Saxon Shore.ä They were all erected before A.D. 306, extending from the Wash to the Solent, under Constantius Chlorus.
46 The end of direct Roman rule in Britain is generally regarded as having occurred with the tyrant Constantine III, who crossed over into Gaul in the early part of 407, and whom Britain refused to acknowledge the following year. In 410 Honorius is said to have bidden the Britons to look after themselves, this is doubtful. A Roman army certainly existed in Britain, at least ãon paper,ä for some years after this.
Whilst, then, they were returning to their own, the foul hordes of Scots and Picts eagerly emerge from the currachs, (47) in which they were borne across the sea, (48) as dark swarms of worms in high noon, (49) when the heat is increasing, from the narrow crevices of their holes, differing partly in their customs, but alike in one and the same avidity for bloodshed, also covering their hang-dog countenances with hair rather than the indecent parts of their bodies (50) with decent clothing, and, the departure of our benefactors being ascertained, also their refusal to return, becoming more audacious than ever, seize the whole northern (51) and extreme part 140 of the land as far as the Wall instead of the natives. To oppose these things there is stationed on the height of the defence (52) an army, slow to battle, unwieldy for flight, inept by reason of their quaking midriffs, which languished day and night in its sorry watch. In the meantime the hooked weapons of the nude ones (53) are not idle, whereby most wretched citizens, dragged down from the walls, (54) were dashed to the ground. Truly this punishment of premature death was an advantage to them, who were snatched away by such an end, in that by their quick exit they avoided the miserable sufferings which threatened their brethren and relations.
47 curuca, Welsh corwg (whence, corwgl, coracle), Irish currach. The keels and gunwales of wood, the sides of wicker-work, on which skins were stretched, either one skin for a small currach, or two or more for larger ones. These were provided with sail-yards, sails, oars, and rigging.
48 trans tithicam vallem, ãacross Tethysâ valley,ä i.e. across the sea, from Tethys, the sea-goddess, wife of Oceanus and mother of water-deities.
49 in alto Titane, when the sun is high, from Titan, the Sun-god.
50 An early reference to the kilt, cf. ãthe nude ones,ä below.
51 Whereas the Britons had occupied the whole Island of Britain till c. 407, from this time the northern part, as far down as the Wall of Stone, was seized by the Picts and Scots. They seized it without settling, for they are made to proceed at once with their attack on Southern Britain.
52 in edito arcis apparently along the Wall.
53 See p. 139, n. 6, above.
54 The various parts of the Wall which connected the forts.
Why more? Cities abandoned and lofty Wall again flights of citizens, again dispersions more desperate than heretofore, again pursuits by the foe, again massacres more cruel, are accelerated. And as lambs by butchers, so weeping citizens are mangled by enemies, insomuch that their sojourn might be likened to that of beasts of the field. For they even began to restrain one another for brief support by the thieving of scanty provisions of citizens most wretched, and outside disasters were augmented by domestic tumults, because the whole country by pillagings so frequent of this sort was being cleared of the support of all food, save the relief got from skill in hunting.
Again, therefore, the wretched remnants, sending a letter (55) to Agitius, (56) a man of Roman authority, speaking 141 on this wise, ãTo Agitius, thrice consul, the Groans of the Britons,ä and after a few words lamenting, ãthe barbarians drive us to the sea, the sea drives us to the barbarians; between these two modes of death we are killed or drowned,ä do not even for this [letter] obtain any aid.
In the meantime the famine, (57) dire and most famous, sticks to the wandering (58) and staggering people, which compels many of them without delay to yield their hands bound to the cruel robbers, that they might get a morsel of food to revive life, but others never. Nay, rather, from the very mountains, caves, and woods, dense thickets, they war back continuously.(59)
55 epistolas. The author seems to be quoting from the Letter itself or a copy of it, for he casually says that he is skipping a passage before giving the well-known words repellunt barbari, etc. The style of writing is in keeping with the times. But the form ãAgitiusä calls for explanation, seeing that ãAëtius,ä had it survived in Welsh, would have passed through what would have been written ãAguit,ä or the like.
56 Agitius is Aëtius, chief minister of the Western Empire, under Placidia and Valentinian. He was four times consul, 432, 437, 446, 454. In 455 he was assassinated by Valentinianâs own hand. This Letter serves to determine the chronology of the narrative, for as Aëtius was thrice consul in 446, the Letter must have been written any time from that year to 454, when he was consul for the fourth time.
Again, as the Letter expresses the misery of the Britons owing to the ravages of Picts and Scots (no mention being made of Saxons, who were not to arrive for many years), it must have been sent from the Britannia of the west, i.e. from ãWelsh-land.ä
57 I.e. the famine, which is the subject of the preceding section (p).
58. ãWandering,ä as having forsaken their cities and Wall as in (p).
59 Here again the tradition is clearly of a British resistance to the Picts and Scots in Wales and the West, i.e. in the Western Britannia.
And then for the first time they began to inflict slaughters (60) on the foes, for many years (61) plundering in the land, trusting not in man, but in God, according to that saying of Philo, ãIt is necessary to have recourse to divine aid when human fails.ä
60 Although the section is headed ãof Victory,ä these words imply that now (c. 446) the Britons began to inflict slaughters on the Picts and Scots with no reference to any particular victory.
61 ãFor many years,ä i.e. the Third Devastation was of long duration, from c. 407 to c. 446.
142For a little (62) the boldness of foes quieted, not however the wickedness of our people. Enemies withdrew from the citizens, not the citizens from their crimes. For it was a continuous habit with the nation, even as it is now, to be weak in blunting the weapons of enemies and to be strong to bear civil wars and the burdens of sins; weak, I say, in pursuing the honours of peace and truth, and strong for crimes and falsehoods.
The impudent Irish freebooters, therefore, go back to their homes, to return after no long a time. The Picts in the extreme part of the island, then, for the first time, (63) and continuously settled down, at times effecting spoils and desolations.
During such truces, (64) therefore, the gaping wound 143 is covered for the desolate people. Another more virulent hunger silently sprouting, while devastation was quiescent, (65) the island began to flow with such great supplies of riches that no age previously had remembered it to have the like, with which of all sorts luxury also grows. And indeed it grew a shoot exceeding strong, so that it might fitly be said at that same time, ãSuch fornication is actually heard of as not even among the gentiles.ä (66) Not only this vice, however, but also all which are wont to befall human nature and especially what even now too overturns the place of all good therein, hatred of truth with its assertors, and love of falsehood with its fabricators, the undertaking of evil for good, respect for wickedness in place of benignity, desire of darkness for the sun, the reception of Satan as ãan angel of light.ä (67)
Kings were anointed not by God, but who should stand out more cruel than the rest, and after a little were murdered by the anointers, not on account of inquiry as to truth, others more truculent having been elected. If, however, any one of them should seem to be milder and somewhat nearer the truth, against 144 him without respect were twisted the hatreds and weapons of all, as though he were a subverter of Britain, and all things which displeased God and which pleased him were weighed in at least equal balance, if nor more acceptable were the things displeasing to him, so that deservedly to the fatherland could be applied that word of the prophet which was denounced against that ancient people, saying, ãChildren without law, ye have forsaken God and have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel. Why will ye be stricken further, adding iniquity? Every head weak and every heart sorrowing, from the sole of the foot to the crown there is no health in it.ä (68) And thus they were doing all things which were contrary to salvation, as if no medicine might be bestowed on the world by the true physician of all.
And not only men of the world [were doing] these things, but also the Lordâs flock itself and its pastors, who should have been for an example to the whole people, in drunkenness, very many of them, as if soaked in wine, were become stupid, listless, and were enfeebled by the swelling of animosities, by the jar of strifes, by the rapacious talons of envy, and by confused judgement of good and evil, so that plainly, even as it is now, contempt was seen to be poured out on princes, and they were seduced by their vanities and error in a trackless place and not in the way. (69)
62 parumper, ãfor a little time.ä When the Picts withdrew to Pictland to settle and the Scots to Ireland, it was only ãfor a little time.ä The Scots withdrew (as we are told lower down) ãto return after no long a timeä; the Picts withdrew to settle down, but ãat times effecting spoils and desolations.ä In other words, the Third Devastation was followed by a period of occasional forays, and nothing more.
The Picts and Scots had seized Northern Britain down to the Wall of Stone, c. 407. ãThey took it in place of the nativesä (o). But now, at the close of the Third Devastation, c. 446, the Picts withdrew to Pictland and the Scots to Ireland. This means that the Britons once more were holding the Lowlands of Scotland as well as all England and Wales. And this is made to be the position when years afterwards the Saxons are invited.
63 This statement is so astonishing that it is well to note it. The Picts only begin to settle in Pictland after A.D. 446. Note also that the Scots are made to return to Ireland without having effected any settlements in Britain. So that, excepting Pictland, the Britons still continue to hold the whole island.
64 In talibus itaque indutiis, during such truces, then, the scar (of the Three Devastations) is healed. Britain becomes rich. With riches grew luxury, and with luxury fornication. Kings were anointed, etc., very many of them. The Church grew corrupt, etc. The narrative clearly postulates a considerable period of time.
But our author here has been seriously misunderstood. Thus, to take the example of Williams, 53, who says, ãAbout 446 the Britons gain the victory, which causes the grassatores Hiberni, ÎIrish freebooters,â to flee homewards, but only to return at no long interval (post non longum temporis reversuri); to meet that return the Saxons are invited to come, and we may be well satisfied that no nearer date can be found than c. 447.ä
Willaims errs, and errs badly, like all who have read (and do read) the passage in this slipshod fashion. What the author plainly states is that although the Picts and Scots returned soon after 446, it was only for occasional plunder. In the pauses between these occasional forays, the gaping wound inflicted on the Britons by the Three Devastations is healed. Devastation was now quiescent. And the author proceeds to devote three whole sections, (s). (t), and (u), to depicting a moral decay, which in course of time was to meet with retribution.
The narrative postulates a considerable period from 446 till the news arrived that the Picts and Scots had again come, not on a mere raid, but ãto destroy and to inhabit the country in their wonted fashion from end to end.ä In other words, a grand assault, a Fourth Devastation. and it was to meet this that the Saxons were called in.
65 quiescente autem vastitate. The occasional pillagings continued, but there was no devastation.
66 1 Cor. v., 1.
67 2 Cor. xi. 14.
68 Isaiah i. 4-6.
69 Psalm cvii. 40.
In the meantime God, willing to purify his family and, by the hearing only of tribulation, to amend it, infected by so deep a stain of evils, the advent, yea already, of their old foes, bent on entirely destroying and inhabiting the country (70) in wonted fashion from 145 end to end, penetrates the pricked-up ears of all, like the winged flight of a rumour not unfamiliar. Nevertheless in no way do they profit by means of this, but comparable to senseless beasts of burden, biting the bit of reason with clenched teeth, as is said, they began to run along the broad path of divers vices, leading downwards to death, the narrow way, though salutary, being left.
70 This is the only indication in these sections that Picts and Scots had inhabited Southern Britain from end to end as well as ravaged it. Nevertheless, after the defeats, which terminated the Third Devastation, c. 446, both of them are distinctly said to have withdrawn.
No details are given of this Fourth Devastation, but it began no small interval after 466, when Scots had not as yet settled permanently in Britain. These are not presumed to have begun settling till sometime near the alleged first arrival of the Saxons.
According to the traditional account, the Scots did not begin occupying Britain till about the beginning of the sixth century. Tigernach says it was in 502 Feargus Mor mac Earca cum gente Dalriada partem Brittanniae tenuit, Fergus the Great, son of Erc, with the nation of Dalriada, took a part of Britain (Buryâs St. Patrick, 315-6). But this first settlement of Scots in Britain in the early sixth century is nothing more than an invention of our author in common with his dating of the first settlement of Picts c. 446, and the first settlement of Saxons some considerable time after.
While then, as Solomon says, ãThe stubborn servant is not corrected by words,ä (71) the fool is scourged and feels it not, for a pestiferous plague (72) presses fatally upon the senseless people, which in a short time lays out so great a multitude of them, the sword removed, as that the living are unable to bury them. But they are not amended even by this, so that that word of Isaiah the prophet was fulfilled in them also, saying, ãAnd God called to lamentation and to baldness and 146 to girdle of sackcloth. Lo, killing calves and slaying rams, lo, eating and drinking and saying, Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow let us die.ä (73)
71 Proverbs xxix. 19.
72 This pestilence, which about synchronized with the Fourth Devastation no small interval after 446, was famosa, well known. Being apparently a local and completed incident, which occurred prior to the calling in of Saxon aid, it can hardly be the celebrated European plague which raged for years during Justinianâs reign in the mid-sixth century, and in which (could we but trust the date) Maelgwn Gwynedd died. This is given at 547, but his famous descendant and successor in the fifth generation, namely Cadwallon, perished at Rowley Water in 634.
73 Isiah xxii. 12, 13.
Since indeed the time was approaching when their iniquities, as once those of the Amorites, would be complete. For counsel is begun as to what best or what more advantageous ought to be determined upon to repel such deadly and such frequent irruptions and plunderings of the above mentioned nations. Then all the counsellors, together with the proud tyrant, (74) are blinded, finding protection of such sort, it was in fact the destruction of the fatherland, that those most ferocious Saxons of accursed name, hateful to God and to men, were let into the island, like wolves into sheepfolds, to beat back the northern nations. Than which verily nothing more pernicious, and nothing more bitter ever happened to it. O deepest darkness of soul! O hopeless and crass dulness of mind! Whom, when absent, (75) they dreaded sooner than death, they spontaneously invited, as I might so say, under the cover of one roof! ãFoolish princes of Zoan,ä as is said, ãgiving to Pharaoh senseless counsel.ä (76)
74 superbo tyranno, i.e. Vortigern. If so, then the author has bungled, for Vortigern was son-in-law to Maximus (d. 388), and began to reign in the Britannia of the west, i.e. ãWelsh-land,ä in 424, and died in 430. Moreover, the only charge against Vortigern in the earliest tradition of him was that of incest (Nennius, 32-5, 39, 47).
However, according to the above story, Vortigern was the last British king of all Britain (south of Pictland). But it is to be noted that Geoffrey of Monmouth (xi, 8-10) makes that king to have been Careticus, who is none other than Cerdic of the Gewissi, better known as Cerdic of Wessex. [I omit, of course, those other three ãKings of Britainä who came long after Careticus, and who are no other than Cadfan, Cadwallon, and Cadwaladr, Kings of Gwynedd. H.R.B., xii, 1-19.] See above, p. 59, n. 4.
75 See (n) for the forts of the Saxon Shore, where ãwild barbaric beasts,ä i.e. Saxons, were feared.
76 Isaiah xix. 11. See p. 65, n. 6, for ãfiery Pharaoh.ä
147Then a brood of whelps, breaking forth from the lair of the barbaric lioness, (77) borne in three ships, cyulæ, keels, as it is expressed in their language, longæ, llongau in ours, (78) under favourable sails, with omen and divinations, wherein it was being foretold, the forecast being a certainty with them, that for three hundred years (79) they should occupy the fatherland, towards which they were steadying their prows, but that for one hundred and fifty, that is for half the time, they should more frequently ravage, (80) first infixed their terrible claws in the eastern part of the island, (81) the luckless tyrant bidding them, as if about to fight for the fatherland, but more truly to assail it. To whom the aforesaid mother [of the brood], finding it to have been successful with the first lot, sends a second and larger jail-gang of accomplices and curs, who, conveyed in 148 ships, attach themselves to their bastard comrades. Thence the seed of iniquity, the root of bitterness, the virulent planting, altogether worthy of our deserts, sprouts in our soil with fierce branches and tendrils. The barbarians, therefore, admitted into the island manage to have provisions given them as to soldiers and those about to undergo great hazards, as they pretended, on behalf of their good hosts, which [provisions], being supplied for much time, (82) stopped, as is said, the dogâs mouth. In similar fashion they grumble that their monthly rations are not amply contributed, industriously colouring their opportunities, and they declare that, unless more profuse munificence is heaped upon them, they will ravage the whole of the island, (83) the treaty being broken. Without delay they follow up their threats with deeds.
77 I.e. the home of the Saxons, as in (d) Britain is styled ãthe treacherous lioness.ä
78 This passage is commonly translated ãthree keels, as it is expressed in their language (English), longa naves in ours (Latin).ä But the words bear another construction, more consistent with the authorâs differentiation between ãBritonsä and ãRomans.ä The Welsh llong, plural llongau, is from the Latin long(a navis). As he Latinizes the English word, so he does the Welsh.
79. This passage provides the key to the chronological framework of the narrative. There was to be no peace for one hundred and fifty years from the arrival of the Saxons. As then the peace did not begin till after the siege of the Badonic Hill (the year of our authorâs birth), which peace had already lasted more than a generation, in fact forty-three years, when our author was writing, it follows (1) that the Badonic Hill was fought one hundred and fifty years, and (2) that our author was writing one hundred and ninety-three years after his first arrival of the Saxons.
80 The mention of the ãkeelsä together with the Saxon prophecy indicates that the story is of English origin.
81 I.e. the eastern portion of the island, south of Pictland. A line from the Firth of Forth down to Hampshire fairly divides the east part of Southern Britain from the west, so that any point along the coast or upstream from the Forth to Hampshire might prove to be the landing-place of the three keels.
82 multo tempore, for much time, i.e. between their landing and their revolt.
83 cuncta insulæ. In the next section (x) they sweep from sea to sea, reaching the western ocean, but, when they cease, they are only made to have consumed almost the whole surface. In other words, they are checked when they reach Britannia or ãWelsh-land.ä
For the fire of just vengeance on account of preceding crimes blazed from sea to sea, heaped up by the eastern band (84) of sacrilegists, and, devastating all the nearest cities and lands, ceased not, being kindled until, consuming almost (85) the whole surface of the island, it licked the western ocean with its red and savage tongue. In this attack, therefore, to be compared with the Assyrian of old upon Judæa, is fulfilled in us also, according to the history, what the prophet, deploring, says, ãFires have burnt thy sanctuary in the land, they have polluted the tabernacle of thy name,ä (86) and again, ãGod, the gentiles have come into thine inheritance, 149 they have defiled thy holy templeä (87) and so on. So that all the coloniæ (88) by frequent strokes of battering rams and all the coloni along with bishops of the church, with priests and people, swords on every side gleaming and flames crackling, were together mown to the ground, and, lamentable to behold, in the midst of streets were seen the bottom stones of towers erased with lofty door and of high walls, sacred altars, fragments of bodies covered with clots as if congealing of purple-coloured blood, mixed as in a sort of fearful winepress, and burial of any kind there was none except the ruins of houses, the bellies of beasts and birds, in the open, [I imply] no lack of reverence to their holy souls, if indeed many were found, which at that time would be carried by holy angels to the heights of heaven. For that vineyard, once good, had so degenerated then into bitterness, that rarely was seen, according to the prophet, a cluster of grapes or ear of corn, as it were, behind the back of the vintagers or reapers. (89)
84 ãThe eastern bandä because they came from ãthe eastern portion of the island.ä
85 pæne, almost (see note 2 above).
86 Psalm lxxiv. 7
87 Psalm lxxviii. 1.
88 I.e. all inhabited centres, not merely the coloniæ properly so called, namely Colchester, Lincoln, York, and Gloucester; and all the coloni, inhabitants.
89 Isaiah xxiv. 13.
In consequence, some of the miserable remnants, overtaken on mountains, were slain in heaps; others, constrained by hunger, coming forward, yielded hands to their foes to serve them for ever, if indeed they were not immediately killed, which stood them in place of highest service; others sought countries over-sea with loud lamentation, as if singing thus in lieu of marinersâ song beneath swellings of sails, ãThou hast given us as sheep for meats and among the gentiles hast dispersed usä; (90) others, entrusting life, always with apprehensive mind, to mountainous regions, overhanging hills, fortified crags, and to most dense forests and marine 150 rocks, remained in the fatherland, though fearful. (91) Then some time intervening, when the most cruel plunderers had returned home, (92) the remnants, to whom most wretched citizens fled together on every side from divers places, as eagerly as the bees of a hive, a storm threatening, God strengthening them, praying unto him at the same time with full heart, and, as is said, ãBurdening the air with unnumbered vows,ä (93) take up arms, challenging their victors to battle, lest they should be destroyed even unto extermination, (94) Ambrosius 151 Aurelianus (95) being leader, a modest man, who alone by chance of the Roman nation had survived in the collision of so great a storm, his parents, no doubt clad in the purple, having been killed in the same, whose progeny now in our times have greatly degenerated from their ancestral excellence, to whom, the Lord assenting, victory fell.
90 Psalm xliv. 11
91 Of the remnants of surviving Britons, (1) some are caught and slain on the hills; (2) some are compelled by hunger to surrender to slavery; (3) some fly across the sea; (4) the rest betake themselves to mountains, forests, and sea-cliffs. This means Western Britain from Strathclyde to ãDevon.ä And so we are to understand that as the Picts expelled the Britons from Pictland, so now the Saxons ousted them from almost all the rest of Britain, from ãthe eastern portion of the islandä to the Western ocean, from sea to sea. Nothing could be more explicit: a total extermination of Britons in South- Eastern Britain. In other words, the Britons of Strathclyde, Wales, and ãDevon,ä who historically were the descendants of the ancient Selgovæ, Ordovices, Silures, Dumnonii, etc., are made to have been the progeny of fugitives from the east.
The above passages constitute the sole basis of the popular belief that the Welsh were expelled from England, of which theory our author is inventor and sole begetter. Seeing that since 446 there had elapsed a considerable interval of time, followed by one hundred and ninety-three years, he was living and writing at a period when we know that the English were occupying Southern Britain from the German Ocean to the Irish Sea and the Bristol Channel; at which time organized states of the Britons were to be found in Strathclyde, Wales, and ãDevon.ä It is his notion (and nothing more) that these Britons, i.e. the Welsh, had formerly held all Britain, having been driven south by the Picts (after 383), and subsequently driven west by the English (some long interval after 446).
92 This should signify their home beyond the sea, but clearly refers to their home in Britain. The phrase recedere domum so ill fits the occasion, that, like transmarini as applied by him to the Picts (k), it is doubtless borrowed from an older setting, where its application was more apposite and so more historical.
93 Vergilâs Æneid,ä ix, 24.
94 These words are as strong as they can be, the Britonsâ one hope and object now being merely to save their lives. Not a word is said of their recovering lost ground, as generally assumed.
95 Also known as Emrys Wledig, i.e. Ambrosius the Ruler, with which compare Maxen Wledig (the Emperor Maximus); Ceredig Wledig, King of Dumbarton, against whose acts his fellow citizen, St. Patrick, protests: Cunedda Wledig, another Romano-British ruler from the north; and Amlodd Wledig, the grandfather of Arthur.
To our author, Ambrosius was (1) the last of the Romans in accordance with his erroneous view that Britons and Romans were distinct and opposed entities, for he may equally well have said, ãthe last of the Welshä; (2) the son of an imperial family; (3) a modest man; (4) the ancestor of people known to himself, and therefore Romans.
As he does not mention Ambrosius as British leader till after his Britons had been bundled into the west, the latter must have been historically a man of the west. But he has blundered in making him, like Vortigern, to have flourished long after 446.
From that time now the citizens, now the enemies were victorious, (96) that the Lord in his wonted way might try in this nation, the modern Israel, whether it loves him or not, up to the year of the siege of the Badonic Hill, (97) 152 and of almost (98) the very last, not least, slaughter on the gallow-rogues; which also begins the forty-fourth year, as I know, one month being past already, which too is [the year] of my nativity. (99) But not even now, as formerly, are the cities of the fatherland inhabited, but deserted and overthrown, they lie neglected to date, external wars ceasing, it is granted, but not civil. For the remembrance of so hopeless a loss of the island and of the unhoped for help (100) stuck in the memory of those who survived as witnesses of either marvel, and on account of this kings, magistrates, private persons, priests, ecclesiastics, severally preserved their own rank. But, they dying away, when an age had succeeded, ignorant of that storm, and having experience only of the present serenity, all the moderating influences of truth and justice have been so shaken and subverted that I will not say a vestige, but not even a memory of them is barely apparent, a few excepted, a 153 very few, who owing to the loss of so great a multitude, which daily rushes down to hell, are counted so small a number, that venerable mother church in a manner sees them not, lying in her bosom, whom alone she has for her true children; (101) whose excellent life, admired of all and beloved of God, let not anyone think I am carping at, by whom our infirmity is sustained so that it may not entirely collapse, by sacred prayers as by sorts of columns and most salutary props, if in any way rather freely, nay, rather lugubriously, driven by a heap of ills, I shall not so much have discussed as wept concerning those who serve not only the belly but the devil rather than Christ, who is God blessed for ever. (102). . .
96 This sentence appears in Nennius, 63, in reference to wars in the north between the sons of Ida of Northumbria and British princes of the families of Coel and Ceredig Wledig towards and about A.D. 600.
97 The constant warfare, which according to prophecy (w) was to last one hundred and fifty years, ends in the year of the Badonic Hill. Forty-three years had already elapsed since the victory when the author was writing, and Bede was quoting from this narrative in 725. The victory, therefore, was clearly an event of the seventh century. The Badonic Hill in Welsh is Caer Faddon, identified in the mediæval tale of Rhonabwyâs Dream with a camp on the Black Bank, over a mile east-south-east of Buttingdon Bridge, Montgomeryshire.
98 ferme. Though the century and a half of warfare terminated with Badon, yet it was only almost the very last British victory. Our author may well have thought of the overthrow of Egfrid of Northumbria at Nechtansmere on May 20, 685, when the Strathclyde Britons regained their liberty, which (says Bede) they had now enjoyed for almost forty-six years ÷ a remarkable statement, when one compares it with the present one (H.E., iv, 26).
99 The Badonic Hill was won the forty-fourth year backwards from that in which the author was writing, a fact of which he was certain, because he himself was born that year. A whole generation had passed away since the victory. The author took pains to provide such precise calculation, for the Badonic Hill meant not only the end of the one hundred and fifty years of warfare, but also the beginning of the one hundred and fifty years of peace, of which years of peace the forty-fourth had already begun. But Bede (i, 16) misread ãthe forty-fourth yearä as meaning about forty-four years from the landing of the Saxons, which he fixed about 449. Hence the horde of fancies that the Badonic Hill was an Arthurian victory, etc.
As the victory is mentioned in the Annals of the Britons at 665, it follows that the author was writing in 708, and that his supposed first coming of the English was the Jutish invasion of Hampshire in 514!
100 ãThe unhoped for helpä may mean merely the victory, or it may imply that the victory was due to unhoped for assistance.
101 The author contrasts those who had survived the hopeless loss of the island and the unhoped for help with the new generation, people like himself who had experience only of quiet. As to the former, the memory of the loss and the victory stuck in their minds. As to the latter (people of forty-three and under) he laments their deterioration. But there are a few good people still left, very few (he means ãthe salt of the earthä). The rest rush daily into hell.
102. Romans ix. 5. This looks like the original formal ending of the book on the Loss of Britain, now blurred to make it read smoothly into the work, wherewith it is incorporated, just as the Table of Contents at the beginning has been ingeniously interwoven with the prefatory remarks of the same work.