The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon : a history of the early inhabitants of Britain, down to the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, illustrated by the ancient remains brought to light by recent research / by Thomas Wright ; with numerous engravings on wood.

  • Thomas Wright
Date:
1902
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon : a history of the early inhabitants of Britain, down to the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, illustrated by the ancient remains brought to light by recent research / by Thomas Wright ; with numerous engravings on wood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    chap, xiv.] RAVAGES OF THE BARBARIANS. against the assailants. It was a parallel story to that of the destruction of Camulodunum by the fierce troops of Boadicea. It is also worthy of remark, that all the Homan towns on the Welsh border to the north of Gloucester were destroyed, appar- ently, before the period of the Saxon invasion. Such are the slight and rather vague notions we can form of what took place in Britain after the cities Avere left to take care of themselves. It was not an independent state, but a number of small independent republics, which of course had a common interest against invaders, but which would most pro- bably be soon divided into hostile confederacies amongst them- selves. In these intestine wars, the prevalence ol Teutonic blood in the population of so many of the towns would naturally lead them to call in Teutonic allies, and we can thus easily understand how Angles and Saxons were gradually establishing themselves on the eastern and south-eastern coasts, while the western districts were harassed by continual invasions of Piets and Scots. The only allusion to these events by a contem- porary writer is found in the Chronicle of Prosper of Aquitaine, about A. D. 455, who states that in the eighteenth year of the reign of Theodosius the Younger (a. d. 441), Britain, after many slaughters and revolutions, was reduced under the rule of the Saxons.* The period which intervened, left a blank bv contemporary annalists, was at a later period filled up with fable. According to the tract which goes under the name of Gildas, when Maximus carried with him the soldiery of Britain to establish his usurpa- tion in Gaul, he left the island not only destitute of military, but without men capable of bearing arms, and it Avas thus exposed in a state of helplessness to the attacks of the bar- barians. The British soldiers and youths, Ave are told, never again returned, and ‘ for many years ’ the Britons groaned under the cruel oppressions of the Piets and Scots.f At length, their power of forbearance being exhausted, they sent an embassy to Rome, offering as suppliants to submit to the authority of the emperor if he Avould render them assistance. In his compassion for their sad condition, the emperor forgot their past rebellion, and sent a legion to help them, Avho * Britannire usque ad hoc tempus variis cladibus eventibusque lataj, in. ditionem Saxonum rediguntur. f Exinde Britannia, omni armato milite, militaribusque copiis, rectori- bus linquitur immanibus, ingenti juventute spoliata, quse comitata vesti- giis supradicti tyranni domum nunquam ultra rediit, &c.—Gildas, § 14.