[776]. Strabo calculated it at not less than one legion, the cost of which establishment could hardly fail to swallow up all the profit. Νυνὶ μέντοι τῶν δυναστῶν τινες τῶν αὐτόθι, πρεσβεύσεσι καὶ θεραπείαις κατασκευασάμενοι τὴν πρὸς Καίσαρα τὸν Σεβαστὸν Φιλίαν, ἀναθήματα τε ἀνέθηκαν ἐν τῷ Καπετωλίῷ, καὶ οἰκείαν σχεδόν τι παρεσκεύασαν τοῖς Ῥωμαίοις ὅλην τὴν νῆσον· τέλη τε οὔπως ὑπομένουσι βαρέα τῶν τε εἰσαγομένων εἰς τὴν Κελτικὴν ἐκεῖθεν καὶ τῶν ἐξαγομένων ἐνθένδε (ταῦτα δ’ ἐστὶν ἐλεφάντινα ψάλια, καὶ περιαυχένια, καὶ λυγγούρια, καὶ ὑαλᾶ σκεύη, καὶ ἄλλος ῥῶπος τοιοῦτος) ὥστε μηδὲν δεῖν φροιρᾶς τῆς νήσου· τοὐλάχιστον μὲν γὰρ ἑνὸς τάγματος χρήζοι ἂν καὶ ἱππικοῦ τινος, ὥστε καὶ φόρους ἀπάγεσθαι παρ’ αὐτῶν· εἰς ἴσον δὲ καθίστατο πᾶν τὸ ἀνάλωμα τῆ στρατιᾷ τοῖς προσφερομένοις χρήμασιν· ἀνάγκη γὰρ μειοῦσθαι τὰ τέλη φόρων ἐπιβαλλομένων, ἅμα δὲ καὶ κινδύνους ἀπαντᾶν τινας, βιὰς ἐπαγομένης. Geogr. lib. iv. cap. 5, § 3.
[777]. “Augendi propagandique imperii neque voluntate ulla neque spe motus unquam, etiam ex Britannia deducere exercitum cogitavit: nec nisi verecundia, ne obtrectare parentis gloriae videretur, destitit.” Sueton. vi. 18.
[778]. We may leave those, if any such there be, who still think Geoffrey of Monmouth an authority, to cite his proofs that Dynwall Moelmwd flourished four centuries before Christ; and that the Mercian laws of Offa, quoted by Ælfred, were those of the British, princess Marcia.
[779]. Gildas probably wrote within two centuries of the time when the Romans left Britain. Two hundred years it is true offer a large margin for imagination, especially when it is Keltic, and employed about national history: but Gildas’s report, credible in itself, is confirmed by other evidence.
[780]. Gild. Hist. xiv.
[781]. Ibid. xxii.
[782]. Gild. Hist. xxvi. Foreign wars, those of the Britons and Saxons;—Civil wars, those of the Britons among themselves; perhaps those of the Saxon kings.
[783]. “Nam laniant seipsos mutuo, nec pro exigui victus brevi sustentaculo miserrimorum civium latrocinando temperabant: et augebantur extraneae clades domesticis motibus, quo et huiusmodi crebris direptionibus vacuaretur omnis regio totius cibi baculo, excepto venatoriae artis solatio.” Gild. xix. Half a century in an unexhausted soil is ample time to convert the most nourishing district into thick brushwood and impervious bush. Beech and fir, which, though said by Strabo to be not indigenous, must have been plentiful in the fifth century, do not require fifty years to become large trees: the elm, alder and even oak are well-sized growths at that age. Even thorn, maple and bramble with such a course before them are very capable of making an imposing wilderness of underwood.
[784]. Æðelweard says of the Romans: “Urbes etiam atque castella, necnon pontes plateasque mirabili ingenio condiderunt, quae usque in hodiernam diem videntur.” Chron. lib. i. And William of Malmesbury argues how greatly the Romans valued Britain from the vast remains of their buildings extant when he wrote. “Romani Britanniam ... magna dignatione coluere; ut et in annalibus legere, et in veterum aedificiorum vestigiis est videre.” Gest. Reg. lib. i. cp. 1. The following is his account of the state in which the island was left: “Ita cum tyranni nullum in agris praeter semibarbaros, nullum in urbibus praeter ventri deditos reliquissent, Britannia omni patrocinio iuvenilis vigoris viduata, omni exercitio artium exinanita, conterminarum gentium inhiationi diu obnoxia fuit. Siquidem, e vestigio, Scottorum et Pictorum incursione multi mortales caesi, villae succensae, urbes sub-rutae, prorsus omnia ferro incendioque vastata; turbati insulani, qui omnia tutiora putarent quam praelio decernere, partim pedibus salutem quaerentes fuga in montana contendunt, partim sepultis thesauris, quorum plerique in hac aetate defodiuntur, Romam ad petendas suppetias intendunt.” Gest. Reg. lib. i. cap. 2, 3. But Rome had then enough to do to defend herself, for those were the days of Alaric and Attila. The emptying the island of all the fighting men by Maximus is a very ancient fiction. Archbishop Usher makes him carry over to the continent thirty thousand soldiers, and one hundred thousand plebeii, which have settled in Armorica. Antiq. Eccles. Brittan. pp. 107, 108. We may admit the number of the soldiery; the Roman force, with the levies, probably amounted to as many. But who were the plebeii? Beda gives a similar account of the condition of Britain: “Exin Brittania, in parte Brittonum, omni armato milite, militaribus copiis universis, tota floridae iuventutis alacritate, spoliata, quae tyrannorum temeritate abducta nusquam ultra domum rediit, praedae tantum patuit, utpote omnis bellici usus prorsus ignara.” Hist. Eccl. i. 12. cf. Gild. xiv.
[785]. According to him, the Britons suffered the Picts to pull them off the wall with long-hooks. “Statuitur ad haec in edito arcis acies, segnis ad pugnam, inhabilis ad fugam, trementibus praecordiis inepta, quae diebus ac noctibus stupido sedili marcebat. Interea non cessant uncinata nudorum tela, quibus miserrimi cives de muris tracti solo allidebantur.” Gild. xix. Beda copies this statement almost verbatim. Hist. Eccl. i. 12.