3. There is direct evidence in favour of their having been German tribes in England anterior to A.D. 447.—a. At the close of the Marcomannic war,[[7]] Marcus Antoninus transplanted a number of Germans into Britain.
b. Alemannic auxiliaries served along with Roman legions under Valentinian.[[8]]
c. The Notitia utriusque Imperii,[[9]] of which the latest date is half a century earlier than the epoch of Hengist, mentions, as an officer of state, the Comes littoris Saxonici per Britannias; his government extending along the coast from Portsmouth to the Wash.
[§ 5]. Inference.—As it is nearly certain, that 449 A.D. is not the date of the first introduction of German tribes into Britain, we must consider that the displacement of the original British began at an earlier period than the one usually admitted, and, consequently, that it was more gradual than is usually supposed.
Perhaps, if we substitute the middle of the fourth, instead of the middle of the fifth century, as the epoch of the Germanic immigrations into Britain, we shall not be far from the truth.
CHAPTER II.
GERMANIC ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.—THE GERMANIC AREA OF THE PARTICULAR GERMANS WHO INTRODUCED IT.—EXTRACT FROM BEDA.
[§ 6]. Out of the numerous tribes and nations of Germany, three have been more especially mentioned as the chief, if not the exclusive, sources of the present English population of Great Britain. These are the Jutes, the Saxons, and the Angles.