DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22272#0035
THE ANTONINE WALL REPORT.
17
edition (Berlin, 1894) in Monnmenta
Historiea Germaniae.
[Gens igitur Britonum, Scotornm Pic-
torumque impetum non ferens], ob
quarum infestationem ac durissimam
depressionem, legatos Romam cum
epistolis mittit, militarem manum ad
se vindicandam lacrimosis postula-
tionibus poscens et subjeetionem sui
Romano imperio continue tota animi
virtute, si hostis longius arceretur,
vovens. Cui mox destinatur legio
praeteriti mali immemor, sufficienter
armis instrueta. Quae ratibus trans
oceanum in patriam advecta et cominus
cum gravibus hostibus congressa mag-
namque ex eis multitudinem sternens
et omnes e fioibus depulit, et subjectos
cives tam atroci dilaceratione ex immi-
nent ca,ptivitate liberavit: quos jussit
construere inter duo maria trans insulam
murum ut esset arceudis hostibus turba
mstructus terrori civibusque tutamini.
Qui vulgo irrationabili absque rectore
f actus non tam lapidibus quam cespitibus
non profuit.
oppression, send deputies with letters
to Rome asking, with tearful demands,
a band of soldiers to assist them, and
promising them complete and single-
minded submission to the Roman empire
for the time to come if the enemy were
driven off. Forthwith, a legion, un-
mindful of the evil past, duly furnished
with arms, is directed to them, which
legion, having been carried across the
ocean in ships, at once engaged with
the pestilent enemy, laid low a great
multitude of them, drove them all away
from the frontiers, and set free the
people from the slavery that threatened
them, and from such atrocious harass-
ment. The legion enjoined them to
construct between the two seas across
the island a wall which, maimed by a
garrison, would be a terror to restrain
the enemy and a bulwark to the people.
But this wall, being made without an
architect, not so much made with stones
as with sods, was of no use to that
irrational people.
The text of Gildas contains no direct statement enablino- us to
say positively that the wall " made rather of sods than stone " to
which he refers was our northern wall or the vallum of the
North English barrier. It leaves the locality quite indefinite.
It is true that there is one MS. of Gildas with a series of rubrics which
interpret the last-quoted passage as referring to a northern wall, but these rubrics
are evidently of post-Bedan origin. See Mon. Hist. Brit., I., 4. The text of the
rubric, relative to the chapter of Gildas transcribed supra, is as follows :—
Mon. Hist. Brit., I., 5.
Qualiter Britones arctati a Scotis et
Pietis pro Romano miserint auxilio et
obtinuerint: et quale consilium Romani
eis dederint; videlicet ut inter duo maria
murum per millia passuum plurima
trans insulam instruerent a mari Scotiae
usque ad mare Hiberniae id est a Kair
Eden, civitas antiquissima, duorum
ferine millimn spatio a monasterio
Abercurnig, quod nunc vocatur Aber-
corn ad oecidentem tendons contra
occidentem juxta urbem Alcluth: at
insulani murum non tam lapidibus quam
cespitibus construentes ad nihilum
utilein statuunt; quia statim Romania
repatriantibus iterum ab ipsis impug-
nati sunt.
How the Britons, hard pressed by
the Picts and Scots, sent for help from
Rome and obtained it; and what
counsel the Romans gave them, viz.,
that they should build a wall between
the two seas for many miles across the
island from the sea of Scotland [Firth
of Forth] to the sea of Ireland [Firth of
Clyde], that is, from Kair Eden [Carri-
den], a most ancient city about two
miles distant from the monastery of
Abercurnig, now called Abercorn, ex-
tending westward to the city of Alcluth ;
but the islanders building the wall not
so much with stones as with sods made
it to no purpose, because as soon as the
Romans returned to their own country
they were attacked anew by these Picts
and Scots.
Gildas himself is not any more definite concerning the position
B
17
edition (Berlin, 1894) in Monnmenta
Historiea Germaniae.
[Gens igitur Britonum, Scotornm Pic-
torumque impetum non ferens], ob
quarum infestationem ac durissimam
depressionem, legatos Romam cum
epistolis mittit, militarem manum ad
se vindicandam lacrimosis postula-
tionibus poscens et subjeetionem sui
Romano imperio continue tota animi
virtute, si hostis longius arceretur,
vovens. Cui mox destinatur legio
praeteriti mali immemor, sufficienter
armis instrueta. Quae ratibus trans
oceanum in patriam advecta et cominus
cum gravibus hostibus congressa mag-
namque ex eis multitudinem sternens
et omnes e fioibus depulit, et subjectos
cives tam atroci dilaceratione ex immi-
nent ca,ptivitate liberavit: quos jussit
construere inter duo maria trans insulam
murum ut esset arceudis hostibus turba
mstructus terrori civibusque tutamini.
Qui vulgo irrationabili absque rectore
f actus non tam lapidibus quam cespitibus
non profuit.
oppression, send deputies with letters
to Rome asking, with tearful demands,
a band of soldiers to assist them, and
promising them complete and single-
minded submission to the Roman empire
for the time to come if the enemy were
driven off. Forthwith, a legion, un-
mindful of the evil past, duly furnished
with arms, is directed to them, which
legion, having been carried across the
ocean in ships, at once engaged with
the pestilent enemy, laid low a great
multitude of them, drove them all away
from the frontiers, and set free the
people from the slavery that threatened
them, and from such atrocious harass-
ment. The legion enjoined them to
construct between the two seas across
the island a wall which, maimed by a
garrison, would be a terror to restrain
the enemy and a bulwark to the people.
But this wall, being made without an
architect, not so much made with stones
as with sods, was of no use to that
irrational people.
The text of Gildas contains no direct statement enablino- us to
say positively that the wall " made rather of sods than stone " to
which he refers was our northern wall or the vallum of the
North English barrier. It leaves the locality quite indefinite.
It is true that there is one MS. of Gildas with a series of rubrics which
interpret the last-quoted passage as referring to a northern wall, but these rubrics
are evidently of post-Bedan origin. See Mon. Hist. Brit., I., 4. The text of the
rubric, relative to the chapter of Gildas transcribed supra, is as follows :—
Mon. Hist. Brit., I., 5.
Qualiter Britones arctati a Scotis et
Pietis pro Romano miserint auxilio et
obtinuerint: et quale consilium Romani
eis dederint; videlicet ut inter duo maria
murum per millia passuum plurima
trans insulam instruerent a mari Scotiae
usque ad mare Hiberniae id est a Kair
Eden, civitas antiquissima, duorum
ferine millimn spatio a monasterio
Abercurnig, quod nunc vocatur Aber-
corn ad oecidentem tendons contra
occidentem juxta urbem Alcluth: at
insulani murum non tam lapidibus quam
cespitibus construentes ad nihilum
utilein statuunt; quia statim Romania
repatriantibus iterum ab ipsis impug-
nati sunt.
How the Britons, hard pressed by
the Picts and Scots, sent for help from
Rome and obtained it; and what
counsel the Romans gave them, viz.,
that they should build a wall between
the two seas for many miles across the
island from the sea of Scotland [Firth
of Forth] to the sea of Ireland [Firth of
Clyde], that is, from Kair Eden [Carri-
den], a most ancient city about two
miles distant from the monastery of
Abercurnig, now called Abercorn, ex-
tending westward to the city of Alcluth ;
but the islanders building the wall not
so much with stones as with sods made
it to no purpose, because as soon as the
Romans returned to their own country
they were attacked anew by these Picts
and Scots.
Gildas himself is not any more definite concerning the position
B