DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22272#0041
the antonine wall KEPOltT.
23
that he does not in direct terms say where the vallum was
situated, leaving that to be inferred from a subsequent passage1
in his work.
As regards the position of the first or earth wall of Gildas,
erected, according to that author, after the "first embassy, or about
a.d. 414, Bede is more specific. Still following Gildas as regards
the circumstances of its erection, he adds material statements of
his own about it.2 It was a very broad and very high vallum:
aestimant sed vallo distinguendam the force of the enemy, is made of sods
putavit. Mnrus etenim de lapidibus which are cut from the ground and
vallum vero quo ad repellendam vim built high above the earth like a wall,
hostium castra muniuntur, fit de ces- so that it has in front of it the fosse
pitibus, quibus circumcisis e terra velut from which the sods were taken, upon
murus extruitur altus supra terram ita which stakes of the strongest wood are
ut in ante sit fossa de qua levati sunt fixed pointing forward. Thus Severus
cespites supra quam sudes de lignis drew from sea to sea a great fosse and
fortissimis praefiguntur. Itaque Severus a very strong vallum fortified with
magnam fossam firmissimumque vallum numerous towers upon it. In that
crebris insuper turribus conmunitum vicinity at the city of York he died
a mari ad mare duxit. Ibique apud from disease.
Eboracum oppidum morbo obiit.
The passages borrowed from Vegetius are from lib. i., cap. 24—"Caespites cir-
cumciduntur e terra et ex his velut murus instruitur aitus [tribus pedibus] supra
terram ita ut in ante sit fossa de qua levati sunt caespites . . . supra quam
sudes de lignis fortissimis . . . praefiguntur." For full text see p. 30, infra.
1 Quoted infra, next note.
2 Bede, Hist. Eccl., i., cap. 12. Mon. On account, therefore, of the enmity of
Hist. Brit., I., 118. these races the Britons, sending deputies
Ob harum ergo infestationem gentium to Romewith lettersand tearful prayers,
Brettones legatos Romam cum epistulis implored help and promised perpetual
mittentes lacrimosis precibus auxilia submission if the threatening enemy
flagitabant subjectionemque continuam were driven off. An armed legion was
dummodo hostis imminens longius at once sent to them, which, when it
arceretur promittebant. Quibus mox had been transported to the island and
legio destinatur armata quae ubi had engaged with the enemy, laying low
insulam advecta et congressa est cum a great multitude of them, drove the
hostibus magnam eorum multitudinem rest out of the bounds of the allies and
sternens ceteros sociorum finibus exhorted them, thus set free for the time
expulit: eosque interim a dirissima from the direst oppression, to construct
depressione liberates hortata est across the island between the two seas a
instruere inter duo maria trans insulam wall which might serve as a protection to
murum qui arcendis hostibus posset them for curbing the enemy, and thus
esse praesidio: sicque domum cum they returned home in great triumph,
triumpho magno reversa est. At But the islanders building the wall
insulam murum quern jussi fuerant non which they had been ordered to erect
tarn lapidibus quam cespitibus eon- did so not so much of stone as of sods,
struentes utpote nullum tanti operis with the result that, having no architect
artificem habentes ad nihil utilem for so great a work, they built it to no
statuunt. Fecerunt autem eum inter purpose. However, they made it
duo freta vel sinus de quibus diximus between two firths or bays of the sea of
maris per milia passuum plurima : ut which we have spoken, for many miles,
ubi aquarum munitio deerat ibi praesidio so that where the defence of water was
valli fines suos ab hostium inruptione lacking there they might by the help
23
that he does not in direct terms say where the vallum was
situated, leaving that to be inferred from a subsequent passage1
in his work.
As regards the position of the first or earth wall of Gildas,
erected, according to that author, after the "first embassy, or about
a.d. 414, Bede is more specific. Still following Gildas as regards
the circumstances of its erection, he adds material statements of
his own about it.2 It was a very broad and very high vallum:
aestimant sed vallo distinguendam the force of the enemy, is made of sods
putavit. Mnrus etenim de lapidibus which are cut from the ground and
vallum vero quo ad repellendam vim built high above the earth like a wall,
hostium castra muniuntur, fit de ces- so that it has in front of it the fosse
pitibus, quibus circumcisis e terra velut from which the sods were taken, upon
murus extruitur altus supra terram ita which stakes of the strongest wood are
ut in ante sit fossa de qua levati sunt fixed pointing forward. Thus Severus
cespites supra quam sudes de lignis drew from sea to sea a great fosse and
fortissimis praefiguntur. Itaque Severus a very strong vallum fortified with
magnam fossam firmissimumque vallum numerous towers upon it. In that
crebris insuper turribus conmunitum vicinity at the city of York he died
a mari ad mare duxit. Ibique apud from disease.
Eboracum oppidum morbo obiit.
The passages borrowed from Vegetius are from lib. i., cap. 24—"Caespites cir-
cumciduntur e terra et ex his velut murus instruitur aitus [tribus pedibus] supra
terram ita ut in ante sit fossa de qua levati sunt caespites . . . supra quam
sudes de lignis fortissimis . . . praefiguntur." For full text see p. 30, infra.
1 Quoted infra, next note.
2 Bede, Hist. Eccl., i., cap. 12. Mon. On account, therefore, of the enmity of
Hist. Brit., I., 118. these races the Britons, sending deputies
Ob harum ergo infestationem gentium to Romewith lettersand tearful prayers,
Brettones legatos Romam cum epistulis implored help and promised perpetual
mittentes lacrimosis precibus auxilia submission if the threatening enemy
flagitabant subjectionemque continuam were driven off. An armed legion was
dummodo hostis imminens longius at once sent to them, which, when it
arceretur promittebant. Quibus mox had been transported to the island and
legio destinatur armata quae ubi had engaged with the enemy, laying low
insulam advecta et congressa est cum a great multitude of them, drove the
hostibus magnam eorum multitudinem rest out of the bounds of the allies and
sternens ceteros sociorum finibus exhorted them, thus set free for the time
expulit: eosque interim a dirissima from the direst oppression, to construct
depressione liberates hortata est across the island between the two seas a
instruere inter duo maria trans insulam wall which might serve as a protection to
murum qui arcendis hostibus posset them for curbing the enemy, and thus
esse praesidio: sicque domum cum they returned home in great triumph,
triumpho magno reversa est. At But the islanders building the wall
insulam murum quern jussi fuerant non which they had been ordered to erect
tarn lapidibus quam cespitibus eon- did so not so much of stone as of sods,
struentes utpote nullum tanti operis with the result that, having no architect
artificem habentes ad nihil utilem for so great a work, they built it to no
statuunt. Fecerunt autem eum inter purpose. However, they made it
duo freta vel sinus de quibus diximus between two firths or bays of the sea of
maris per milia passuum plurima : ut which we have spoken, for many miles,
ubi aquarum munitio deerat ibi praesidio so that where the defence of water was
valli fines suos ab hostium inruptione lacking there they might by the help