DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22272#0043
THE ANTONINE WALL REPORT.
25
embassy. In other words, he believed that the vallum of Severus
was the earthen rampart across North England, and that it
preceded the great stone wall following the same line.
Of other authorities, there is little purpose to be served
by quoting any except the mysterious work passing under
the name of Nennius, the bulk of which is older than
Bode, though there are many post-Bedan additions. In most
of the manuscripts of the " Historia Britonum" of that
author, mention is made of the murus et agger of Severus in
terms referable to Eutropius,1 containing a vague allusion to
the geographical situation in the statement that it was between
the Britons and the Picts and the Scots,2 and adding only that
the work was known in the speech of the Britons by the name
of Guaul, a word denoting " wall." One or two manuscripts
not only add to this a distinct geographical statement, but
furnish, in other respects, an original contribution to the story of
our wall. Contrary to Bede, this version of the text of Nennius3
1 Compare the passage of Eutropius, supra, with that next quoted, infra.
2 The best MS. of Nennius has (Mon. Hist. Brit., I., 49, 50) a series of capitula
or rubrics which, however, throw no light on this question of geographical
situation : that to the chapter next to be quoted reads thus:—" Qualiter Severus
imperator tertius murum trans Insulam ob ineursionem Pictorum Scotorumque
facere praecepit et illos a Britonibus divisit et ubi postea peremptus est." This
may be contrasted with a later rubric in the same MS. concerning the second
wall:—" De secundo etiam Severo qui solita structura murum alteram ad arcendos
Pictos et Scottos fieri a Tinemuthe usque Boggenes praecepit." There is, however,
in the text itself no reference to the " other wall " from Tynemouth to Bowness
(Mon. Hist. Brit., I., 61).
Nennius, Historia Britonum, cap. 19 Severus was the third emperor who
(ed. Stevenson, 1838, cap. 23). Mon. crossed the sea to the Britons, where,
Hist. Brit., I., 60, with textual correo- in order to make the annexed provinces
tions from Mommsen's edition (Berlin, safer from barbaric incursion, he drew a
1894) in Monumenta Historiea Ger- wall and agger from sea to sea across
maniae. the breadth of Britain, that is for 132
Tertius fuit Severus qui transfretavit miles, and it is called in the British
ad Britannos ; ubi ut receptas provin- speech Guaul. He caused this to be
cias ab incursione barbarica faceret made between the Britons and the
tutiores, murum et aggerem a mari Picts and Scots, because the Scots from
usque ad mare per latitudinem Britan- the west, and the Picts from the north,
nia? id est per cxxxii. millia passuum &c.
deduxit et vocatur Britannico sermone
Guaul. Propterea jussit fieri inter
Brittones et Pictos et Scottos quia
Scotti ab Occidente et Picti ab Aquil-
one, etc., as in next quotation.
3 Nennius, Historia Britonum, cap. 19. Severus was the third emperor who
Mon. Hist. Brit., I., 60. crossed the sea to the Britons, where,
Tertius fuit Severus qui transfretavit in order to make the annexed provinces
25
embassy. In other words, he believed that the vallum of Severus
was the earthen rampart across North England, and that it
preceded the great stone wall following the same line.
Of other authorities, there is little purpose to be served
by quoting any except the mysterious work passing under
the name of Nennius, the bulk of which is older than
Bode, though there are many post-Bedan additions. In most
of the manuscripts of the " Historia Britonum" of that
author, mention is made of the murus et agger of Severus in
terms referable to Eutropius,1 containing a vague allusion to
the geographical situation in the statement that it was between
the Britons and the Picts and the Scots,2 and adding only that
the work was known in the speech of the Britons by the name
of Guaul, a word denoting " wall." One or two manuscripts
not only add to this a distinct geographical statement, but
furnish, in other respects, an original contribution to the story of
our wall. Contrary to Bede, this version of the text of Nennius3
1 Compare the passage of Eutropius, supra, with that next quoted, infra.
2 The best MS. of Nennius has (Mon. Hist. Brit., I., 49, 50) a series of capitula
or rubrics which, however, throw no light on this question of geographical
situation : that to the chapter next to be quoted reads thus:—" Qualiter Severus
imperator tertius murum trans Insulam ob ineursionem Pictorum Scotorumque
facere praecepit et illos a Britonibus divisit et ubi postea peremptus est." This
may be contrasted with a later rubric in the same MS. concerning the second
wall:—" De secundo etiam Severo qui solita structura murum alteram ad arcendos
Pictos et Scottos fieri a Tinemuthe usque Boggenes praecepit." There is, however,
in the text itself no reference to the " other wall " from Tynemouth to Bowness
(Mon. Hist. Brit., I., 61).
Nennius, Historia Britonum, cap. 19 Severus was the third emperor who
(ed. Stevenson, 1838, cap. 23). Mon. crossed the sea to the Britons, where,
Hist. Brit., I., 60, with textual correo- in order to make the annexed provinces
tions from Mommsen's edition (Berlin, safer from barbaric incursion, he drew a
1894) in Monumenta Historiea Ger- wall and agger from sea to sea across
maniae. the breadth of Britain, that is for 132
Tertius fuit Severus qui transfretavit miles, and it is called in the British
ad Britannos ; ubi ut receptas provin- speech Guaul. He caused this to be
cias ab incursione barbarica faceret made between the Britons and the
tutiores, murum et aggerem a mari Picts and Scots, because the Scots from
usque ad mare per latitudinem Britan- the west, and the Picts from the north,
nia? id est per cxxxii. millia passuum &c.
deduxit et vocatur Britannico sermone
Guaul. Propterea jussit fieri inter
Brittones et Pictos et Scottos quia
Scotti ab Occidente et Picti ab Aquil-
one, etc., as in next quotation.
3 Nennius, Historia Britonum, cap. 19. Severus was the third emperor who
Mon. Hist. Brit., I., 60. crossed the sea to the Britons, where,
Tertius fuit Severus qui transfretavit in order to make the annexed provinces