DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22272#0036
18
GLASGOW ARCH/EOLOfJICAL SOCIETY.
of the stone wall which, according to him, was erected by the
Romans, with native British assistance, after the Britons had a
second time made piteous application for help against the terrible
Pict and Scot—an application to which, for the last time, Rome
had responded by sending an expedition. But, as regards this
second wall, built " not like the other" but " in the ordinary
manner of building," the fact of there being only one frontier
wall of stone known to history removes all possible questions
about its site. The story of Gildas concerning the stone wall is
so closely connected with his version of the construction of the
earlier rampart of earth that we make no excuse for appending
a quotation.
Gildas, cap. xiii., xiv. Mem. Hist.
Brit., I., 10-11.
xiii. Ilia [legione] cum triumpho
maguo et gaudio domum repedante, illi
priores inimici ac si ambrones lupi
profunda fame rabidi, siccis faucibus
ovile transilientes non comparente
pastore alis remorum remigumque
brachiis ac velis vento sinuatis vecti,
terminos rumpunt caediintque omnia
et quaeque obvia maturam ceu segetcm
raetunt, calcant, transeunt.
xiv. Iterumque mittuntur queruli le-
gati, scissis, ut dicitur, vestibus oper-
tisque sablone capitibus, impetrantes a
Romanis auxilia ac veluti timidi pulli
patrum fidissimis alis succumbentes,
ne penitus misera patria deleretur,
nomenque Romanum quod verbis tan-
tum apud eos auribus resultabat, vel
exterarum gentium opprobrio obrosum
vilesceret. At illi quantum humanae
natune possibile " est, commoti tantae
historia tragoediae volatus ceu aquil-
arum equitum in terra nautarum in
mari cursus accelerantes inopinatos
primum, tandem terribiles inimicorum
eervicibus infigunt mucronum ungues.
. . . Aemulorum agmina auxiliatores
egregii si qua tamen evadere potuerant
propere trans maria fugaverunt; quia
anniversarias a vide praedas nullo obsis-
tente trans maria exaggerabant. Igitur
Romani patria reversi denuntiantes
nequaquam se tarn laboriosis expedi-
tionibus posse frequentius vexari et
ob imbelles erraticosque latrunculos
Romana stigmata, tantum talemquc
exercitum, terra ac mari fatigari: sed
xiii. On that legion [which had come
inresponseto thefirst legation]returning
home with great triumph and rejoicing,
the former enemies [i.e., the Picts and
Scots] like devouring wolves mad with
extreme hunger, rushing with thirsty
jaws upon the sheepfold without a
shepherd, and borne both by the winged
oars and the arms of oarsmen, and by
their sails bent by the wind, break
through the bounds and slay on all
sides, they cut down like ripe corn,
trample under foot and overrun what-
ever comes in their way.
xiv. And again deputies are sent to
complain, with rent garments, as it is
said, and their heads covered with dust,
imploring help from the Romans, and,
like timorous chickens, crouching
under the faithful wings of the
senate lest their miserable country
should be utterly destroyed and the
Roman name, which was becoming
only a sound in their ears, become a
word of reproach even in the mouths
of foreign nations. Whereupon the
Romans, moved, as far as human nature
can be, by the narrative of such a
tragedy, hasten like the flight of
eagles the despatch of their scarce
hoped for troops of horse on land and
mariners by sea,, and at last fix the
terrible points of their swords in
the necks of the enemy. . . Our
wonderful allies put to flight the
armies of our enemies, driving them, if
any chanced to escape, swiftly across
the seas—because it was across the seas
that they had greedily stored the
plunder which, year by year, they had
taken when there was no one there to
GLASGOW ARCH/EOLOfJICAL SOCIETY.
of the stone wall which, according to him, was erected by the
Romans, with native British assistance, after the Britons had a
second time made piteous application for help against the terrible
Pict and Scot—an application to which, for the last time, Rome
had responded by sending an expedition. But, as regards this
second wall, built " not like the other" but " in the ordinary
manner of building," the fact of there being only one frontier
wall of stone known to history removes all possible questions
about its site. The story of Gildas concerning the stone wall is
so closely connected with his version of the construction of the
earlier rampart of earth that we make no excuse for appending
a quotation.
Gildas, cap. xiii., xiv. Mem. Hist.
Brit., I., 10-11.
xiii. Ilia [legione] cum triumpho
maguo et gaudio domum repedante, illi
priores inimici ac si ambrones lupi
profunda fame rabidi, siccis faucibus
ovile transilientes non comparente
pastore alis remorum remigumque
brachiis ac velis vento sinuatis vecti,
terminos rumpunt caediintque omnia
et quaeque obvia maturam ceu segetcm
raetunt, calcant, transeunt.
xiv. Iterumque mittuntur queruli le-
gati, scissis, ut dicitur, vestibus oper-
tisque sablone capitibus, impetrantes a
Romanis auxilia ac veluti timidi pulli
patrum fidissimis alis succumbentes,
ne penitus misera patria deleretur,
nomenque Romanum quod verbis tan-
tum apud eos auribus resultabat, vel
exterarum gentium opprobrio obrosum
vilesceret. At illi quantum humanae
natune possibile " est, commoti tantae
historia tragoediae volatus ceu aquil-
arum equitum in terra nautarum in
mari cursus accelerantes inopinatos
primum, tandem terribiles inimicorum
eervicibus infigunt mucronum ungues.
. . . Aemulorum agmina auxiliatores
egregii si qua tamen evadere potuerant
propere trans maria fugaverunt; quia
anniversarias a vide praedas nullo obsis-
tente trans maria exaggerabant. Igitur
Romani patria reversi denuntiantes
nequaquam se tarn laboriosis expedi-
tionibus posse frequentius vexari et
ob imbelles erraticosque latrunculos
Romana stigmata, tantum talemquc
exercitum, terra ac mari fatigari: sed
xiii. On that legion [which had come
inresponseto thefirst legation]returning
home with great triumph and rejoicing,
the former enemies [i.e., the Picts and
Scots] like devouring wolves mad with
extreme hunger, rushing with thirsty
jaws upon the sheepfold without a
shepherd, and borne both by the winged
oars and the arms of oarsmen, and by
their sails bent by the wind, break
through the bounds and slay on all
sides, they cut down like ripe corn,
trample under foot and overrun what-
ever comes in their way.
xiv. And again deputies are sent to
complain, with rent garments, as it is
said, and their heads covered with dust,
imploring help from the Romans, and,
like timorous chickens, crouching
under the faithful wings of the
senate lest their miserable country
should be utterly destroyed and the
Roman name, which was becoming
only a sound in their ears, become a
word of reproach even in the mouths
of foreign nations. Whereupon the
Romans, moved, as far as human nature
can be, by the narrative of such a
tragedy, hasten like the flight of
eagles the despatch of their scarce
hoped for troops of horse on land and
mariners by sea,, and at last fix the
terrible points of their swords in
the necks of the enemy. . . Our
wonderful allies put to flight the
armies of our enemies, driving them, if
any chanced to escape, swiftly across
the seas—because it was across the seas
that they had greedily stored the
plunder which, year by year, they had
taken when there was no one there to