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glasgow archaeological society.

lictis civitatibus muroque celso, iterum premature death, however, saved those
eivibus fugae iterum dispersiones solito who were snatched away by such a
desperabiliores. fate from seeing the miserable tortures

[Tithicam, or, as other editions have and swift destruction of their brethren
it, Cichicam, is probably a mistake for and children. What more? Leaving
Theticam, i.e., the sea.] the cities and the high wall, they

were again scattered in flight more
hopeless than before.

The writer of the rubric referred to in note on p. 17, supra, gives full parti-
culars of the situation of this stone wall.

Mon. Hist. Brit., I., 5. How the Britons again sought the

Quomodo Britones rursum Roma- help of the Romans and how the
norum solatium repetierunt et qualiter Romans excused themselves, but at
Romani sese excusaverunt sed tamen last proceeded to commend to them
laudare et monere coeperunt ut murum and advise the making of a wall from
a mari ad mare facerent: quod et fece- sea to sea, which they made accordingly,
runt a mari Norwagiae usque ad mare from the Sea of Norway [North Sea] to
Gallwadiae per octo pedes latum et the Sea of Galloway [the Solway], 8
duodecim altum et turres per intervalla feet broad and 12 feet high, and con-
construxerunt eo in loco ubi Severus strueted towers at"intervals in the place
imperator maximam fossam firmissim- where the Emperor Severus had for-
umque vallum crebris insuper turribus merly made a very great fosse, and a
communitum per cxxxii. millia passuum very strong vallum fortified with nume-
longe ante fecerat, id est, a villa quae rous towers upon it, 132 miles long—
Anglice Wallesende dicitur Latine vero that is, from the town, called in English
" caput muri" interpretantur quae est Wallesende, but in Latin signifying
juxta Tinemutthe : qui murus multum "caput muri," which is near Tyne-
distat a praefato vallo apud meridiem mouth, which wall is a long way south
quod antea apud Kair Eden supra mare of the before-mentioned vallum which
Scotiae constituerunt. they made before at Carriden on the

sea of Scotland.

From Gildas we pass to Bede.

The venerable Bede, in his studies of early British history, had
before him the Eutropian account of the work attributed to
Severus, and that of Gildas about the unlocalised earthen
rampart followed by the wall of stone. It is curious to note the
change in the character of Bede's statements on the subject. His
" Chronicon," or book concerning the six ages of the world, was
written in a.d. 725, whilst his " Ecclesiastical History of the
English People" was not finished, at least, until 731. In the
" Chronicon," in his account of the reign of Severus, he appears1

1Bede, Chronicon de Sex Aetatibus
Saeculi (ed. Stevenson, 1841, ii., p. 174).
Mon. Hist. Brit., L, 87.

Clodio Albino qui se in Gallia Caesarem
fecerat apud Lugdunum interfecto Seve-
rus in Britannias bellum transfert, ubi
ut receptas provincias ab incursione
barbarica faceret securiores magnam
fossam firmissimumque vallum crebris
insuper turribus communitum per cxxxii.
millia passuum a mari usque ad mare
duxit et Eburaci obiit.

Clodius Albinus, who had made him-
self Caesar in Gaul, having been slain
at Lyons, Severus carried the war across
into the British islands, where, in order
to make the annexed provinces more
secure from barbarian incursion, he
drew a great ditch and a very strong
vallum, fortified with numerous towers
upon it, for 132 miles, from sea to sea,
and he died at York. [This passage is
an obvious copy of the Eutropian
account. ]