DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22272#0039
THE ANTONLNE WALL REPORT.
21
to have adopted the account which begins with Eutropius and
the Epitome of Aurelius in a paragraph which ascribes to
Severus the making of a vallum 132 miles long. As to the precise
whereabouts of this vallum, he is absolutely silent. In his
account of the reign of Honorius,1 he similarly restricts himself
to a bare condensed quotation of Gildas concerning the succes-
sive walls, the first of turf and the second of stone. In neither
case does he add a word of comment to the text he follows, thus
leaving the geography of the walls as indefinite as he had found
it in his authorities.
But when, some years later, Bede wrote his " Ecclesiastical
History," he had possibly considered more or less the whole
problem for himself, and hesitatingly drawn his own conclusions.
The vallum ascribed to Severus he does not formally locate, but
he expressly places Gildas' turf wall between the Forth and the
Clyde. As for Gildas' stone wall—a wall, says he, " to this day
famous and seen from afar, 8 feet broad and 12 feet high"—he
says it was raised " where Severus had formerly made a vallum,"
1 Bede, De Sex Aetatibns Saeculi
(Stevenson ii., p. 186). Mon. Hist.
Brit., I., 93.
Britanni Scottorum Pictorumque in-
festationem non ferentes Romam
mittunt et sni subjectione promissa
contra hostem auxilia flagitant, quibus
statim missa legio magnam barbarorum
multitudinem sternit, caeteros Brit-
taniae finibus pellit ac domum reversura
praeeepit soeiis ad arcendos hostes
murmn trans insulam inter duo maria
statuere qui absque artifice magistro
magis cespite quam lapide factus nil
operantibus profuit. Nam mox ut
discessere Romani advectus navibus
prior hostis quasi maturam segetem
obvia quaequesibi caedit calcat devorat.
Iterum petiti auxilia Romani advolant
et caesum hostem trans maria fugant,
conjunctisque sibi Brittanis murum non
terra ut ante pulvereum sed saxo soli-
dum inter civitates quae ibidem ob
metum hostium fuerant factae a mari
usque ad mare collocant.
[This agrees with Gildas.]
The Britons, unable to endure the
harassing attacks of t he Scots and Picts,
send to Rome, and, with promises of
submission, demand help against the
enemy. A legion, promptly sent, lays
low a great multitude of the barbarians,
drives the rest to the ends of Britain,
and, when on the point of returning
home, left instructions to its [British]
allies, for the purpose of curbing their
enemies, to build a wall across the
island between two seas, which wall,
being made without an architect, more
of sod than of stone, was of no use to
those who made it. For, as soon as the
Romans were gone, the former enemy,
arriving in ships, cut down, trample,
and devour everything that comes in
their way as if it were ripe corn. The
Bomans, a second time applied to, fly to
the assistance of the Britons and drive
the slaughtered enemy across the seas,
and, assisted by the Britons, build a
wall from sea to sea, not as before,
made of the dust of the earth but of
solid stone, connecting the cities which,
in these parts, had been made for fear
of the enemy.
21
to have adopted the account which begins with Eutropius and
the Epitome of Aurelius in a paragraph which ascribes to
Severus the making of a vallum 132 miles long. As to the precise
whereabouts of this vallum, he is absolutely silent. In his
account of the reign of Honorius,1 he similarly restricts himself
to a bare condensed quotation of Gildas concerning the succes-
sive walls, the first of turf and the second of stone. In neither
case does he add a word of comment to the text he follows, thus
leaving the geography of the walls as indefinite as he had found
it in his authorities.
But when, some years later, Bede wrote his " Ecclesiastical
History," he had possibly considered more or less the whole
problem for himself, and hesitatingly drawn his own conclusions.
The vallum ascribed to Severus he does not formally locate, but
he expressly places Gildas' turf wall between the Forth and the
Clyde. As for Gildas' stone wall—a wall, says he, " to this day
famous and seen from afar, 8 feet broad and 12 feet high"—he
says it was raised " where Severus had formerly made a vallum,"
1 Bede, De Sex Aetatibns Saeculi
(Stevenson ii., p. 186). Mon. Hist.
Brit., I., 93.
Britanni Scottorum Pictorumque in-
festationem non ferentes Romam
mittunt et sni subjectione promissa
contra hostem auxilia flagitant, quibus
statim missa legio magnam barbarorum
multitudinem sternit, caeteros Brit-
taniae finibus pellit ac domum reversura
praeeepit soeiis ad arcendos hostes
murmn trans insulam inter duo maria
statuere qui absque artifice magistro
magis cespite quam lapide factus nil
operantibus profuit. Nam mox ut
discessere Romani advectus navibus
prior hostis quasi maturam segetem
obvia quaequesibi caedit calcat devorat.
Iterum petiti auxilia Romani advolant
et caesum hostem trans maria fugant,
conjunctisque sibi Brittanis murum non
terra ut ante pulvereum sed saxo soli-
dum inter civitates quae ibidem ob
metum hostium fuerant factae a mari
usque ad mare collocant.
[This agrees with Gildas.]
The Britons, unable to endure the
harassing attacks of t he Scots and Picts,
send to Rome, and, with promises of
submission, demand help against the
enemy. A legion, promptly sent, lays
low a great multitude of the barbarians,
drives the rest to the ends of Britain,
and, when on the point of returning
home, left instructions to its [British]
allies, for the purpose of curbing their
enemies, to build a wall across the
island between two seas, which wall,
being made without an architect, more
of sod than of stone, was of no use to
those who made it. For, as soon as the
Romans were gone, the former enemy,
arriving in ships, cut down, trample,
and devour everything that comes in
their way as if it were ripe corn. The
Bomans, a second time applied to, fly to
the assistance of the Britons and drive
the slaughtered enemy across the seas,
and, assisted by the Britons, build a
wall from sea to sea, not as before,
made of the dust of the earth but of
solid stone, connecting the cities which,
in these parts, had been made for fear
of the enemy.