On The Ruin of Britain (De Excidio Britanniae) by Gildas
Previous page of The History
5. For when the rulers of Rome had obtained the empire of the
world, subdued all the neighbouring nations and islands towards
the east, and strengthened their renown by the first peace which
they made with the Parthians, who border on India, there was a
general cessation from war throughout the whole world; the fierce
flame which they kindled could not be extinguished or checked by
the Western Ocean, but passing beyond the sea, imposed submission
upon our island without resistance, and entirely reduced to
obedience its unwarlike but faithless people, not so much by fire
and sword and warlike engines, like other nations, but threats
alone, and menaces of judgments frowning on their countenance,
whilst terror penetrated to their hearts.
6. When afterwards they returned to Rome, for want of pay, as
is said, and had no suspicion of an approaching rebellion, that
deceitful lioness (Boadicea) put to death the rulers who had been
left among them, to unfold more fully and to confirm the enterprises
of the Romans. When the report of these things reached the senate,
and they with a speedy army made haste to take vengeance on the
crafty foxes,* as they called them, there was no bold navy on
the sea to fight bravely for the country; by land there was no
marshalled army, no right wing of battle, nor other preparation
for resistance; but their backs were their shields against their
vanquishers, and they presented their necks to their swords, whilst
chill terror ran through every limb, and they stretched out their
hands to be bound, like women; so that it has become a proverb
far and wide, that the Britons are neither brave in war nor faithful
in time of peace.
* The Britons who fought under Boadicea were anything but "crafty
foxes." "Bold lions" is a much more appropriate appellation; they
would also have been victorious if they had half the military
advantages of the Romans.
7. The Romans, therefore, having slain many of the rebels, and
reserved others for slaves, that the land might not be entirely
reduced to desolation, left the island, destitute as it was of
wine and oil, and returned to Italy, leaving behind them taskmasters,
to scourge the shoulders of the natives, to reduce their necks to
the yoke, and their soil to the vassalage of a Roman province;
to chastise the crafty race, not with warlike weapons, but with
rods, and if necessary to gird upon their sides the naked sword,
so that it was no longer thought to be Britain, but a Roman island;
and all their money, whether of copper, gold, or silver, was
stamped with Caesar's image.
8. Meanwhile these islands, stiff with cold and frost, and in a
distant region of the world, remote from the visible sun, received
the beams of light, that is, the holy precepts of Christ, the true
Sun, showing to the whole world his splendour, not only from the
temporal firmament, but from the height of heaven, which surpasses
every thing temporal, at the latter part, as we know, of the reign
of Tiberius Caesar, by whom his religion was propagated without
impediment, and death threatened to those who interfered with its
professors.
Previous page of The History
Next page of The History
