Bolougne-Sur-Mer | Page 8

of the old Roman
encampment. This fact was proved at the time when a tunnelling was
made for the railway from Boulogne to Calais under Haute Ville
("Dictionnaire Historique et Archeologique du Pas de Calais," vol. i, p.
22). The circuit of the present fortifications, about 700 yards square,
present to-day the appearance pf the old Roman encampment. "The
camp of a Roman legion," writes Gibbon, "presented all the
appearance of a fortified city. As soon as the place was marked out, the
pioneers carefully levelled the ground and removed every impediment
that might interrupt its perfect regularity. It forms an exact quadrangle,
and we might calculate that a square of 700 yards was sufficient for the
encampment of 20,000 Romans, though a similar number of our troops
would expose to an enemy a front of more than treble its extent. In the

midst of the camp the pretorium, or general's quarters, rose above the
others; the cavalry, the infantry, and the auxiliaries occupied their
respective stations; the streets were broad and straight, and a vacant of
200 feet was left on all sides between the tents and the ramparts. The
rampart itself was usually twelve feet high, and defended by a ditch
twelve feet in depth, as well as in breadth. This important labour was
performed by the legionaries themselves, to whom the use of the spade
and the pick-axe was no less familiar than the sword and the pilum"
("Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," vol. i., p. 27.) This gives a
faithful description of the Roman encampment (Castra Stativa) at
Boulogne, which is described by St. Patrick as Bonaven Tabernise, or
Bononia, where the Roman encampment was pitched. Bononia,
according to Bertrand's "History of Boulogne," was regarded by the
Romans as their "principal dockyard" in Northern Gaul; and Suetonius,
in his "Lives of the Twelve Caesars," describes it "as the port from
which the Roman legions successively departed for Britain" (p. 283,
note).
Many err in supposing that Gessoriac and Bononia were one and the
same town, originally called Gessoriac, and later, that is to say during
the reign of Constantine the Great, known as Bononia. It is true,
however, that during that Emperor's reign Gessoriac also came to be
called Bononia.
It is well to observe that the Morini, or inhabitants of the coast in the
neighbourhood of Boulogne, were converted to Christianity by St.
Firmin about the close of the second century; and that St. Fusian built
a chapel on the banks of the River Liane, which flows through
Boulogne, in the year 275.
St. Patrick, in his "Confession," represents himself and the fellow-
citizens of his youth as Christians who had not observed the
Commandments of God, and who had not been obedient to their priests.
At that time the Northern Britons were pagans; St. Ninian, who
flourished about the year 400, was the first missioner who preached the
Gospel to the Dalraida and Southern Picts. They could not, therefore,
have been described in the year 388, when St. Patrick was made

captive, as Christians who had ceased to practise their religion. "I
knew not the real God," writes St. Patrick, "and I was brought captive
to Ireland with many thousand men, as we deserved, for we had
forgotten God and had not kept His Commandments, and were
disobedient to our priests, who admonished us for our salvation. And
the Lord brought down upon us the anger of His Spirit, and scattered
us amongst many nations, even to the ends of the earth, where now my
humble self may be witnessed among strangers" ("Confession").

ST. PATRICK MADE CAPTIVE BY NIALL OF THE NINE
HOSTAGES.
GIBBON narrates that about the middle of the fourth century the "sea
coast of Gaul and Britain were exposed to the depredations of the
Saxons" (vol. i., P- 739); and Bertrand, in his "History of Boulogne,"
admits that the city was plundered by the Saxons in the year 371, but
that the invaders spared Caligula's tower and lighthouse on account of
its usefulness for their safe navigation. The silence of local history
concerning two raids made by the Irish Scots into Armorica in the
years 388 and 402 is not surprising, seeing that French writers admit
that there is practically no history of Armorica or more than a century
after the Saxon raid in the year 371. Gibbon, however, in his history of
the "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," narrates that "the hostile
tribes of the North, who detested the pride and power of the King of the
World, suspended their domestic feuds, and the barbarians of the land
and sea, the Picts, the Scots, and the Saxons, spread themselves with
rapid and irresistible fury from the walls of Antoninus to the shores of
Kent" (vol. i., p.