On The Ruin of Britain | Page 9

suffer
the Roman standards, with so large and brave an army, to be worn out
by sea and land by fighting against these unwarlike, plundering
vagabonds; but that the islanders, inuring themselves to warlike
weapons, and bravely fighting, should valiantly protect their country,
their property, wives and children, and, what is dearer than these, their
liberty and lives; that they should not suffer their hands to be tied
behind their backs by a nation which, unless they were enervated by
idleness and sloth, was not more powerful than themselves, but that
they should arm those hands with buckler, sword, and spear, ready for
the field of battle; and, because they thought this also of advantage to
the people they were about to leave, they, with the help of the miserable
natives, built a wall different from the former, by public and private
contributions, and of the same structure as walls generally, extending in
a straight line from sea to sea, between some cities, which, from fear of
their enemies, had there by chance been built. They then give energetic
counsel to the timorous natives, and leave them patterns by which to
manufacture arms. Moreover, on the south coast where their vessels lay,
as there was some apprehension lest the barbarians might land, they
erected towers at stated intervals, commanding a prospect of the sea;
and then left the island never to return.
19. No sooner were they gone, than the Picts and Scots, like worms
which in the heat of the mid-day come forth from their holes, hastily
land again from their canoes, in which they had been carried beyond

the Cichican* valley, differing one from another in manners, but
inspired with the same avidity for blood, and all more eager to shroud
their villainous faces in bushy hair than to cover with decent clothing
those parts of their body which required it. Moreover, having heard of
the departure of our friends, and their resolution never to return, they
seized with greater boldness than before on all the country towards the
extreme north as far as the wall. To oppose them there was placed on
the heights a garrison equally slow to fight and ill adapted to run away,
a useless and panic-struck company, who slumbered away days and
nights on their unprofitable watch. Meanwhile the hooked weapons of
their enemies were not idle, and our wretched countrymen were
dragged from the wall and dashed against the ground. Such premature
death, however, painful as it was, saved them from seeing the miserable
sufferings of their brothers and children. But why should I say more?
They left their cities, abandoned the protection of the wall, and
dispersed themselves in flight more desperately than before. The enemy,
on the other hand, pursued them with more unrelenting cruelty than
before, and butchered our countrymen like sheep, so that their
habitations were like those of savage beasts; for they turned their arms
upon each other, and for the sake of a little sustenance, imbrued their
hands in the blood of their fellow countrymen. Thus foreign calamities
were augmented by domestic feuds; so that the whole country was
entirely destitute of provisions, save such as could be procured in the
chase.
* The meaning of this expression is not known. O'Connor thinks it is
the Irish Sea.
20. Again, therefore, the wretched remnant, sending to Aetius, a
powerful Roman citizen, address him as follow:--"To Aetius,* now
consul for the third time: the groans of the Britons." And again a little
further, thus:--"The barbarians drive us to the sea; the sea throws us
back on the barbarians: thus two modes of death await us, we are either
slain or drowned." The Romans, however, could not assist them, and in
the meantime the discomfited people, wandering in the woods, began to
feel the effects of a severe famine, which compelled many of them
without delay to yield themselves up to their cruel persecutors, to
obtain subsistence: others of them, however, lying hid in mountains,
caves and woods, continually sallied out from thence to renew the war.

And then it was, for the first time, that they overthrew their enemies,
who had for so many years been living in their country; for their trust
was not in man, but in God; according to the maxim of Philo, "We must
have divine assistance, when that of man fails." The boldness of the
enemy was for a while checked, but not the wickedness of our
countrymen; the enemy left our people, but the people did not leave
their sins.
* Or Agitius, according to another reading.
21. For it has always been a custom with our nation, as it is at present,
to be impotent in repelling foreign foes, but bold and invincible in
raising civil war, and bearing the burdens of