History of the ancient Britons, from the earliest period to the invasion of the Saxons

Preface

Having long felt the want of a detailed history of the first inhabitants of Britain, founded upon the accounts which the Greeks an.l Romans have left us of their connection with this island, I have endeavoured in these volumes, as far as was in my power, to supply the deficiency. The sources from which the work is compiled are extensive, it is true, as regards the number of writers from whom our knowledge is derived, but in general bulk, and as far as concerns the information which we gain from them, they are remarkably scanty. They are all comprised in one volume of " Historical Documents concerning the Ancient Britons," which forms the Appendix to this work; so that the reader will have at hand all the authorities for every statement which this work contains, and may immediately verify every fact for himself. As in the Preface to the Historical Documents, I have given all the information which is necessary on the writers whose works are contained in that volume, it would be superfluous to recapitulate the same here. It is important, however, to mention one peculiarity of the present work, which, as it has commended itself to my choice after long consideration, will, T hope, be equally approved by the reader. 1 have abstained from attom()tiiig to give colouring or life to tliost* facts b

U PREFACE.

of which the contemporary historians have left us only a bare skeleton, or an inanimate sketch. I cannot but regret, that historians in general have so widely departed from this rule; for by indulging their own imaginations, and by putting their own construction upon facts, though they may have succeeded in making their work philosophical, yet this advantage has been attended with the loss of its historical character. To avoid this departure from historic truth, no plan seems so successful as to introduce all important parts of the narrative in the words of the contemporary writer, and, if possible, of one who has been an eye-witness of the facts which he records. What account of the invasion of Britain by Ceesar, and of the adventures which befel him during his short stay in the island, can be so interesting, or so authentic, as that which Csesar himself has left in his own Commentaries? Consistently with this principle, the reader will find that I have related the wars of Csesar, of Claudius, Agricola, Severus, Carausius, and others, in the very .words of the historian who then lived, or who came nearest to their times.

Another rule, of almost equal importance witli\ the former, has been rigidly adhered to; namely, to neglect J all unfounded statements and views of modern writers ; some of whom have indulged in fancies of the most puerile and trifling character, often with the view of supporting some political or religious theory of their own, but which does not depend upon the authority of ancient writers.

Though the present work is not the first which pretends to the character of a regular detailed history of the Ancient Britons, yet an examination of those which have preceded, will, it is believed, lead the

PREFACE. Ill

reader to tlie conclusion, that the subject has never before been treated so fully, with strict regard to real history, and in exclusion of all fabulous legends.

The first notices of Britain are found in the Grecian and Roman \vi'iters ; in the works of Gildas, Nennius, Bede, and Richard of Cirencester, who in the fourteenth century copied from an ancient Roman writing now lost. For information on these writers, the reader is referred to the Preface of the Historical Documents before mentioned.

Besides those contemporary writers, the middle ages furnish a long list of names of those who have noticed incidentally the Ancient Britons ; but they all wrote at second hand, and can be of little use as authorities to us, who know probably more of the Ancient Britons than they did. Such were Aldhdm, Alcuin, Eddius, Asser, the authors of the Saxon Chronicle, Florence of Worcester, William of Malmesbury, Galfridus of Llandaff, author of the Liber Llandavensis, Henry of Huntingdon, Ordericus Vitalis, Geoffrey of Monmouth, and a vast number of other monastic historians, who have all more or less referred to the subject.

But the first person in modern times who attempted on sound principles to throw light on British Antiquities, was Leland the Antiquary, who in the reign of Henry VHl. made a tour through the island, examined every spot where historical occurrences were said to have happened, and collected the fruits of his labours into his two works. Collectanea and Itinera.

The next writer who added to the knowledge of British Antiquities was Speed, author of the Theatre of Great Britain, which cost the author the labour of many years, and was a most valuable addition to the existing store of works on our domestic history.

IV PREFACE.

But all these writers treated of our history in general, and made no more than incidental mention of the Ancient Britons. About the year 1600 appeared that valuable work, Camden's Britannia, in which the first attempt was made in the early part of the work to reduce into a connected narrative all that was left by the Classical writers concerning Ancient Britain and its inhabitants. But this narrative is necessarily much abridged, and contains merely an outline of the subject.

Other works more immediately touching on our present subject are the Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates of Archbishop Usher, and the Origines Sacrse of Stillingfleet. But these also principally concern the state of religion amongst the Britons, and even with the narrow limits of that subject many legends are admitted as historical facts, which deserve to be banished to the regions of Romance.

Within the last few years, another work has been published on the Ancient Britons, entitled, " Researches into the ecclesiastical and political state, of Ancient Britain under the Roman em.perors, with observations upon the principal events and characters connected with the Christian religion during the first five centuries. By the late Rev. Francis Thackeray, A.M. formerly of Pembroke College, Cambridge. Lond. T. Cadell, Strand, mdcccxliii."

On coming to examine this work, I found that it would be of great assistance in compiling my own, but that its long digressions on religious subjects, aspirations for the success of the Christian Church, and other similar peculiarities, entirely disqualified it for being received as a History of Ancient Britain.

As the present times are singularly distinguished from those which immediately preceded, by religious

PREFACE. V

discussions, originating- often in party bias, and conducted with warmth which rather perplexes than illustrates the subject, I cannot suffer this opportunity to pass by without declaring- my conviction, that both parties have rather established their skill in polemics, than shewn a faithful desire to arrive at truth. Whilst it has been the object with the one to prove the antiquity of the Church in England, and its independence of the see of Rome; their adversaries have laboured to prove, that all ecclesiastical establishments in the West owe their origin to missions from the capital of Italy. But both parties have in this discussion been fighting for a shadow. The pretensions of the Church of Rome must be assailed or defended upon their own merits . if they are false, no antiquity, no planting of colonies, or sending of missions, can maintain them. If true, no time can make them obsolete. As a vi^ork on the Ancient Britons must necessarily treat on a subject so prominent in all European history, as the establishment of the Christian Religion, I think it right to have indulged in these remarks, and to invite the reader to bestow the same impartiality in reading the facts here collected, which I have myself shewn in bringing them together, and in dealing with the whole subject. History is no better than a romance, if those who write it bring to their task preconceived opinions, or if readers cast away the book which contains unwholesome or unpalatable truths.

As our information concerning the race of men who first inhabited this island, like all other history, must be obtained either from books, inscriptions found on ancient monuments, or from remains found scattered throughout the country, or buried beneath the surface of the ground, it is right to caution the reader, that he

VI PREFACE,

is not to expect from this work a full account of the various coins, inscriptions, and monuments found in this island, and supposed to belong to the period treated of in this volume. It is very uncertain by whom such coins were struck, or who were the builders of the monuments in question. In short, it is to be borne in mind, that the history of the Ancient Britons, as it may be gathered from books alone, has been here treated of, but for the numismatics, architecture, and antiquities supposed to belong to that people, the reader must consult other books devoted almost exclusively to the subject.

Neither do the geography and topography of Britain enter more than incidentally into the plan of the present work. These are subjects which require a separate consideration ; and, as our knowledge of them is remarkably little, they cannot fail to cause the student no small labour and distraction of mind. In the volume of Historical Documents, are given those portions of the ancient geographers, Ptolemy and others, together with the extracts from the Notitia Imperii, and Itinerarium Antonini, which concern the history of Britain.

J. A. G.

Bampton, Sept. I, 1847.

Chap. I. Introduction. — Grecian, Roman, and Phoenician Navigators. 1

II. Caesar's invasion of Britain in the mouth of August, B. C. 55. 14

III. Caesar's second invasion. 29

IV. Geoflfrey of Monmouth — His fabulous history of Britain before the time of Caesar — His account of Cajsar's invasion. 45

V. Sensation produced at Rome by the British expedition — Augustus — Notices of Britain by Poets and Geographers. 53

VI. Britain left to itself by Tiberius — the foolish expedition of Caligula — Claudius — Conquestof Britain by his general Plautius — Vespasian afterwards emperor. 69

VII. Plautius — Vespasian — Ostorius Scapula — Caractacus. 80

VIII. Nero's cruel reign — The Britons revolt under Boadicea: Camalodunum, London, and Veridam are burnt — Suetonius Paulinus returns from Anglesey, and defeats the Britons with immense slaughter. 96

IX. The emperors Galba, Otho, ViteUius — Petronius Turpilianus, Trebellius Maximus, and Vettius Bolanus, governors of Britain. 110

X. The reigns of Vespasian, Titus and Domitian — Petilius Cerealis, Julius Frontinus, and Julius Agricola, Propraetors of Britain — Wars of Agricola, defeat of Galgacus, and the Caledonians — Final settlement of the Roman province in Britain. 120

XI. Sallustius Lucullus, Lieutenant of Britain — Reigns of Nerva, Trajan, and Hadrian — Little known of Britain for many years — its trade and miscellaneous productions — the Druids — their full. 153

XII. Whether Christianity was introduced into Britain before A. 1). 120. — St. Paul — St. Peter — Simon Zelotes — Pomponia Gra'cina — Claudia — Gildas. 179

XIII. Reigns of Antoninus Pius — Marcus Aurelius — Commodus. — J^ollius Urbicus, Ulpius Marcellus, and Clodius Albinus, governors of Britain — Lucius, one of the tributary kings of tlie Britons, converted to Chrisliauity. 200 viii CONTENTS.

XIV. The reigns of Pertinax, Didius Julianus, and Severus. — Albinus, governor of Britain — Contest between Severus Albinus and Niger — Battle of Lyons — Virius Lupus, governor of Britain — Severus arrives in Britain in 208 — his invasion of Caledonia in 209 — builds the wall across the island in 210— dies at York in 211. 219

XV. Reigns of Caracalla and Geta — Ossian's poems, Fingal, &c. — Macrinus — Elagabalus — Alexander Severus, &c. — Carinus — Diocletian and Maximian — Carausius revolts in Britain — is murdered by Allectus — AUectus is slain, and Britain restored to the empire by Coustantius. 246

XVI. Persecution of the Christians from A. D. 303 to 313 — less violent in Britain — The legend of the passion of Saint Alban probably much interpolated. 272

XVII. Resignation of Diocletian and Maximian, A. D. 305 — Galerius and Constantius emperors — Constantius in Britain — Constantine escapes to his father Constantius — Constantine the Great defeats Maxentius, and becomes sole emperor — Synods of Aries and Nice. 282

XVIII. Sons of Constantine the Great, Constantine II, Constans, and Constantius — Councils of Nice and Sardica — Rebellion and defeat of Magnentius a Briton — Paulus Catena in Britain — Julian in Gaid — Lupicinus. 301

XIX. Constantius — Religious disputes — Synod of Rimini — British Bishops— Julian — Jovian — Valentinian — Picts and Scots — Britain saved by Theodosius. 313

XX. Emperors Gratian and Valentinian II. — Death of Valens — Gratian appoints Theodosius, emperor of the East — Gratian's neglect of his imperial duties — disaffection of the troops — Maximus revolts in Britain — death of Gratian — Maximus defeated and slain by Theodosius. 326

XXI. Britain exhausted by successive emigrations — Theodosius — Chrysanthus viceroy of Britain — Arcadius and Honorius emperors — Stilicho — Picts and Scots — Marcus, and Gratian Municeps, tyrants in Britain, slain by their soldiers — Constantine emperor in Britain — conquers Gaul and Spain — is slain by Constantius. 341

XXII. Britain again free — governed by her native rulers— not able to enjoy the privilege of freedom — the Christian religion already corrupted — the Arian heresy — the Pelagian heresy — Germanus and Lupus come fi"om Gaul. 356

XXIII. The Missions of Palladius and St. Patrick to Ireland. 377

XXIV. Enfeebled state of Britain in the fifth century — The Britons apply to Rome — They apply a second time to ^-Etius — The groans of the Britons — Vortigeni—Aurelius Ambrosius — The Saxons, lleugist and Horsa — The history oi' tlu' Ancient Britons ends — Conclusion. 38 J

Additional NoxEa. 395

HISTORY

OF THE

CHAP. I.

INTRODUCTION.— GRECIAN, ROMAN, AND PHOENICIAN NAVIGATORS.

It is the practice of those who have written the history of their country, to complain of the obscurity in which its earliest annals are involved. This complaint indeed is too well founded to admit of doubt: for there is no nation, now existing' on the earth, whose history can be traced back with certainty more than two thousand five hundred years. The history of the Assyrian and Egyptian monarchies exists only in shadow and outline, and the contradictory accounts which have come down to us in the pages of historians suffice to shew, that we know next to nothing of their real history. The only exception to this statement is to be made in favour of the books of Moses, which doubtlessly exhibit a pictui'e of oriental life, and that principally domestic life, which existed in Asia at a period of very remote antiquity. But the writings of Moses carry us back no farther into the past than the space of about six thousand years, whereas there is the most conclusive evidence that the world has existed in its present state more than six times that Hmited period. It appears therefore that our knowledge of the past is confined to a very narrow compass, compared with the infinite duration of time which has elapsed. But however mortifying this may be to man, whose expansive intellect grasps at eternity, it is equally evident that all our researches into the history of the past must have a limit somewhere. Man is a finite being, whose existence is bounded to a certain duration which he cannot pass : his powers of observation are as limited as his existence; the imperfection of his sensual structure, through which alone knowledge is conveyed to his intellect, is such, that it is unable to furnish indefinite aliment to the mind; even if the mind were not on the other hand equally unable to retain all the impressions which the external senses can furnish. Thus the human intellect, like our physical organization, takes cognizance of a very small part of the universe, whether of mind or matter. That which has preceded our own immediate career is at some point or other as effectually concealed from our view as that which is to follow it. This process has no doubt been going on ever since the first creation of the human race: but previously to the fifteenth century, its operation was much more rapid than it has been since that time : the province of history was then continually liable to be narrowed and curtailed by the destruction of its oldest documents, which the slow labours of the scribe were unable to replace or to compensate. We are at liberty to believe that this onward movement, by which, as fresh fields have \)een opened, preceding ones have been closed to the historian, has been continually in operation, at a

CH. I.] INTRODUCTION. 3

period extending far beyond the earliest of our existing records. It is in vain tlierefore tliat we push our enquiries beyond the usual barriers which exclude us from the domains of hoary antiquity. The labour of a life is vainly spent in exploring the darkness which envelopes them, and the only fruit which has as yet been gathered by the most successful antiquarians is limited to a few hints and surmises, founded as much on a general knowledge of human affairs as on any certain basis of facts furnished by the subject of their enquiries. The inference to which these remarks lead us is no doubt mortifying to the mind of the ardent enquirer, but he may derive consolation from the ample materials which remain. The actual province of history is sufficiently extensive, without our attempting to penetrate into the obscurity which precedes it: the achievements of man, in the many and diversified forms under which his race is developed, will furnish matter sufficient to occupy and fill the mind of the most enthusiastic enquirer, even if his researches are limited to the history of that country only to which he owes his birth.

These observations will prepare the reader to expect that the history of England cannot be carried back to a more remote period than other European countries, whose circumstances are nearly the same. Indeed its insular position, whereby it is in a way cut off from the rest of the known world, would naturally retard its civilization; and its greater distance from Greece and Italy, whence we know^ all European learning to have flowed, would be an additional reason why its progress in improvement and the arts of civilized life should have been more slow, and have commenced at a later period than tliat IJ 2 of Gaul and other countries more advantageously placed by nature.

If then we would wish to picture to ourselves the state of these islands some centuries before the Christian era, we must suppose all the improvements of art and civilization, which now cover the face of the country, to be swept away. There were no canals, no railways or public roads, no towns, castles, or cities. The scenery was no doubt as beautiful as nature and a climate favourable for vegetation could make it. Forests of gigantic oaks covered two-thirds of the whole country, and herds of wild deer bounding through the forests made every thing look full of life and motion. Towards the south, large tracts of country consisted, as they consist at present, of heath and chalk lands, whose arid soils and ironbound surface disqualified them for the production of other than trees of a dwarfish and stunted growth. On the eastern and western coasts, more particularly in Lincolnshire and Somersetshire, lay extensive swamps to which the sea had access, and this, augmented by the overflowing rivers, rendered large tracts of territory unfit for the residence of either man or beast. Fishes and reptiles were the natural inhabitants of these swamps: the bustard and the black cock roamed over the open downs, and at some period or other we are sure that the hyjiena and the bear prowled among the woods, leaving, as it would appear, but small probability of there being a very dense human population in those early times.

And this leads us to the enquiry, where is man, the lord of the earth, and of the other animals? Have we no mention of the human inhabitants of Britain, among the remains which tell us of the other species

CH. I.] INTRODUCTION. 6

of animal life by which it was peopled? The monuments which the first inliabitants of this country have left behind them are few indeed, but cast in a gigantic moidd. The names of Stonehenge, Avebury, and the Rollright stones*, are familiar to the reader. Structures of enormous size, and consisting of the most monstrous stones, to move which no inconsiderable knowledge of mechanics would be required, they nevertheless tell us no more than the fact of their erection. It would be idle to attempt to prove that they are the works of men, for the form of their construction plainly shews them to have been erected by design; but whether they were built as tombs, as palaces, as temples, or as fortresses, it is useless to conjecture. They appear to be the very oldest memorials of the existing human race : they have stood nearly two thousand years with evidently no greater alteration of their form or appearance than the silent crumbling of surface which a northern winter is calculated to produce; they are more massive than the temples of Agrigentum, or the Cyclopian walls of Argos and Mycenae : they are of a construction ruder than that of the Pyramids of Egypt: and whether they were erected within the period of authentic history, which commences seven hundred years before Christ, or many thousand years earlier, it is impossible to discover, and useless to conjecture. The slight notices of these ancient fabrics, which occur in the classic authors, will be exhibited in chronological order in the Appendix to this work'.

Setting aside therefore the architectural remains

" For accounts of ihese the reader is rcfciTed to works written expressly on the subject. The Tolhncn, and Logan stones found principally in Cornwall, are evidently natural productions.

which are still found in Britain, we may enquire whether any other relics have been recovered from the soil likely to throw light on the history of the tribes which once inhabited our country : but the result of this investigation is alike meagre and unavailing. Warlike weapons and vessels of domestic use have been continually disinterred by the plough and the spade, but the tale which they tell has little to interest us. The weapons which have been found in Britain are swords, spear and arrow heads and targets, and it is probable that most of these are of a date posterior to the invasion of Julius Caesar. Whatever may be their antiquity, the information which they furnish is but scanty : such weapons have been common to all nations, and denote habits of life which at one time or another have prevailed in every known country of the world. The same result will attend any enquiries that may be made into the domestic life of the early inhabitants of Britain, as evinced by existing specimens of rude and ill-shaped pottery.

Nor does the science of Numismatics furnish any aid to the knowledge of our earliest tribes : nothing has been discovered that can be assigned to an earlier date than the first century of our sera; so that in the absence of monumental documents, we are of necessity driven to look for our information in the written records which have come down to us from the Greeks and Romans; for, as will hereafter be shewn, the traditions of the Britons themselves, which in the reign of Henry 11 were translated by Geofii'ey of Monmouth out of the British tongue, however for the latter portion of the history they may contain the germs of truth, are for the period antecedent to Csesar's invasion utterly unworthy of credit and almost of notice.

It is a theory generally received amongst the learned.

B. C. 450 — 340.] HERODOTUS ARISTOTLE. 7

that the western parts of Europe were at an early period inhabited by a race of people known by the name of Celts. The earliest notice of these people occurs in the pages of the Greek historian Herodotus, who wrote about the yeai- B. C. 450. " The river Ister," says this writer^, '' flows through the whole length of Europe, beginning from the Celtae, who are the furthest people in Europe after the Cynetse towards the settingsun." In another place the same author says <^, '' The river Ister, beginning from the Celtte and the city of Pyrene, flows through the whole of Europe : for the Celt£e are beyond the pillars of Hercules, and they border on the Cynesians, who are the furthest people in Europe towards the west."

A third extract from the same writer is interesting and valuable, because it makes the first mention that we find in any book now extant of these islands ^

" Of the western extremities of Europe I cannot speak with certainty j for I do not admit that there is any river called Eridanus by the barbarians, emptying itself into the sea towards the north, where they say amber comes from : nor do I know any thing of the Cassiterides [tin-islands'], from which we get tin. For tlie name Eridanus, which is Grecian, not barbarian, and derives its origin from some poet, proves what I say; and, on the other hand, I have never been able with all my pains to meet with any one who could tell me from his own knowledge, that the farther parts of Europe are sea."

The next writer who mentions the British isles is Aristotle, who wrote about 340 years before Christ. His words arc these: " Beyond the pillars of Hercules is the ocean which flows round the earth. In it are

" Herod. Hii^t. iv. 49. ' Ibid. ii. 33. ■' Ibid iii 115.

two islands, and those very large, called Britannic, Albion and lerne, which are larger than those I before mentioned, and lie beyond the Celts. There are also two others not less than these, Taprobane [Ceylon], which is beyond the Indians, and lies obliquely towards the mainland, and Phebol, situated over against the Arabian gulf; besides several small islands, near the Britannic isles and Iberia, and encircling as with a coronet the earth, which, as we have already said, is an island^."

From this passage, we perceive that Aristotle, who was the preceptor of Alexander the great, had a correct knowledge of the position and general nature of the British isles, as far as it was possible for a writer of that age to obtain it. The only way to Britain was by sea through the straits between Gibraltar and Tangier, called at that time the pillars of Hercules: and the intervening countries, namely, Spain, Gaul, and perhaps part of Germany, he supposes to have been occupied by the Celts.

After Aristotle, another interval of 180 years brings us to the time of Polybius, who wrote about B. C. 160. He has the following passage': " Perhaps some persons will enquire, why, having spoken so fully of places in Libya [Africa] and Iberia [Spain], we have not said more of the outlet at the pillars of Hercules, nor of the sea beyond, and of the things peculiar to those parts, nor of the Britannic isles, and the mode of preparing tin, nor moreover of the gold and silver mines of Iberia, concerning which writers have discoursed so largely and so contradictorily."

A fourth extract, from a work of doubtful authen-

« De Mundo, §.3. ' Tolyb. Hist. iii. 57.

B.C. 560 — 160.] ORPHEUS — POL'i'BlUS. 9

ticity, still remains. The writer passes for the poet Orpheus, who in the age preceding the Trojan war is said to have accompanied the Argonauts on their expedition to fetch the golden fleece from Colchis. If the poem which goes under his name and treats of this famous expedition were genuine, the value of the allusion therein found to the island of Ireland more than 1200 years before the Christian era would be incalculable : but that this poem is a forgery, has long been admitted on all hands. Some have ascribed the fabrication to Onomacritus, who lived B. C. 560, and others to a writer of a still later period. In any case, however, the passage in question conveys one of the earliest notices which have come to us of the British isles, and as such we give it to the reader in a translation as literal as the difference of idiom will allow.

[The ship Argo is supposed to speak to the Minyae, i. e. the Argonauts.]

For now to sad and bitter suffering I

Shall be consigned, if near lernian isles I come.

Thus having said she held her tongue; forthwith the soul

Of the Minyae was densely clouded:

But much they pondered in their thoughtful breasts

How they might slay and cast as food for fishes

Medea, ill-starred bride, and so appease the fury.

Had not the son of ^Eson quick perceived it,

And by entreaty calm'd the rage of each.

But when they heard the chiefs voice uttering truth,

Soon on their scats they sat, and caught their oars,

And knowingly Ancfcus held the helm.

And passed th' lernian isle, whilst in the rear

Came dashing on the darkling roaring storm.

These passages, which contain all the allusions made by the classic writers to the British isles previously to the time of Csesar, are sufficient to shew that the existence of those islands was no secret to the Greeks, and it is not difficult to discover through what channel they obtained their information. It is evident from the foregoing extracts that the very little which the Greeks knew aboutBritain came through the straits of Gibraltar; and it is equally clear, that the islands from which they obtained tin were supposed to lie in that direction. The exertions of that indefatigable historian Herodotus failed to discover where those islands actually were situated: he had never met with a person who had visited them. But it seems there was a substantial reason for concealing these islands from the knowledge of the Greeks: what this reason was, we learn from Strabo, who wrote four hundred years after Herodotus. That geographer gives us the following narrative ^.