Great Britain -- History -- Anglo-Saxon period, 449-1066; Middle Ages -- Sources
After this complete victory, Brennius stayed in Italy, where he
exercised unheard-of tyranny over the people. But the rest of his
actions and his death, seeing that they are given in the Roman
histories, I shall here pass over, to avoid prolixity and meddling with
what others have treated of, which is foreign to my design. But Belinus
returned to Britain, which he governed during the remainder of his life
in peace; he repaired the cities that were falling to ruin, and built
many new ones. Among the rest he built one upon the river Uske, near the
sea of the Severn, which was for a long time called Caer-osc, and was
the metropolis of Dimetia;[171] but after the invasion of the Romans it
lost its first name, and was called the City of Legions, from the Roman
legions which used to take up their winter quarters in it. He also made
a gate of wonderful structure in Trinovantum, upon the bank of the
Thames, which the citizens call after his name Billingsgate to this day.
Over it he built a prodigiously large tower, and under it a haven or
quay for ships. He was a strict observer of justice, and re-established
his father's laws everywhere throughout the kingdom. In his days there
was so great an abundance of riches among the people, that no age before
or after is said to have shown the like. At last, when he had finished
his days, his body was burned, and the ashes put up in a golden urn,
which they placed at Trinovantum, with wonderful art, on the top of the
tower above-mentioned.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 171: Newport, the principal town of South Wales.]
CHAP. XI.--_Gurgiunt Brabtruc, succeeding his father Belinus, reduces
Dacia, which was trying to shake off his yoke._
He was succeeded by Gurgiunt Brabtruc, his son, a sober prudent prince,
who followed the example of his father in all his actions, and was a
lover of peace and justice. When some neighbouring provinces rebelled
against him, inheriting with them the bravery of his father, he
repressed their insolence in several fierce battles, and reduced them to
a perfect subjection. Among many other things it happened, that the king
of the Dacians, who paid tribute in his father's time, refused not only
tribute, but all manner of homage to him. This he seriously resented,
and passed over in a fleet to Dacia, where he harassed the people with a
most cruel war, slew their king, and reduced the country to its former
dependence.
CHAP. XII.--_Ireland is given to be inhabited by the Barclenses, who had
been banished out of Spain._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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