The history of England, from the earliest times to the Norman ConquestHodgkin, Thomas
History
The history of England, from the earliest times to the Norman Conquest
Hodgkin, Thomas
Great Britain -- History -- To 1066
The advocates of Wissant identify the Itian promontory with Cape Gris
Nez, well known to all passengers from Dover to Calais, and think that
its name would be naturally shared with the neighbouring village of
Wissant, which was probably at one time nearer to the sea than it is
now. On the whole, though the arguments on both sides are pretty evenly
balanced, those in favour of Wissant seem slightly to preponderate.
II. Sailing, then, from some port in Picardy (either Boulogne or
Wissant), Cæsar reached a part of the British coast which from his
description looks like the chalk cliffs west of Dover. So far there
is not much difference between the commentators, but what happened
in the afternoon when, after his long halt, he found the wind and
tide both in his favour, gave the signal to weigh anchor, and “having
advanced (_progressus_) about eight miles from that place, brought his
ships to a stand at a level and open beach”? Certainly the natural
rendering of these words would seem to be that he went seven English
miles up channel, and so if he had really anchored off Dover he would
reach Deal, and that port would be, as it has been generally supposed
to be, the scene of the world-historical landing of the first Roman
soldiers in Britain. It must be admitted, however, that there are great
difficulties in this hypothesis. The most careful and minute inquiries
that have been made seem to show that on that day (the fourth before
the full moon) and at that hour (3 P.M.), the tide, if it ebbed and
flowed as it does now, would be setting down, not up, the channel: and
accordingly many authors have come to the conclusion that Cæsar sailed
westward for those seven miles and landed either at Hythe or Lymne
(well known afterwards to the Romans as Portus Lemanis), or possibly at
some such place as Appledore, now inland but then at the head of a very
sheltered bay.
The discussion is much complicated by the undoubted fact of the great
changes which have taken place in that part of the coastline, and Dr.
Guest is perhaps entitled to argue that these changes may have so
altered the set of the tides as to allow him to postulate an eastward
flowing tide when Cæsar weighed anchor in the afternoon. It must,
however, remain for the present a disputed question: Cæsar’s word,
“_progressus_,” on the one side, the present course of the tides on the
other. On the whole it seems to me that the balance of probability is
slightly in favour of Deal.
Among the authors who have written on this question may be mentioned
Airy, Lewin, Appach, in favour of some port west of Dover; Long,
Merivale, Guest, in favour of Deal. Guest’s arguments are perhaps
the most satisfactory, but justice should be done to the extremely
painstaking little treatise of Appach (_Caius Julius Cæsar’s British
Expeditions_, etc., 1868), who, however, surely attempts the impossible
in his elaborate back-calculations of the winds and tides of two
thousand years ago.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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