The Saxons in England, Volume 1 (of 2): A history of the English commonwealth till the period of the Norman conquestKemble, John Mitchell
History
The Saxons in England, Volume 1 (of 2): A history of the English commonwealth till the period of the Norman conquest
Kemble, John Mitchell
Great Britain -- History -- Anglo-Saxon period, 449-1066
Ptolemy calls the islands at the mouth of the Elbe, Σαξόνων νῆσοι
τρεῖς. Zeuss considers these to be Föhr, Silt and Nordstrand. Die
Deutschen, p. 150. Lappenberg sees in them, North Friesland,
Eiderstedt, Nordstrand, Wickingharde and Böcingharde. Thorpe, Lap. i.
87. It seems hardly conceivable that Frisians, who occupied the coast
as early as the time of Caesar, should not have found their way by sea
to Britain, especially when pressed by Roman power: see Tac. Ann.
xiii. 54.
Footnote 22:
Hengest defeated the Picts and Scots at Stamford in Lincolnshire, not
far from the Nene, the Witham and the Welland, upon whose banks it is
nearly certain that there were German settlements. Widukind’s story of
an embassy from the Britons to the Saxons, to entreat aid, is thus
rendered not altogether improbable: but then it must be understood of
Saxons already established in England, and on the very line of march
of the Northern invaders, whom they thus took most effectually in
flank. Compare Geoffry’s story of Vortigern giving Hengest lands in
Lincolnshire, etc.
Footnote 23:
Tac. Hist. iv. 12, about A.D. 69. “Diu Germanicis bellis exerciti; mox
aucta per Britanniam gloria, transmissis illuc cohortibus, quas vetere
instituto, nobilissimi popularium regebant.”
Footnote 24:
Dio. Cas. lxxi. lxxii. Gibbon, Dec. cap. ix. At a later period, Probus
settled Vandals and Burgundians here: Zosimus tells us (Hist. Nov. i.
68): ὅσους δὲ ζῶντας οἷος τε γέγονεν ἑλεῖν, εἰς Βρεττανίαν παρέπεμψεν·
ὃι τὴν νῆσον οἰκήσαντες, ἐπαναστάντος μετὰ ταῦτα τινος, γεγόνασι
βασιλεῖ χρήσιμοι. Procopius even goes so far as to make Belisarius
talk of Goths in Britain, but the context itself proves that this
deserves very little notice. Bell. Got. ii. 6.
Footnote 25:
Carausius was a Menapian: but in the third century the inhabitants of
the Menapian territory were certainly Teutonic. Aurelius Victor calls
him a Batavian: see Gibbon, Dec. cap. xiii. Carausius, and after him
Allectus, maintained a German force here: “Omnes enim illos, ut audio,
campos atque colles non nisi teterrimorum hostium corpora fusa
texerunt. Illa barbara aut imitatione barbariae olim cultu vestis, et
prolixo crine rutilantia, tunc vero pulvere et cruore foedata, et in
diversos situs tracta, sicuti dolorem vulnerum fuerant secuta,
iacuerunt.... Enimvero, Caesar invicte, tanto deorum immortalium tibi
est addicta consensu omnium quidem quos adortus fueris hostium, sed
praecipue internecio Francorum, ut illi quoque milites vestri, qui per
errorem nebulosi, ut paullo ante dixi, maris abiuncti ad oppidum
Londiniense pervenerunt, quidquid ex mercenaria illa multitudine
barbarorum praelio superfuerat, cum direpta civitate, fugam capessere
cogitarent, passim tota urbe confecerint.” Eumen. Paneg. Const. cap.
18, 19.
Footnote 26:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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