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On the Ruin of Britain

St Gildas, tr. Williams, 1899

3. Description of Britain

Part I
Preliminary (cc. 3-26).- Description of Britain, Character of its People; Introductory narrative of events, extending from the First Parthian Peace and the Roman expedition into Britain which followed it, to the writer’s own time (A.D. 117-c. 540). Reference to the rise of Christianity under Tiberius, and its progress in Britain inserted (cc. 7-12)

THE island of Britain is situated in almost the furthest limit of the world, towards the north-west and west, poised in the so-called divine balance which holds the whole earth. It lies somewhat in the direction of the north pole from the south-west. It is 800 miles long, 200 broad,¹ not counting the longer tracts of sundry promontories which are encompassed by the curved bays of the sea. It is protected by the wide, and if I may so say, impassable circle of the sea on all sides, with the exception of the straits on the south coast where ships sail to Belgic Gaul. It has the advantage of the estuaries of two noble rivers, the Thames and the Severn, arms, as it were, along which, of old, foreign luxuries were wont to be carried by ships, and of other smaller streams; it is beautified by 28 cities,² and some strongholds, and by great works built in an unexceptionable manner, walls, serrated towers, gates, houses, the roofs of which, stretching aloft with threatening height, were firmly fixed in strong structure.³ It is adorned by widespread plains, hills in pleasant situations adapted for superior cultivation, mountains in the greatest convenience for changing pasture of cattle. The flowers of divers colours on these, trodden by human footsteps, gave them the appearance of a fine picture, like a chosen bride adorned with various jewels. It is irrigated by many clear springs, with their full waters moving snow-white gravel, and by shining rivers flowing with gentle murmur, extending to those who recline on their banks a pledge of sweet slumber, and by lakes overflowing with a cool stream of living water.

Notes

Gildas is frequently said to have derived his geographical details from Orosius (Hist., i, 2, 77), but what the Spanish presbyter wrote may have been a common-place in Gaul and Britain by the time of Gildas, and even from other sources. Pliny gives the same length and breadth: insula habet in longo milia passuum DCCC, in lato milia CC. The words of Orosius run thus: Britannia oceani insula per longum in boream extenditur; a meridie Gallias habet.... haec insula habet in longo milio passuum DCCC, in lato CC; the measurements, we see, are stated word for word the same as by Pliny. Orosius says, “towards the north” as to the position of the island, in which he is followed by Gildas, though in poetic language; but Gildas has the further detail that with respect to the continent Britain lies towards the west-north-west and the west (circium occidentemque versus). The two writers may well be independent of one another. In the remainder of this description, Gildas draws upon his own personal acquaintance with his native island, lingering over each detail, though in faulty style. On the geography of Britain and Ireland in ancient writers, see Bunbury, History of Ancient Geography, vol. i, p. 584, etc.
Twenty-eight cities. Suetonius, in Vesp. 4, mentions that there were twenty cities in Britain. It is difficult to define the special character of the towns and town population that had grown up in Britain under Roman rule. From the material supplied in Hübner’s Corpus Inscr. Lat., vol. vii, and a few other sources, it may be concluded that besides the great military posts the civil development of Britain was somewhat insignificant. Gildas informs us that the wall (of Hadrian) ran “between cities” (inter urbes, quae ibidem forte ob metum hostium collocatae fuerant). There were no doubt garrison towns where the auxiliary cohorts were stationed: there were also, Eburacum, where the VIth legion was fixed; Deva, with the XXth; and Isca, with the IInd Augusta. Besides these military stations, though Gildas speaks of cunctae coloniae and coloni in c. 24, not more than four are known that were, strictly speaking, coloniae, viz., Eburacum, Camulodunum, Glevum, Lindum. Many small towns are named, especially towards the south and south-east; but Wales, in Hübner’s map of places yielding inscriptions, is almost a blank. The single municipium known, Verulamium, is accidentally mentioned by Gildas, as well as Caerlleon (i.e., Caer legion = Legionum urbs). The Historia Britonum gives a list of these twenty-eight, which Zimmer argues must have been drawn up some time before A.D. 796 (Nennius, Vindicatus, pp. 108-110). He notices the intervocalic “g” in Cair Legion, Cair Segeint, Cair Guorthigirn.
We find a free rendering into Welsh of several portions of Gildas in Ystorya Brenhined y Brytanycit, by Geoffrey of Monmouth (+ A.D. 1154). The Welsh quotations are from the edition of The Bruts, by Mr. Gwenogfryn Evans; the very slight variations made will explain themselves as simply intended to render the passages easier to read. [omitted]