was the prevailing language in the towns. The Celtic tongue, despised and forgotten, was banished to the rural districts.

Losses. Great as were the advantages of Roman rule, Traill, I, they were more than counterbalanced by the heavy burdens PP. 20-25. imposed. Besides the usual money tribute levied upon the provinces, Britain was obliged to furnish a fixed quota of corn for the maintenance of the imperial armies. Customs duties were collected at every port, and the flourishing trade with the continent was made to pay toll to the imperial treasury. Estates were assessed to the full amount of their revenue, and prompt payment was extorted. The visit of the tax-gatherer furnished the occasion for more than one insurrection.1

This was not all. The Britons complained that they were forced to pay "a yearly tribute of their bodies." The men annually drafted into the army and navy were sent abroad for service," as if they might die for every country but their Tacitus. own." It was part of the imperial policy to break down national feeling in the provinces by such interchange of troops. An African serving in Gaul, or a Briton serving in the Pyrenees, lost his provincialism and learned to consider himself the servant of Cæsar. Britain was doubtless civilized by the Roman occupation, but at heavy cost. The steady drain of money, blood, and patriotism reduced the people to impotency.

A source of weakness, more insidious but no less sure, was the demoralization consequent on contact with Roman life. Few barbarous peoples are able to retain their race integrity in the presence of a higher civilization. As they imitate alien customs, they are prone to abandon their own moral standards. In the case of the Romanized Celts, the civilization they adopted was fundamentally corrupt. The Roman rulers gave to Britain a strong government and encouraged advanced methods of commerce and industry, but they introduced at the same time enervating luxuries

1 eg. the rising under Boadicea, 61 A.D.

Gildas.

Bede.

and unmanly vices. The inhabitants who came under the influence of Rome lapsed slowly into sloth and cowardice. Christian missionaries, it is true, came from Rome, — the Apostle Paul himself, tradition would have us believe; but not until the fourth century, not until Constantine had placed the cross upon the imperial banner, was the church established in Britain. Its hold upon the people was slight. In many of the towns, Christian temples were built and the clergy obtained considerable influence, but in the rural districts, spite of the many mission monasteries dedicated to the conversion of the Britons, the superstitious practices of Druidism lingered.

The Barbarian Invasions.

1

- When the power of Rome began to wane and it was found necessary to withdraw the imperial troops from this remote province, the Celts were become "an indolent and slothful race " with no capacity to govern themselves or to defend their land against invasion. Enemies multiplied apace. Picts (Iberians from Scotland) swarmed over the unprotected wall, Scots (Celts from Ireland) crossed the Irish Sea and made their way up the Solway, the Dee, and the Severn into the interior. These were old foes, but worse was to come. Along the east and south coasts, for centuries exempt from war, appeared the Saxons. These were daring pirates, who, crossing the North Sea in their long galleys, sought plunder in Britain. Beaching their boats where occasion offered, they forced a landing and preyed upon the helpless inhabitants. Desperate attempts were made to ward off the invaders. Watch-towers were built on every navigable river along the coast from the Wash to Beachy Head. The defence of the south was entrusted to a commander entitled "the Count of the Saxon shore," while a "Duke of the Britons" was appointed to hold the Scots and Picts at bay. All was of little avail. The attacks of the barbarians grew more frequent, more persistent, and the resistance less effective every year. "They levelled, trampled down, and

1e.g. St. Martin's at Canterbury.

Withdrawal

of the Romans.

Green,

PP. 39-44.

swept off whatever came in their way, as if they were reaping corn ripe for the harvest."

The Emperor could give no adequate assistance, for barbarians threatened not Britain only but every frontier province. The Vandals invaded Gaul and severed the communication between Britain and Rome. The imperial city was itself pillaged by the Goths (410) and had need of all her legions. In 411 Honorius sent letters bidding the Britons look to their own defence. One last appeal the abandoned province addressed to Rome. "The barbarians," they said, "drive us to the sea; the sea throws us back on the barbarians: thus two modes of death await us, we are either slain or drowned."1 The withdrawal of the Roman officials gave opportunity for the tribal chiefs to assert their authority. One after another assumed the title "Duke of Britain," but no one was strong enough to unite the several tribes under his leadership. Rival ambitions led to demoralizing strife, and Britain was a kingdom divided against itself in the day when it had most need of strength.

The Saxon Conquest. The Saxons, as the Britons indiscriminately termed the invaders, belonged to the same race family as the Celts, but to a distinct branch- the Teuton. They came from the low peninsula that lies between the Baltic and the North Sea: the Jutes from the land we now call Denmark, the Angles from Schleswig-Holstein, the Saxons from the valleys of the Weser and Elbe rivers. The region they abandoned was wild swamp-land and forest. To their unaccustomed eyes, the cultivated fields and populous cities of Britain were marvels of wealth and a tempting prey. They crossed the sea in war-bands, each chief accompanied by his gesiths, warriors pledged to fight by his side to the death and entitled to a share in the booty. The object of the first expeditions was pillage. Later, as they proved their prowess, the invaders grew more ambitious,

1 Quoted by Gildas from the "Groans of the Britons," an appeal addressed to Rome in 446 A.D.