Note 176 — Chapter III · BRITAIN AFTER THE ROMANS.

The Chronicle annexed to Nennius has, at 573, ‘Bellum Armterid,’ to which a later MS. adds—‘Inter filios Elifer et Gwendoleu filium Keidiau; in quo bello Gwendoleu cecidit: Merlinus insanus effectus est.’—An. Camb. A more detailed account will be found in the Proceedings of the S. A. Scot. (vol. vi. p. 91), in a notice of the site of the battle of Ardderyd. The Welsh genealogies annexed to Nennius, as well as those in the tract on the Gwyr Gogled, or men of the north (Four Ancient Books of Wales, ii. 455), show us very clearly the native and the Roman party. The former are in both documents traced to Coil Hen, who is supposed to have given his name to the district of Kyle in Ayrshire, and to them belonged both Eliffer and Gwendolew. The latter are brought by both from Dungual Hen, or the aged, but in this document he is made grandson of Maxim Guletic, or Maximus the emperor; but in the former and older account he is grandson of Ceretic Guletic, whose pedigree is traced from Confer or Cynfor, the reputed father of Constantine, who usurped the empire in 406. This Ceretic, the Guletic or leader of the North Britons, being four generations earlier than Rhydderch, must have lived in the middle of the fifth century, and I do not hesitate to identify him with the Coroticus to whom St. Patrick addressed his letter written between 432 and 493. It is addressed ‘ad Christianos Corotici Tyranni subditos.’ It is to be given to his soldiers, ‘tradenda militibus mittenda Corotici.’ He will not call them his fellow-citizens (civibus meis), St. Patrick being a native of Strathclyde—sed civibus dæmoniorum. He calls them ‘Socii Scotorum atque Pictorum apostatarum’—the Scots and the apostate Picts of this region. And again he says that his sheep have been plundered by robbers—‘jubente Corotico ... traditor Christianorum in manus Scottorum et Pictorum;’ and again that ‘ingenui homines Christiani in servitute redacti sunt, præsertim indignissimorum pessimorum apostatarumque Pictorum.’ It shows Coroticus as the Guletic, or one of the Tyranni who succeeded the Romans in command of soldiers, and in close contact with apostate Picts. This falling off of the Britons and Picts will be further illustrated in another part of this work. For a more detailed account of the Men of the North, see the Four Ancient Books of Wales, vol. i. chap. x., and the genealogical tables there given. Among the descendants of Dungual Hen will be found another grandson, Nud, also called Hael or liberal, whose son Dryan fought at Ardderyd; and at Yarrow, in the centre of the districts more especially connected with the Roman party, a stone has been found with the following inscription, part of which only can be read:

HIC MEMOR IACETI

LOIN : : : NI : : : : : :

PRINC

PE : : NVDI (LIBERALI)

dVMNOGENI · HIC IACENT

IN TVMVLO dVO FIlII

LIBERALI

This inscription appears to contain the name of Nud Hael or Liberalis, and the word Dumnogeni probably connects him with the Damnonii whom Ptolemy places here.—Proceed. S. A. Scot. vol. iv. p. 539.