Note 8 — PART I. AN EPITOME OF THE HISTORY OF ROMAN OCCUPATION IN BRITAIN.

Historians differ as to the degree of credibility due to this author. Mr. Wright, in his Biographia Britannica Literaria, says that his is ‘a name of very doubtful authority.’ Sharon Turner thinks that ‘as far as he can be supported, and made intelligible, by others, he is an acceptable companion, but that he cannot be trusted alone;’ and Mr. Stevenson, in the preface to his edition of the original Latin of Gildas, writes ‘We are unable to speak with certainty as to his parentage, his country, or even his name, the period when he lived, or the works of which he was the author.’ Thus much, however, is certain, that he lived before the time of Bede, and is quoted by him.