Note 784 — Chapter VII · THE TOWNS.

Æðelweard says of the Romans: “Urbes etiam atque castella, necnon pontes plateasque mirabili ingenio condiderunt, quae usque in hodiernam diem videntur.” Chron. lib. i. And William of Malmesbury argues how greatly the Romans valued Britain from the vast remains of their buildings extant when he wrote. “Romani Britanniam ... magna dignatione coluere; ut et in annalibus legere, et in veterum aedificiorum vestigiis est videre.” Gest. Reg. lib. i. cp. 1. The following is his account of the state in which the island was left: “Ita cum tyranni nullum in agris praeter semibarbaros, nullum in urbibus praeter ventri deditos reliquissent, Britannia omni patrocinio iuvenilis vigoris viduata, omni exercitio artium exinanita, conterminarum gentium inhiationi diu obnoxia fuit. Siquidem, e vestigio, Scottorum et Pictorum incursione multi mortales caesi, villae succensae, urbes sub-rutae, prorsus omnia ferro incendioque vastata; turbati insulani, qui omnia tutiora putarent quam praelio decernere, partim pedibus salutem quaerentes fuga in montana contendunt, partim sepultis thesauris, quorum plerique in hac aetate defodiuntur, Romam ad petendas suppetias intendunt.” Gest. Reg. lib. i. cap. 2, 3. But Rome had then enough to do to defend herself, for those were the days of Alaric and Attila. The emptying the island of all the fighting men by Maximus is a very ancient fiction. Archbishop Usher makes him carry over to the continent thirty thousand soldiers, and one hundred thousand plebeii, which have settled in Armorica. Antiq. Eccles. Brittan. pp. 107, 108. We may admit the number of the soldiery; the Roman force, with the levies, probably amounted to as many. But who were the plebeii? Beda gives a similar account of the condition of Britain: “Exin Brittania, in parte Brittonum, omni armato milite, militaribus copiis universis, tota floridae iuventutis alacritate, spoliata, quae tyrannorum temeritate abducta nusquam ultra domum rediit, praedae tantum patuit, utpote omnis bellici usus prorsus ignara.” Hist. Eccl. i. 12. cf. Gild. xiv.