Note 786 — Chapter VII · THE TOWNS.

Britain was at last, even as at first, fertilis tyrannorum: and in the agony which preceded her dissolution more so than ever. Aurelius Ambrosius, if a Briton at all, is said to have been born of parents purpura induti: and this is possible at a period when it was unknown to contemporary writers whether a partizan were imperator or only latrunculus. But I suspect that there were not many Britons of rank, or importance in any way, in the fifth century, in those parts of the island where the Romans held sway.