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Marcellin'us drops the pen, and in 388 occurs the first devastation 

 mentioned by that historian. "Then it was that Britain, deprived of 

 every mihtary garrison and force, and of a great part of her own 

 youth, (who having followed the campaigns of Maximus, never return- 

 ed more,) and being ignorant of all art of war, and for the first time 

 left at the mercy of transmarine nations, of the most oppressive cha- 

 racter, the Scots from the West and the Pictsfrom the 'North, groaned 

 in stupified endurance for many years ; until at last the Britons, 

 unable to sustain the rush of Scots and Picts, and their dreadful 

 tyranny, sent emissaries to Rome with letters, praying with tearful 

 entreaties a military force to defend them, and vowing to subject 

 themselves for the future to the Roman authority, with all the devo- 

 tion of their hearts, provided the enemy were repelled from amongst 

 them. To which request a legion was immediately granted, consist- 

 ing of warriors regardless of past misfortunes in that quarter, and 

 abundantly furnished with arms. These auxiliaries, having crossed 

 into Britain, engaged those sore opponents, (gravibus hostibus,) and 

 having slain a great multitude of them, both freed the borders from 

 their incursions, and the natives, who were subject to such cruel per- 

 secution, from imminent captivity."* Bede confirms this account, but 



* " Exin Britannia, omni armato milite militaribusque copiis [privata], rectoribus linquitur im- 

 manibus, ingentijuventute spoliata, quae comitata vestigiis supradicti tyranni(Maximi) domum 

 nusquam ultra rediit ; et omnia belli usus ignora penitus, duabus primum gentibus transma- 

 rinis vehementer ssevis, Scotorum a circione, Pictorum ab aquilone, calcabilis multos stupet 

 gemitque per annos. Gens igitur Britonum Scotorum Pictorumque impetum non ferens 

 * * * ac dirissimam depressionem, legates Romam cum epistolis mittit,militarem manum ad se 

 vindicandam, lachrymosis postulationibus poscens, et subjectionem sui Romano Imperio con- 

 tinue toto animi virtute (si hostis longius arceretur) vovens. Cui mox destinatur legio praete- 

 riti mali immemor, sufficienter armis instructa. Quae ratibus trans oceanum in patriam ad- 

 vecta, et cominus cum gravibus hostibus congressa, magnamque ex eis multitudinem sternens, 

 et omnes a finibus depulit, et subjectos elves tarn atroci dilaceratione ex imminenti captivitate 

 liberavit." — Hist. Gild. cs. 11 and 12. 



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