BRITAIN IN THE ROMAN POETS 141 



day. An old man points out the changes to the son of a 

 former Governor: — 



Cum tibi longaeuus referet trucis incola terrae : 

 Hie suetus dare iura parens, hoc caespite turmas 

 Adfari uictor ; speculas castellaque longe 

 (Aspicis?) ille dedit cinxitque haec moenia fossa; 

 Belligeris ha«c dona deis, haec tela dicauit 

 (Cernis adhuc titulos) : hunc ipse uocantibiis armis 

 Induit, hunc regi rapuit thoraca Britanno." 



(When the aged inhabitant of the savage land tells you " Here 

 was your father wont to lay down the law, on this mound' of turf 

 as victor to address his squadrons, he it was who set up watch- 

 towers and distant forts (do you see them?), and who girdled these 

 walls with a ditch. He dedicated to the gods of war these gifts 

 and these weapons. (You can still see the inscriptions.) This corse- 

 let he put on at the call to arms, and this corselet he seized from 

 a Jtsritish king." 



Let us return to the military events in the island. 

 After Juvenal there is a long silence about Britain. 

 During the third century a.d. the Picts and Scots and 

 Saxons became more and more formidable by land 

 and sea. In a.d. 368, in the reign of Valentinian, 

 Theodosius was sent to Britain.^i His exploits are told 

 with much exaggeration by the poet Claudian: — 



Ille Caledoniis posuit qui castra pruinis 



debellatorque Britanni 



Litoris 



Maduerunt Saxone fuso 



Orcades, incaluit Pictorum sanguine Thule, 



Scotorum cumulos fleuit glacialis lerne." 

 (He who pitched his camp in frosty Caledonia, 

 • • • - who utterly conquered the British shore. 

 The Orcades islands were wet with the slaughter of Saxons 

 Thule reeked with the blood of the Picts, icy lerne 

 Bewailed the piles of dead Scots.) 



60. Stat. Silu. v., 2, 143. 



61. Ammianus Marcellinus xxvii., xxviii. 



62. De IV. Cons. Honor., 26—33. 



