142 BRITAIN IN THE ROMAN POETS 



In 383 Maximus conducted a splendid and successful 

 campaign against tlie Picts and Scots.^^ He left the 

 island, and, witli the help of the Roman and British 

 soldiers whom he took with him, he became Emperor of 

 the West. No doubt the withdrawal of these troops was 

 the cause of a fresh inroad of Picts, Scots and Saxons. 



In 396 A.D. they were for a time quelled by Stilicho. 



Britannia cries : — 



Me quoque uicinis pereuntem gentibus, inquit, 

 Muniuit Stilicho, totam cum Scotus lernen 

 Mouit, et infesto spumauit remige Tethys. 

 Illius effectum curis ne tela timerem 

 Scotica, ne Pictum tremerem, ne litore toto 

 Prospicerem dubiis uenturum Saxona uentis.'^'' 

 (Me, too, when I was suffering ruin at the hands of neighbouring 

 nations did Stilicho defend, when the Scot disturbed the whole of 

 lerne, and the sea was white with the oars of the foe. It was 

 through his policy that I had no fear of the darts of the Scots 

 nor of the Picts, and that as I looked out, I did not see along the 

 whole line of shore the Saxon borne towards us by shifting winds.) 



But barbarian hordes were pressing on Rome herself. 

 In about 403 a.d. a stream of barbarians under " Alaric 

 the Goth " poured into Italy, and Rome ^^ needed all her 

 best troops for her defence. 



Probably the following lines refer to the withdrawal 

 of the 20th legion. 



Venit et extremis legio praetenta Britannis 

 Quae Scoto dat frena truci, ferroque notatas 

 Perlegit exsangues Picto moriente figuras.** 

 (There came too the legion that is our outpost in furthermost 

 Britain, the legion which curbs the savage Scot and sees, as the Pict 

 dies, the figures branded on him fade.) 



63. Elton, p. 340. (Cf. p. 97 supra.) 



64. Claud. 7. Cons. Stil. ii., 250. For the suggestion that Stilicho 

 never came to Britain himself see Gibbon's Rontan Empire, chap. 30, 

 vol. 3, p. 376, note. 



65. "Exitii iam Roma timens." Claud, de Bell. Get, 416, cf. p. 119 

 supra ; but see also Gibbon, I.e. p. 380. 



66. Claud, de IV. Cons. Hon., 31. 



