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" qui reperirl potuerunt, inermefque colonos, atque inconfultos 

 •' reliquerat. Cum igitur tanta calamitas Maximi^no nun- 

 " tiata fuiffet, mifit GratianuQi municipem cum duobus Legionibus, 

 " qui ut in infulam venerunt prasliati funt cum pr33clidis hof- 

 " tibus, et acerrimo nece afFciSlos ipfos in Hiberniam fugavcrunt. 

 " Interea Maximianus Roma; interfeiflus eft, & Gratianus caspit 

 " Regni Diadema, exin tantam tyrannidem in Populum exer- 

 " cuit, ut catervis fadis irruerunt in ilium plebani, & interfe- 

 " cerunt. Quod cum per ccetera regna divulgatum fuiffet, 

 " reverfi funt praedidli hoftes ex Hibernia, & fecum Scolos, 

 " Norwegenfes, & Dacos conducentes, regnum a mari ufque ad 

 " mare, ferro & Flamma afFec'erunt. Erat autem Albania peni- 

 " tus, frequejitatiojie barbaronan, vajiata. & ^kiinque hojies fu- 

 " pervetjiebant, opportuman intra ipfam habebant receptaculum." 

 Geoff. Mon. Hift. Brit. Lib. 5th, Cap. ult. 



I SHOULD not quote Geoffry of Monmouth as a writer of 

 much authority, if the hiftory he refers to was then a matter 

 of very high antiquity ; but as the event he relates was at a 

 period not very diftant from his own times, I think he deferves 

 attention. We do not rejed the teftimony of the Roman hifto- 

 rians for the expulfion of the Tarquins and the eftablifhment of 

 the commonwealth, though we may give little credit to the tale 

 of ^neas, which yet, for any thing that now appears to the 

 contrary, is as well fupported by antient records as the other. 

 But, as they lived nearer the latter period than the former, we 

 fuppofe them better fupported in the matter of fad. The ac- 

 count however of Geoffry is partly confirmed by Fabius Athel- 



werdus, 



i 



