HISTORY. 249 



sudden, but that they twice returned to expel the disorderly 

 foe from the Hadrian Wall ; and the advent of the new warriors 

 was not secured by national compact, until they had given fatal 

 proof of their power by many piratical descents. In her last 

 struggle for Britain, Rome had not only to guard the Wall from 

 the unsubdued Picts of the North, but also to repel the Saxons 

 from the South and the East. When Maximus contended for 

 empire, he carried off to die at Aquileia (A.D. 388) or in Armo- 

 rica the guardian legions and the warlike youth of Britain ; in- 

 cursions from the north succeeded; petitions went to Rome, 

 and Stilicho sent a legion to the succour of the province (A.D. 

 397 or 399, according to Turner). Recalled by the invasion of 

 Alaric* to the great fight at Pollentia (A.D. 402), the victorious 

 troops returned again to expel the Picts from the long-contested 

 Wall. In 406 Constantino was elected their emperor, and his 

 and their arms triumphed in Gaul and Spain, till the treason of 

 his officer Gerontius was succeeded by his captivity at Aries, 

 A.D. 411. In 410 Rome, no longer defended by Stilicho, was 

 sacked by the Goths ; but before that (A.D. 409) the Picts and 

 Scots were ravaging the north, and the cities of Britain, deprived 

 of their soldiers, refused obedience to the Imperial authority, 

 declared independence, and were abandoned by the despair of 

 Honoriusf. 



Forty years of civil discord followed of strife between Roman 

 and British parties between civitates accustomed to municipal 

 privileges and colonial rights, and chieftains who more than ever 

 trusted to the sword. There is no history of these dissensions J, 

 but the mournful pages of Gildas declare the result to be in- 

 terminable civil wars, not ending even in the readmission of the 



* Gibbon, v. 194. 



t Zosimus, lib. vi. quoted by Gibbon. 



J A.D. 418. In the ninth year after the sacking of Rome by the Goths, 

 those of Roman race who were left in Britain, not bearing the manifold 

 insults of the people, bury their treasures in pits, thinking that hereafter 

 they might have better fortune, which never was the case ; and taking a 

 portion, assemble on the coast, spread their canvas to the winds, and seek 

 an exile on the shores of Gaul. Ethelwerd's Chronicle. 



