264 



APPENDIX ON THE ROMAN-BRITISH 



" Komanus occiderit, Tmperio vincente Romano. Omnes enim 

 " illos, ut audio, campos atque colles non nisi teterrimorum 

 " hostium corpora fusa texerunt. Ilia barbara, ant imitaiione 

 " barbarise olim cultu vestis et prolixo crine rutilantia, tune 

 " vero pulvere et cruore fsedata, et in diversos situs tracta, sicuti 

 " dolorem vulnerum fuerant secuta, jacuerunt. Atque inter hos 

 " ipse Vexillarius latrocinii, cultu illo quern vivus violaverat 

 " sponte deposito, et vix unius velaminis repertus iudicio. Adeo 

 " verura, ubi dixerat, morte vicina, ut interfectum se nollet 

 " agnosci. 



" Enimvero, Caesar invicte, tanto Deorum Immortalium tibi 

 " est addicta consensu, omnium quidem quos adortus fueris 

 "hostium, sed prsecipue interuecio Francorum, ut illi quoque 

 " milites vestri, qxii, per errorem nebulosi (ut paulo ante dixi) 

 " maris abjuncti, ad oppidum Londiniense pervenerant, quidquid 

 " ex mercenaria ilia multitudine barbarorum prselio superfuerunt, 

 " cum direpta civitate fugam. capessere cogitarent, passim tota 

 " urbe confecerint, et non solum provincialibus vestris in csede 

 " hostium dederint salutem, sed etiam in spectaculo voluptatem." 



The inferences to be drawn from this narrative appear to me 

 to correspond with those which I derive from the evidence of the 

 buried weapons and coins, and the tumuli upon the ridges sur- 

 rounding the basin of Woolmer Forest. If (as is manifestly pro- 

 bable) Asclepiodotus landed between Portsmouth and Chichester, 

 and if Portsmouth was the harbour near which Allectus took up 

 the position which he so hastily abandoned, he would naturally 

 fall back upon Clausentum (Southampton) and Venta (Win- 

 chester), by the ordinary Eoman " Iter : " and, after collecting 

 whatever treasure he found in those places, the more southerly 

 road, corresponding with that which now goes by way of Aires- 

 ford * and Alton 2 towards Farnham and London, would probabty 



1 A writer on the antiquities of the neighbourhood of Bicester, Oxon., in Kennett's 

 " Parochial Antiquities," supposes (somewhat fancifully) that the first syllable of 

 the name of Alresford, and of some other places, was derived from Allectus. 



2 Farnham was a military station ; whether identical with " Vindomis " or not 

 is a matter of controversy. Alton was certainly a Roman town. About thirty 

 or forty years ago some interesting remains were found there, in ground now 

 occupied as a timber-yard by Messrs. Dyer, some of which are still in the posses- 

 sion of the Messrs. Dyer, and others are in the British Museum. They consisted 



