ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
571 
his position, and retreated inland, as soon as the sails of 
the ships which followed with Constantins came in sight. 
His retreat was cut off, and his army surprised, after it had 
advanced some distance into the interior, by the force under 
Asclepiodotus. The British troops were totally routed, and 
Allectus and many of his followers were slain ; whose bodies, 
distinguished by their long, fair hair, and gay, barbaric apparel, 
were found dispersed over hill and plain in various directions 
— while scarcely one Eoman soldier perished. The remnant of 
the British army made its way to London, intending first to 
pillage, and then to abandon that city ; but, meeting there with 
those troops of Constantius who had sailed up the Thames, it 
was put to the sword. And thus Britain was recovered to the 
Eoman empire. 
Such (supplying only, from other sources, some of the intro- 
ductory facts, with the names of Asclepiodotus, and of Carausius, 
whom the orator calls the " arch-pirate," and Allectus, whom he 
styles a " satellite " of Carausius, and the " standard-bearer " of 
the rebel party) is the substance of what we learn from 
Eumenius. The passages most material to the question of 
the identity of the battle-field with Woolmer Forest, are sub- 
joined, in the original Latin. 
" Ad tempus ipsum tant* se dorso maris nebulae miscuerunt, 
" ut inimica classis, apud Yectam insulam in speculis atque 
" insidiis collocata, ignorantibus omnino hostibus praiteriretur. . . 
" Jam vero idem ille vestro auspicio invictus exercitus, statim 
" atque Britannise litus invaserat, universis navibus suis injecit 
" ignes. . . . Ipse autem Signifer nefari£e factionis, cur ab eo 
" litore, quod tenebat, abscessit, cur classem portumque deseruit, 
nisi quod te, Caesar invicte, cujus imminentia vela conspexerat, 
"timuit jam jamque venturum ? . . . Te tamen ille fugiens, 
" incidit in tuorum manus ; a te victus, a tuis exercitibus 
oppressus est. Denique adeo trepidus, et te post terga respi- 
ciens, et in modum amentis attoniti properavit in mortem, ut 
" nec expli caret aciem, nec omnes copias quas trahebat instruxerit, 
" sed cum veteribus illis conjurationis auctoribus, et mercenariis 
cuneis barbarorum, tanti apparatus oblitus, irruerit. Adeo, 
Caesar, hoc etiam reipublicae tribuit vestra felicitas, ut nemo fere 
