714 SAXO N. 
Yoxford, on the road to Halesworth. The town stands on a 
hill. The houses, about 400 in number, are in general 
well built, but the streets are narrow and unpaved. The 
church is a spacious building, and contains various monu¬ 
ments of the Long family. Here is also a dissenting 
meeting-house. At the southern extremity of the town 
stands Hurts Hall, a seat belonging to Charles Long, Esq. 
No particular manufacture is carried on in the town. 
Market on Thursday. Population 967; 19 miles east of 
Ipswich, and 89 north-east of London. 
SAXO, the oldest of the Danish historians, called 
Grammaticus, on account of his great learning, was de¬ 
scended from an illustrious family, and born in Seland, 
but at what time is not known. By some writers he is 
styled Longus, an epithet which is supposed to have been 
applied to him in consequence of his stature. He was se¬ 
cretary or amanuensis to Absolon, archbishop of Lunden, 
by whose desire he wrote the history of his native country, 
in sixteen books. This history commences with Dan, the 
first king of Denmark, who was contemporary with David, 
and terminates with the year 1186. Saxo died in 1204, 
and was buried in the cathedral of Roskild. He collected the 
materials of his history from the works of the old Danish 
poets, inscriptions on old stones, the Icelandic chronicles, 
and the relation that had been drawn up by his friend and 
patron Absolon. He wrote in Latin, and the style, consi¬ 
dering the age in which it was written, is extremely elegant, 
but rather too poetical for history. He is highly applauded 
by Heinsius and Gerard Vossius; and Erasmus, speaking of 
his history, says, “ Probo vividum et ardens ingenium, 
orationem nunquam remissam aut dormitantem, turn miram 
verborum copiam, sententias crebras, et figurarum admira- 
bilem varietatem, ut satis admirari, nequeam unde ilia estate 
homini Dano tanta vis eloquendi suppetiverit.” With 
respect to the authenticity of the facts, Holberg remarks 
that the first part, which relates to the origin of the Danes 
and the reign of the ancient kings, is full of fables, but 
that the last eight books, and particularly those that refer 
to the events of the author’s own times, deserve the utmost 
credit. 
SAXON, s. An inhabitant of Saxony, or descendant 
from its aborigines. 
The Anglo-Saxons, who transported themselves from the 
Cimbric peninsula and its vicinity, in the fifth and sixth 
centuries, into England, were branches of the grand Saxon 
confederation, which, from the Elbe, extended itself at 
last to the Rhine. The hostilities of these formidable 
people had long distressed the western regions of Europe, 
and when the Gothic nations overran the most valuable pro¬ 
vinces of Rome, the Anglo-Saxons invaded Britain soon 
after the Romans had quitted it. As these new conquerors 
advanced, their laws, language, manners, government, and 
barbarism overspread the land. 
The Saxon name, which became, on the continent, the 
appellation of a confederacy of nations, denoted at first a 
single state. The first writer who seems to have mentioned 
the Saxons, was Ptolemy, the famous Alexandrian geo¬ 
grapher. From him we learn, that before the year 141 
after Christ, a people, called Saxones, inhabited a territory 
at the north side of the Elbe, on the neck of the Cimbric 
Chersonesus, now Jutland, and three small islands, at the 
mouth of this river; but they were at this period of no great 
importance. Attempts have been made to trace their history 
beyond this period ; and in doing this, many wild and in¬ 
consistent fictions have been framed. One author investi¬ 
gates their origin among the Scythians, and is of opinion, 
that the Sakai, or Sacae, a powerful tribe of this nation, 
were their progenitors. Sakai-suna, or the sons of the 
Sakai, abbreviated into Saksun, which has the same sound 
with Saxon, seems to be, as he conceives, a reasonable 
etymology of the word Saxon. Strabo places the Sacae 
eastward of the Caspian, and he leads us to conclude, that 
in some of their hostile excursions, they seized on Bac- 
triana and the most fertile part of Armenia, which from 
them derived the name of Sacassena, and that they reached 
the Cappadoces on the Euxine. Some of these ma¬ 
rauding Sacae or Sacassani might probably be driven 
forward to the western coasts of Europe, where they were 
found by Ptolemy, and whence they molested the Roman 
empire in the third century of our era. The three islands 
which the Saxons occupied in the time of Ptolemy were 
those that are now denominated North Strandt, Busen and 
Heiligland. On the continent they also occupied a terri¬ 
tory, which was situated on the western side of the Cimbric 
peninsula, between the Elbe and the Eyder. From these 
countries our Saxon ancestors made their incursions in the 
time of Ptolemy, and from them they spread terror through 
Europe, when their attention became directed to maritime 
depredations. The second writer who mentions the Saxons 
was Eutropius, who lived above a century after Ptolemy. 
In accounting for the rebellion of Carausius, and his as¬ 
sumption of the purple, he states the Saxons to have united 
with the Franks, and to have become formidable to the 
Romans by their piratical enterprises. During the interval 
that had elapsed from the age of Ptolemy, the Saxons had 
prospered ; and their prosperity seems to have arisen from 
the repulse of the Romans from the Elbe to the Rhine, 
from the rise of the Franks, A. D. 235-240, and from their 
own application to maritime expeditions. In the begin¬ 
ning of the 4th century the Saxon fleets acquired an au¬ 
dition of strength from the union of other states, and their 
league with concurring princes was extended. The Chauci 
led the way; the Frisii followed ; and at length the Cha- 
mavi, the Batavi, the Toxandri, and Morini, became their 
allies. The Cimbri, the Jutes, the Angles, and others, 
added their numbers to the formidable league, which began 
to dissolve after their expedition to Britain. As the bound¬ 
aries of the Saxon states enlarged with their leagues, they 
comprehended the population between the Elbe and the 
Weser; from the Weser they reached to the Ems, and 
diffused themselves to the Rhine. The allies of the Saxons, 
however, with whom the history of Britain is most con¬ 
nected, were the Jutes and the Angles. At length, A. D. 
368, the Saxons with their allies assaulted the maritime 
coasts of Britain; but were defeated by Theodosius. In 
the year 370 they were repulsed by the Romans on the con¬ 
tinent; but before the lapse of many years, they renewed 
their depredations and defeated Maximus. At the close of 
the fourth century they exercised the activity and resources 
of Stilicho; but in consequence of the prevailing triumphs 
of Charlemagne, the celebrity and power of the Saxons on 
the continent ceased. Soon after the period above men¬ 
tioned, the Saxon invasion of England occurred. In the 
year 449 Hengist and Horsa made a descent on the British 
coast; and the achievement of Hengist was a beacon of 
emulation to the maritime part of the Saxon confederation, 
and assisted to convert it from naval piracy to views of re¬ 
gular conquest in Britain. Ella was'the next Saxon chieftain, 
or king, who invaded Britain; and though he with his three 
sons came only with three ships to the Sussex coast, they 
succeeded in gaining a settlement, and by slow degrees they 
enlarged their conquests on the coast. Eighteen years after 
Ella’s arrival, another powerful colony of Saxons arrived 
in the island, under the auspices of Cerdic, who, as well as 
Hengist and Horsa, derived its genealogy from Woden. 
Under Cerdic, the Isle of Wight, Hampshire, and Bucking¬ 
hamshire witnessed the triumphs of the Saxons; and Somer¬ 
setshire, Wiltshire, and Oxfordshire experienced those of 
his son. At length they established a kingdom so powerful 
as to absorb every other sovereignty. The progress of 
Cerdic, however, was long resisted by Arthur, the British 
chieftain ; and this brave resistance on the part of the Britons 
was celebrated by the bards of Bretagne, so that Arthur be¬ 
came the popular hero. 
About fifty-two years after the expedition of Cerdic, 
and almost a century after the landing of Hengist on the 
island, another fleet of warriors directed their course to the 
North. Those who had hitherto arrived were Jutes and 
Saxons; 
