of Drusus was admitted with mutual credulity, as it was conducive to mutual interest." An army of fourscore thousand Burgundians soon appeared on the banks of the Rhine, and impatiently required the support and subsidies which Valentinian had promised; but they were amused with excuses and delays, till at length, after a fruitless expectation, they were compelled to retire. The arms and fortifications of the Gallic frontier checked the fury of their just resentment; and their massacre of the captives served to embitter the hereditary feud of the Burgundians and the Alemanni. The inconstancy of a wise prince may perhaps be explained by some alteration of circumstances; and perhaps it was the original design of Valentinian to intimidate rather than to destroy; as the balance of power would have been equally overturned by the extirpation of either of the German nations. Among the princes of the Alemanni, Macrianus, who, with a Roman name, had assumed the arts of a soldier and a statesman, deserved his hatred and esteem. The emperor himself, with a light and unincumbered band, condescended to pass the Rhine, marched fifty miles into the country, and would infallibly have seized the object of his pursuit, if his judicious measures had not been defeated by the impatience of the troops. Macrianus was afterwards admitted to the honour of a personal conference with the emperor; and the favours which he received fixed him, till the hour of his death, a steady and sincere friend of the republic.100

The land was covered by the fortifications of Valentinian; but the sea-coast of Gaul and Britain was exposed to the depredaThe Saxons. tions of the Saxons. That celebrated name, in which we have a dear and domestic interest, escaped the notice of Tacitus ; and in the maps of Ptolemy it faintly marks the narrow neck of the Cimbric peninsula, and three small islands towards the mouth of the Elbe.101 This contracted territory, the present duchy of Schleswig, or perhaps of Holstein, was incapable of pouring forth the inexhaustible swarms of Saxons who reigned over the ocean, who filled the

9 Jam inde temporibus priscis sobolem se esse Romanam Burgundii sciunt: and the vague tradition gradually assumed a more regular form (Oros. I. vii. c. 32). It is annihilated by the decisive authority of Pliny, who composed the History of Drusus, and served in Germany (Plin. Secund. Epist. iii. 5), within sixty years after the death of that hero. Germanorum genera quinque; Vindili, quorum pars Burgundiones, &c. (Hist. Natur. iv. 28).

100 The wars and negociations relative to the Burgundians and Alemanni are distinctly related by Ammianus Marcellinus (xxviii. 5, xxix. 4, xxx. 3). Orosius (1. vii. c. 32), and the Chronicles of Jerom and Cassiodorus, fix some dates and add some circumstances.

101 Ἐπὶ τὸν αὐχένα της Κιμβρικῆς Χερσονήσου, Σάξονες. At the northern extremity of the peninsula (the Cimbric promontory of Pliny, iv. 27) Ptolemy fixes the remnant of the Cimbri. He fills the interval between the Sarons and the Cimbri with six obscure tribes, who were united, as early as the sixth century, under the national appellation of Danes. See Cluver. German. Antiq. 1. iii. c. 21, 22, 23.

British island with their language, their laws, and their colonies, and who so long defended the liberty of the North against the arms of Charlemagne.10 The solution of this difficulty is easily derived from the similar manners and loose constitution of the tribes of Germany, which were blended with each other by the slightest accidents of war or friendship. The situation of the native Saxons disposed them to embrace the hazardous professions of fishermen and pirates; and the success of their first adventures would naturally excite the emulation of their bravest countrymen, who were impatient of the gloomy solitude of their woods and mountains. Every tide might float down the Elbe whole fleets of canoes, filled with hardy and intrepid associates, who aspired to behold the unbounded prospect of the ocean, and to taste the wealth and luxury of unknown worlds. It should seem probable, however, that the most numerous auxiliaries of the Saxons were furnished by the nations who dwelt along the shores of the Baltic. They possessed arms and ships, the art of navigation, and the habits of naval war; but the difficulty of issuing through the northern Columns of Hercules103 (which during several months of the year are obstructed with ice) confined their skill and courage within the limits of a spacious lake. The rumour of the successful armaments which sailed from the mouth of the Elbe would soon provoke them to cross the narrow isthmus of Schleswig, and to launch their vessels on the great sea. The various troops of pirates and adventurers who fought under the same standard were insensibly united in a permanent society, at first of rapine, and afterwards of government. A military confederation was gradually moulded into

102 M. d'Anville (Etablissement des Etats de l'Europe, &c., p. 19-26) has marked the extensive limits of the Saxony of Charlemagne.

103 The fleet of Drusus had failed in their attempt to pass, or even to approach, the Sound (styled, from an obvious resemblance, the Columns of Hercules), and the naval enterprise was never resumed (Tacit. de Moribus German. c. 34). The knowledge which the Romans acquired of the naval powers of the Baltic (c. 44, 45) was obtained by their land journeys in search of amber.

a Another solution has been proposed by Dr. Latham, which seems to me very probable. He supposes that Saxon was a general appellation given by the Kelts of Britain to the Germans of the sea-coast, and the water systems of the Lower Rhine, Weser, Lower Elbe, and Eyder; to low Germans on the Rhine, to Frisians and Saxons on the Elbe, and to North Frisians on the Eyder. He observes that "Saxon "was a word like Greek, i, e. a term which, "in the language of the Hellenes, was so "very special, partial, and unimportant, as "to have been practically a foreign term, "or, at least, anything but a native name, "whilst in that of the Romans it was one

04

a national body by the gentle operation of marriage and consanguinity; and the adjacent tribes, who solicited the alliance, accepted the name and laws of the Saxons. If the fact were not established by the most unquestionable evidence, we should appear to abuse the credulity of our readers by the description of the vessels in which the Saxon pirates ventured to sport in the waves of the German Ocean, the British Channel, and the Bay of Biscay. The keel of their large flat-bottomed boats was framed of light timber, but the sides and upper works consisted only of wicker, with a covering of strong hides. In the course of their slow and distant navigations they must always have been exposed to the danger, and very frequently to the misfortune, of shipwreck; and the naval annals of the Saxons were undoubtedly filled with the accounts of the losses which they sustained on the coasts of Britain and Gaul. But the daring spirit of the pirates braved the perils both of the sea and of the shore: their skill was confirmed by the habits of enterprise; the meanest of their mariners was alike capable of handling an oar, of rearing a sail, or of conducting a vessel; and the Saxons rejoiced in the appearance of a tempest, which concealed their design, and dispersed the fleets of the enemy. 105 After they had acquired an accurate knowledge of the maritime provinces of the West they extended the scene of their depredations, and the most sequestered places had no reason to presume on their security. The Saxon boats drew so little water that they could easily proceed fourscore or an hundred miles up the great rivers; their weight was so inconsiderable that they were transported on waggons from one river to another; and the pirates who had entered the mouth of the Seine or of the Rhine might descend, with the rapid stream of the Rhone, into the Mediterranean. Under the reign of Valentinian the maritime provinces of Gaul were afflicted by the Saxons: a military count was stationed for the defence of the sea-coast, or Armorican limit; and that officer, 104 Quin et Aremoricus piratam Sarona tractus Sperabat; cui pelle salum sulcare Britannum Ludus; et assuto glaucum mare findere lembo.

A.D. 371.

Sidon. in Panegyr. Avit. 369.

The genius of Cæsar imitated, for a particular service, these rude, but light vessels, which were likewise used by the natives of Britain (Comment. de Bell. Civil. i. 54, and Guichardt, Nouveaux Mémoires Militaires, tom. ii. p. 41, 42). The British vessels would now astonish the genius of Cæsar.

105 The best original account of the Saxon pirates may be found in Sidonius Apollinaris (1. viii. Epist. 6, p. 223, edit. Sirmond), and the best commentary in the Abbé du Bos (Hist. Critique de la Monarchie Françoise, &c., tom. i. 1. i. c. 16, p. 148–155. See likewise p. 77, 78).

"It would appear, however, that the Saxons were settled at this time on the coast of Gaul, since in the Notitia (Imp. Occid. c. 36), which must have been

drawn up at this period, or shortly afterwards, the "Littus Saxonicum" is mentioned as part of the Armorican limit. In the Notitia the settlement is

who found his strength or his abilities unequal to the task, implored the assistance of Severus, master-general of the infantry. The Saxons, surrounded and outnumbered, were forced to relinquish their spoil, and to yield a select band of their tall and robust youth to serve in the Imperial armies. They stipulated only a safe and honourable retreat; and the condition was readily granted by the Roman general, who meditated an act of perfidy,106 imprudent as it was inhuman, while a Saxon remained alive and in arms to revenge the fate of his countrymen. The premature eagerness of the infantry, who were secretly posted in a deep valley, betrayed the ambuscade; and they would perhaps have fallen the victims of their own treachery, if a large body of cuirassiers, alarmed by the noise of the combat, had not hastily advanced to extricate their companions, and to overwhelm the undaunted valour of the Saxons. Some of the prisoners were saved from the edge of the sword to shed their blood in the amphitheatre ; and the orator Symmachus complains that twenty-nine of those desperate savages, by strangling themselves with their own hands, had disappointed the amusement of the public. Yet the polite and philosophic citizens of Rome were impressed with the deepest horror when they were informed that the Saxons consecrated to the gods the tithe of their human spoil; and that they ascertained by lot the objects of the barbarous sacrifice.107

II. The fabulous colonies of Egyptians and Trojans, of Scandinavians and Spaniards, which flattered the pride and amused II. BRITAIN. the credulity of our rude ancestors, have insensibly vanished The Scots in the light of science and philosophy. 108 The present age is satisfied with the simple and rational opinion that the islands of

and Picts.

106 Ammian. (xxviii. 5) justifies this breach of faith to pirates and robbers; and Orosius (1. vii. c. 32) more clearly expresses their real guilt; virtute atque agilitate terribiles.

107 Symmachus (1. ii. Epist. 46) still presumes to mention the sacred names of Socrates and philosophy. Sidonius, bishop of Clermont, might condemn (1. viii. Epist. 6), with less inconsistency, the human sacrifices of the Saxons.

108 In the beginning of the last century the learned Camden was obliged to undermine, with respectful scepticism, the romance of Brutus the Trojan, who is now buried in silent oblivion, with Scot, the daughter of Pharaoh, and her numerous progeny. Yet

named Grannona, of which the site is uncertain; but subsequently we find the Saxons permanently settled near Bayeux. In the Notitia (Imp. Occid. c. 25) the "Littus Saxonicum per Britannias" is also mentioned, which would show that the Saxons were settled in our island earlier than is usually supposed, probably at the same time as their brethren on the opposite coast of Gaul. It has indeed been usually supposed that the "Littus Saxonicum" derived its name from the enemy to whose attacks it was exposed;

but this loose mode of philological and historical interpretation, which was adopted to save the credit of the popular traditions, has been condemned by the best modern critics. Lappenberg, Hist. of England, translated by Thorpe, vol. i. p. 46; Kemble, The Saxons in England, vol. i. p. 13; Palgrave, Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth, vol. i. p. 384.

On the Saxon settlements in England see Editor's note, c. xxxviii. note 129.-S.

Great Britain and Ireland were gradually peopled from the adjacent continent of Gaul. From the coast of Kent, to the extremity of Caithness and Ulster, the memory of a Celtic origin was distinctly preserved in the perpetual resemblance of language, of religion, and of manners: and the peculiar characters of the British tribes might be naturally ascribed to the influence of accidental and local circumstances.109 The Roman province was reduced to the state of civilised and peaceful servitude: the rights of savage freedom were contracted to the narrow limits of Caledonia. The inhabitants of that northern region were divided, as early as the reign of Constantine, between the two great tribes of the Scors and of the PICTS,110 who have since experienced a very different fortune. The power, and almost the memory, of the Picts have been extinguished by their successful rivals; and the Scots, after maintaining for ages the dignity of an independent kingdom, have multiplied, by an equal and voluntary union, the honours of the English name. The hand of nature had contributed to mark the ancient distinction of the Scots and Picts. The former were the men of the hills, and the latter those of the plain. The eastern coast of Caledonia may be considered as a level and fertile country, which, even in a rude state of tillage, was capable of producing a considerable quantity of corn; and the epithet of cruitnich, or wheat-eaters, expressed the contempt or envy of the carnivorous highlander. The cultivation of the earth might intro

I am informed that some champions of the Milesian colony may still be found among the original natives of Ireland. A people dissatisfied with their present condition grasp at any visions of their past or future glory.

...

109 Tacitus, or rather his father-in-law Agricola, might remark the German or Spanish complexion of some British tribes. But it was their sober, deliberate opinion: "In universum tamen æstimanti Gallos vicinum solum occupâsse credibile est. Eorum sacra deprehendas . . . sermo haud multum diversus" (in Vit. Agricol. c. xi.). Cæsar had observed their common religion (Comment. de Bello Gallico, vi. 13); and in his time the emigration from the Belgic Gaul was a recent, or at least an historical event (v. 12). Camden, the British Strabo, has modestly ascertained our genuine antiquities (Britannia, vol. i. Introduction, p. ii.-xxxi.).

110 In the dark and doubtful paths of Caledonian antiquity, I have chosen for my guides two learned and ingenious Highlanders, whom their birth and education had peculiarly qualified for that office. See Critical Dissertations on the Origin, Antiquities, &c., of the Caledonians, by Dr. John Macpherson, London, 1768, in 4to.; and Introduction to the History of Great Britain and Ireland, by James Macpherson, Esq., London, 1773, in 4to. third edit. Dr. Macpherson was a minister in the Isle of Skye: and it is a circumstance honourable for the present age, that a work replete with erudition and criticism should have been composed in the most remote of the Hebrides.

a Mr. Garnett observes, "The idea that "they were called Cruithneach by the "Gael, because they were eaters of wheat, 66 appears to have no sufficient foundation. "Both Lhuyd and O'Brien concur in re"garding the word as equivalent to Crith"neach, variegated, from their custom of "staining their bodies. Cruithneach may

"be regularly derived from cruth, figure "or shape; and in this case both terms, as "well as the present name of the "Bretons-Brezounek, from Brez, Welsh "brith, variegated- would be synonymous "with the Latin Picti." Transactions of the Philological Society, vol. i. p. 123. S.