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TheGroans of the Britons (Latin:gemitus Britannorum)[1] is the final appeal made between 446 and 454[2] by theBritons to theRoman military for assistance againstPict andScot raiders. The appeal is first referenced inGildas' 6th-centuryDe Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae;[3] Gildas' account was later repeated in chapter 13 ofBede'sHistoria ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum.[4] According to Gildas, the message was addressed to "Agitius", who is generally identified with the generalFlavius Aetius.[4] The collapsingWestern Roman Empire had few military resources to spare duringits decline, and the record is ambiguous on what the response to the appeal was, if any. According to Gildas and various later medieval sources, such asProcopius, the failure of the Roman armies to secure Britain led the Britons to inviteAnglo-Saxon mercenaries to the island, precipitating theAnglo-Saxon settlement of Britain.
The message is recorded byGildas in hisDe Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae,[3] written in the second quarter of the sixth century and much later repeated byBede. According to these sources, it was a last-ditch plea to "Agitius" for assistance. Agitius is generally identified asAetius,magister militum of theWestern Roman Empire who spent most of the 440s fightinginsurgents inGaul andHispania.[4] The Roman Britons had been beset by raids by thePicts andScots from northern Britain, who were able to pillage far to the south after the Roman armies hadwithdrawn from the island in 407.
Gildas refers to Agitius as "Thrice Consul". If Gildas meant Flavius Aetius, and he was quoting the letter, it would imply that the letter was sent during the time period of his third consulship in 446. If, however, he was using "Thrice Consul" as a means of identifying a famous leader, the letter may have been sent during either of his three consulships: 432, 437, or 446.[5]Leslie Alcock has raised a tentative possibility of the "Agitius" to whom thegemitus is directed actually beingAegidius—though he was never consul.[6] This identification was supported by Stephen Johnson, but rejected byJ. N. L. Myres.[7] Miller left the possibility open.[8] The usurperConstantine III had taken the last Roman troops from Britain in 407 and the civilian administration had been expelled by the natives a little later, leaving the inhabitants to fend for themselves during increasingly fraught times. Parts of the plea were recorded:[9]
Agitio ter consuli, gemitus britannorum. [...] Repellunt barbari ad mare, repellit mare ad barbaros; inter haec duo genera funerum aut iugulamur aut mergimur.
To Agitius [or Aetius], thrice consul: the groans of the Britons. [...] The barbarians drive us to the sea, the sea drives us to the barbarians; between these two means of death, we are either killed or drowned.
The Romans, however, could not assist them, so the Britons were left to their own devices.
A second visit in around 446–7 byGermanus, a former Roman general who had becomeBishop of Auxerre, recorded in hisVita byConstantius of Lyon,[10] could have reflected Aetius' response to the message.[citation needed]
The reference to Aetius' thirdconsulship (446) is useful in dating the increasing strife in Britain during this period. Gildas' mention of the appeal is a minor part of a much larger religiouspolemic, however, which means that the image described may be morehyperbolic than realistic, especially as his sources were probably derived from oral tradition. The traditional picture ofRomano-British society inpost-Roman Britain as besieged and chaotic is also being increasingly challenged byarchaeological evidence which indicates a definitive series of migrations into England on the part of the Saxons.[11]
The viewpoint of Gildas is coloured by his classicising rather than monastic education, based at some remove on the Roman education of arhetor, a source of his elaborated and difficult Latin.[12]
Gildas' narrative describes the Britons as being too impious and plagued by infighting to fend off the Saxons. They managed some successes against the invaders when they placed their faith in God's hands, but they were usually left to suffer greatly. Gildas mentions a "proud tyrant" whoBede names asVortigern as the person who originally invitedGermanic mercenaries to defend the borders.
No answer is recorded to the pleas of the British. There was an increasingAnglo-Saxon settlement of Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries and increasing Anglo-Saxon culture, including language.