The Groans of the Britons () is the final appeal made between 446 and 454 by the Britons to the Roman military for assistance against Pict and Scot raiders. The appeal is first referenced in Gildas' 6th-century De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae; Gildas' account was later repeated in chapter 13 of Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum. According to Gildas, the message was addressed to "Agitius", who is generally identified with the general Flavius Aetius. Leslie Alcock has raised a tentative possibility of the "Agitius" to whom the gemitus is directed actually being Aegidius—though he was never consul. This identification was supported by Stephen Johnson, but rejected by J. N. L. Myres. Miller left the possibility open. The usurper Constantine 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:

The Romans, however, could not assist them, so the Britons were left to their own devices.

Problems of interpretation

A second visit in around 446–7 by Germanus, a former Roman general who had become Bishop of Auxerre, recorded in his Vita by Constantius of Lyon, could have reflected Aetius' response to the message.

The reference to Aetius' third consulship (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 religious polemic, however, which means that the image described may be more hyperbolic than realistic, especially as his sources were probably derived from oral tradition. The traditional picture of Romano-British society in post-Roman Britain as besieged and chaotic is also being increasingly challenged by archaeological evidence which indicates a definitive series of migrations into England on the part of the Saxons.

The viewpoint of Gildas is coloured by his classicising rather than monastic education, based at some remove on the Roman education of a rhetor, a source of his elaborated and difficult Latin.

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" who Bede names as Vortigern as the person who originally invited Germanic mercenaries to defend the borders.

No answer is recorded to the pleas of the British. There was an increasing Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries and increasing Anglo-Saxon culture, including language.

See also

  • End of Roman rule in Britain
  • Battle of Mons Badonicus
  • Sub-Roman Britain
  • Gododdin
  • Kingdom of Gwent
  • Wessex

Notes

References

  • De Excidio Britannae, as translated by John Allen Giles
  • Bede
  • Mummy, Kevin, "The Groans of the Britons: Toward the British Civitates Period ca. 406-455 C.E.", Ex Post Facto: Journal of the History Students at San Francisco State University, 2002
  • Rosenbaum, Sabin, "The Gemitus Britannorum, A Restoration and English Translation of De Excidio, Chapters 19-25"