Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/60

 40 THE DECLINE AND FALL condition was readily granted by the Roman general ; who meditated an act of perfidy/'^^ imprudent as it was inhuman, while a Saxon remained alive, and in amns, to revenge the fate of his countrymen. The premature eagerness of the infantry, who were secretly posted in a deep valley, betrayed the am- buscade ; 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 {)risoncrs 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 Avith the deepest horror, when they were informed that the Saxons consecrated to the gods the tythe of their human spoil ; and that they ascer- tained by lot the objects of the barbarous sacrifice.^^*^ n. BRITAIN. II, The fabulous colonies of Egyptians and Trojans, of The Scots and ^ "•' ' .' ' picts Scandinavians and Sj)aniards, Avhich flattered the pride, and amused the credulity, of our rude ancestors, have insensibly vanished in the light of science and philosophy.^^^ The present age is satisfied with the simple and rational opinion that the islands of 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 langu- age, of religion, and of manners : and the jjeculiar characters of the British tribes might be naturally ascribed to the influence of accidental and local circumstances.^^- The Roman province was I''® Animian. (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. 110 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 [§ 15]) with Itss inconsistency the human sacrifices of the Saxons. ni In the beginning of the last century the lenrncd Cnmbdon w;is obliged to undermine, with rtspectful scepticism, the romance of Brutus the Trojan, who is now buried in silent oblivion with Scota, the daughter of Pharaoh, and her numer- ous progeny. Yet I am informed that some champions of the Milesian colony may still be found among the original natives of Ireland. people dissaiislied with their present condition grasp at any visions of their past or future glory. 1^" 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 aestimanti Gallos vicmum solum occup&sse credi- bile est. Ekirum sacra deprehendas. . . sermo haud multum diversus (in VJL