Page:Le Morte d'Arthur - Volume 1.djvu/13

Rh The first passage to demand attention is written in Latin, for it occurs in the Historia Brittonum with which the name of Nennius is associated. The year of the composition of the Historia Brittonum was, according to M. A. de la Borderie, no other than A.D. 822, and the words relating to Arthur read as follows :—

As regards a historical Arthur, the words here cited are very suggestive, for without explicitly saying that Arthur was one of the kings of the Brythons, they make him the general or dux bellorum, in whom one readily recognises the superior officer, known in the time of Roman rule as the Comes Britanniæ. This office, it may be presumed, was continued after the Roman forces left, with the only difference that the