Page:Welsh Medieval Law.djvu/33

 superior to almost all the kings of Britannia both in kingdom and in stature ', Maelgwn Gwynedd, insularis draco, dragon of the Isle of Mona. This famous king, who was the head of the house of Cunedda Wledig, is also said by Gildas to have had as instructor one who is described as 'the refined teacher of almost the whole of Britannia', a statement which with the other indications makes it quite clear that the Britannia, with which St. Gildas and his readers are familiar, is neither the island nor Roman Britain, but that western Britannia in Britain which I have given reason to show was the Britannia Superior of the Romans to which afterwards the term Britannia became more exclusively applied.

For it must not be supposed that the Roman provincial system in Britain crumbled away at the departure of the legions from the island. The divisions had been far too long established to perish in a night, especially those into Upper and Lower Britain, but it is probable in view of the troubles, which would afflict the land both from within and without, that the leading civil officials had to give way to the military governors, who alone persisted to protect the Roman tradition. These were the Dux Britanniae in the north, now probably in charge of the land from the Wall of Hadrian to the Humber and Mersey, constituting perhaps one of the provinces of Caesariensis or Lower Britain ; the Comes Littoris Saxonici in the south-east, from the Wash to the Wiltshire Avon or thereabouts, now likewise in probable charge of the whole of the other province of Caesariensis, and finding suc-