[Sidenote:  Sidon.  Apol. li. 8.  Epist.] To the which Sidonius Apollinaris thus alludeth, writing to Namatius.  “The messenger did assuredlie affirme, that latelie ye blew the trumpet to warre in your nation, and betwixt the office one while of a mariner, and another while of a souldier, wafted about the [Sidenote:  The pirasie of the Saxons.] crooked shores of the ocean sea against the fleet of the Saxons, of whome as manie rouer as ye behold, so manie archpirats ye suppose to see:  so doo they altogither with one accord command, obeie, teach, and learne to plaie the parts of rouers, that euen now there is good occasion to warne you to beware.  This enimie is more cruell than all other enimies.  He assaileth at vnwares, he escapeth by forseeing the danger afore hand, he despiseth those that stand against him, he throweth downe the vnwarie:  if he be followed he snappeth them vp that pursue him, if he flee he escapeth.”

Of like effect for proofe heereof be those verses which he wrote vnto Maiorianus his panegyrike oration, following in Latine and in English verse.

  Tot maria intraui duce te, longeq; remotas
  Sole sub occiduo gentes, victricia Caesar
  Signa Calidonios transuexit ad vsq; Britannos,
  Fuderit & quanquam Scotum, & cum Saxone Pictum,
  Hostes quaesiuit quem iam natura vetabat,
  Quaerere plus homines, &c.

So manie seas I entred haue, and nations farre by west, By thy conduct, and Caesar hath his banners borne full prest Vnto the furthest British coast, where Calidonians dwell, The Scot and Pict with Saxons eke, though he subdued fell, Yet would he enimies seeke vnknowne whom nature had forbid, &c.

¶ Thus much haue we thought good to gather out of the Romane and other writers, that ye might perceiue the state of Britaine the better in that time of the decaie of the Romane empire, and that ye might haue occasion to marke by the waie, how not onelie the Scots, but also the Saxons had attempted to inuade the Britains, before anie mention is made of the same their attempts by the British and English writers.  But whether the Scots had anie habitation within the bounds of Britaine, till the time supposed by the Britaine writers, we leaue that point to the iudgement of others that be trauelled in the search of such antiquities, onelie admonishing you, that in the Scotish chronicle you shall find the opinion which their writers haue conceiued of this matter, and also manie things touching the acts of the Romans doone against diuerse of the Britains, which they presume to be doone against their nation, though shadowed vnder the generall name of Britains, or of other particular names, at this daie to most men vnknowne.  But whensoeuer the Scots came into this Ile, they made the third nation that inhabited the same, comming first out of [Sidenote:  Polydor.] Scithia, or rather out of Spaine (as some suppose) into Ireland, and from thence into Britaine; next after the Picts, though their writers fetch a farre more ancient beginning (as in their chronicles at large appeereth) referring them to the reading thereof, that desire to vnderstand that matter as they set it foorth.