So, likewise, several towns, long buried in the earth, and the foundations of upwards of a hundred country houses have been discovered; but these seem to be about all.  If Rome left any traces of her literature, law, and methods of government, they are

[TWO PAGES MISSING (21-22)]

FOURTH PERIOD[1]

“The happy ages of history are never the productive ones.” —­ Hegel

THE COMING OF THE SAXONS, OR ENGLISH 449(?) A.D.

THE BATTLES OF THE TRIBES—­BRITAIN BECOMES ENGLAND

36.  The Britons beg for Help; Coming of the Jutes, 449 (?).

The Britons were in perilous condition after the Romans had left the island (S33).  They had lost their old spirit (SS2, 18).[2] They were no longer brave in war or faithful in peace.  The Picts and Scots[3] attacked them on the northwest, and the Saxon pirates (S29) assailed them on the southeast.  These terrible foes cut down the Britons, says an old writer, as “reapers cut down grain ready for the harvest.”

[1] Reference Books on this Period will be found in the Classified List of Books in the Appendix.  The pronunciation of names will be found in the Index.  The Leading Dates stand unenclosed; all others are in parentheses. [2] Gildas, in Bohn’s “Six Old English Chronicles”; but compare Professor C. Oman’s “England before the Norman Conquest,” pp. 175-176. [3] The Picts and Scots were ancient savage tribes of Scotland.

At length the chief men wrote to the Roman consul, begging him to help them.  They entitled their piteous and pusillanimous appeal, “The Groans of the Britons.”  They said, “The savages drive us to the sea, the sea casts us back upon the savages; between them we are either slaughtered or drowned.”  But the consul was busy fighting enemies at home, and he left the groaning Britons to shift for themselves.

Finally, the courage of despair forced them to act.  They seemed to have resolved to fight fire with fire.  Acting on this resolution, they accordingly invited a band of sea rovers to come and help them against the Picts and Scots.  The chiefs of these Jutes[1] or Saxon pirates did not wait for a second invitation.  Seizing their “rough-handled spears and bronze swords,” they set sail for the shining chalk cliffs of Britain, 449(?).  They put an end to the ravages of the Picts and Scots.  Then instead of going back to their own country, they took possession of the best lands of Kent and refused to give them up. (See map opposite.)

[1] The Jutes, Saxons, and Angles appear to have belonged to the same Teutonic or German race.  They inhabited the seacoast and vicinity, from the mouth of the Elbe, northward along the coast of Denmark or Jutland.  These tribes which conquered England, and settled there, remained for a long time hostile to each other, but eventually, they united and came to be known as Anglo-Saxons or English. (See map opposite.)