Groans of the Britons facts for kids

The Groans of the Britons (Latin: gemitus Britannorum) is the final appeal made between 446 and 454 by the Britons to the Roman military for assistance against Pict and Scot raiders. The appeal is first referenced in Gildas' 6th-century De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae; Gildas' account was later repeated in chapter 13 of Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum. According to Gildas, the message was addressed to "Agitius", who is generally identified with the general Flavius Aetius. The collapsing Western Roman Empire had few military resources to spare during its decline, and the record is ambiguous on what the response to the appeal was, if any. According to Gildas and various later medieval sources, the failure of the Roman armies to secure Britain led the Britons to invite Anglo-Saxon mercenaries to the island, precipitating the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain.

Message

The message is recorded by Gildas in his De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae, written in the second quarter of the sixth century and much later repeated by Bede. According to these sources, it was a last-ditch plea to "Agitius" for assistance. Agitius is generally identified as Aetius, magister militum of the Western Roman Empire who spent most of the 440s fighting insurgents in Gaul and Hispania. The Roman Britons had been beset by raids by the Picts and Scots from northern Britain, who were able to pillage far to the south after the Roman armies had withdrawn from the island in 407.

The text describes Agitius as being consul for the third time, dating the message to the period between 446, when he held his third consulate, and 454, when he held his fourth. Leslie Alcock has raised a tentative possibility of the "Agitius" to whom the gemitus is directed actually being Aegidius—though he was never consul. This identification was supported by Stephen Johnson, but rejected by J. N. L. Myres. Miller left the possibility open. The usurper Constantine III had taken the last Roman troops from Britain in 407 and the civilian administration had been expelled by the natives a little later, leaving the inhabitants to fend for themselves during increasingly fraught times. Parts of the plea were recorded:

The Romans, however, could not assist them, so the Britons were left to their own devices.

See also

• End of Roman rule in Britain
• Battle of Mons Badonicus
• Sub-Roman Britain
• Gododdin
• Kingdom of Gwent
• Wessex