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The Groans of the Britons ((ラテン語:gemitus Britannorum)〔In full ''Agitio ter consuli gemitus Britannorum''〕) is the name of the final appeal made by the Britons to the Roman military for assistance against Anglo-Saxon invasion. The appeal is first referenced in Gildas' 6th-century ''De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae''; Gildas' account was later repeated in Bede's ''Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum''. According to Gildas, the message was addressed to the general Flavius Aetius and requested his aid in defending formerly Roman Britain from the Picts and Scots. 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 invasion. ==Message== The message is recorded by Gildas in his ''De Excidio 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 for assistance to ''Agitius'', generally identified as Aetius, military leader of the Western Roman Empire, who spent most of the 440s fighting insurgents in Gaul and Hispania. The formerly 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by the Picts and Scots from northern Britain, who were able to pillage far to the south after the Roman armies had withdrawn from the island in 407.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 Aetius 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.〔In Michael Lapidge and David Dumville, eds. ''Gildas: New Approaches'' (Studies in Celtic History 5) 1984.〕 Leslie Alcock has raised a tentative possibility of the ''Agitius'' to whom the ''gemitus'' is directed actually being Aegidius – though he was never consul.〔Alcock, ''Arthur's Britain'', 1971:107: "Agitius is most reasonably identified with Aegidius... but Aegidius was never a consul." Alcock 1971 was critically reviewed by K. H. Jackson in ''Antiquity'' 47 (1973), noted by Thomas D. O'Sullivan, ''The De Excidio of Gildas'' :169 and notes.〕 Aside from Miller,〔Miller, "Bede's use of Gildas," ''English Historical Review'' 90 (1975:247).〕 who leaves the possibility open, this alternative has not been pursued. 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 was recorded: | sign = Gildas, ''De Excidio'' 1.20}} The Romans, however, could not assist them, and the Britons were left to their own devices. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Groans of the Britons」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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