History of the Britons
by Nennius
The History
10 to 11
10. Respecting the period when this island became
inhabited subsequently to the flood, I have seen two
distinct relations. According to the annals of the Roman
history, the Britons deduce their origin both from the
Greeks and Romans. On the side of the mother, from Lavinia,
the daughter of Latinus, king of Italy, and of the race of
Silvanus, the son of Inachus, the son of Dardanus; who was
the son of Saturn, king of the Greeks, and who, having
possessed himself of a part of Asia, built the city of Troy.
Dardanus was the father of Troius, who was the father of
Priam and Anchises; Anchises was the father of Aeneas, who
was the father of Ascanius and Silvius; and this Silvius was
the son of Aeneas and Lavinia, the daughter of the king of
Italy. From the sons of Aeneas and Lavinia descended Romulus
and Remus, who were the sons of the holy queen Rhea, and the
founders of Rome. Brutus was consul when he conquered Spain,
and reduced that country to a Roman province. He afterwards
subdued the island of Britain, whose inhabitants were the
descendants of the Romans, from Silvius Posthumus. He was
called Posthumus because he was born after the death of
Aeneas his father; and his mother Lavinia concealed herself
during her pregnancy; he was called Silvius, because he was
born in a wood. Hence the Roman kings were called Silvan,
and the Britons from Brutus, and rose from the family of
Brutus.1
Aeneas, after the Trojan war, arrived with his son in
Italy; and Having vanquished Turnus, married Lavinia, the
daughter of king Latinus, who was the son of Faunus, the son
of Picus, the son of Saturn. After the death of Latinus,
Aeneas obtained the kingdom Of the Romans, and Lavinia
brought forth a son, who was named Silvius. Ascanius founded
Alba, and afterwards married. And Lavinia bore to Aeneas a
son, named Silvius; but Ascanius2 married a wife,
who conceived and became pregnant. And Aeneas, having been
informed that his daughter-in-law was pregnant, ordered his
son to send his magician to examine his wife, whether the
child conceived were male or female. The magician came and
examined the wife and pronounced it to be a son, who should
become the most valiant among the Italians, and the most
beloved of all men.3 In consequence of this
prediction, the magician was put to death by Ascanius; but
it happened that the mother of the child dying at its birth,
he was named Brutus; ad after a certain interval, agreeably
to what the magician had foretold, whilst he was playing
with some others he shot his father with an arrow, not
intentionally but by accident.4 He was, for this
cause, expelled from Italy, and came to the islands of the
Tyrrhene sea, when he was exiled on account of the death of
Turnus, slain by Aeneas. He then went among the Gauls, and
built the city of the Turones, called Turnis.5 At
length he came to this island named from him Britannia,
dwelt there, and filled it with his own descendants, and it
has been inhabited from that time to the present period.
11. Aeneas reigned over the Latins three years; Ascanius
thirty three years; after whom Silvius reigned twelve years,
and Posthumus thirty-nine6 years: the latter,
from whom the kings of Alba are called Silvan, was brother
to Brutus, who governed Britain at the time Eli the
high-priest judged Israel, and when the ark of the covenant
was taken by a foreign people. But Posthumus his brother
reigned among the Latins.
Notes
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1
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The whole of this, as far as the
end of the paragraph, is omitted in several
MSS.
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2
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Other MSS. Silvius.
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3
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V.R. Who should slay his father
and mother, and be hated by all mankind.
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4
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V.R. He displayed such
superiority among his play-fellows, that they
seemed to consider him as their chief.
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5
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Tours.
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6
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V.R. Thirty-seven.
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History of the Britons
by Nennius
The History, 7 to
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History, 12 to 16
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