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Ireland and the Making
of Britain
the battle that immediately followed, Theodosius drove
back the Irish and the Picts from the city "which was
anciently called Lugdun (Celt, the fort of Lug)
(London), but is now known as Augusta." Then "he
(Theodosius) established stations and outposts on the
frontier and he so completely covered the province which
had yielded subjection to the enemy that it was again
brought under its legitimate rule and by the desire of the
emperor called Valentia," that is the part above Hadrian's
wall.
Claudian, the Alexandrian poet, adds to this by telling
us that Theodosius "followed the Irishman with wan-
dering sword and clove the waters of the northern ocean
with his daring oars," treading "the sands of both the
tidal seas," so that "Icy Ireland weeps for the heaps of
Irish slain." 1
4. IRISH KINGS IN BRITAIN
Among the Irish kings daring enough to attack the
Roman armies in their own strongholds the most formid-
able appears to have been Niall of the Nine Hostages
(d. 405), who in his last years practically brought the
greater part of Britain under Irish rule. The Romans
never entirely conquered Britannia Secunda, as what is
iTwo passages in Claudian illustrate the campaigns of Theodosius. 368,
369. In the Panegyric on the Third Consulship of Honorius (A. D. 395) we
read, w, 54-6:
Ille leues Mauros nee falso nomine Pictos
Edomuit Scottumque uago mucrone secutus
Fregit Hyperboreas remis audacibus undas,
and in the Panegyric on the Fourth Consulship (A. D. 397)
debellatorque Britanni
Litoris ac pariter Boreae uastator et Austri.
Quid rigor aeternus, caeli quid frigora prosunt
vv, 28 seq.:
Ignotumque freturn? maduerunt Saxone fuso
Orcades; incaluit Picorum sanguine Thyle;
Scottorum cumulos fleuit glacialis Hiuerne.
The first of these passages suggests that Theodosius pursued the Irish
across the sea, or at least made a naval demonstration in the Irish Channel,
and this is perhaps supported by a passage in Pacatus, Panegyric, C. 5: attrttan
pedestribus praeliis Britanniam referam? Saxo consumptus bellis
naualibus offeretur redactum ad paludes suas Scotum loquar?
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