Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

508 18. the north-western provinces
costs? That, at least, seems to be the implication of his fighting for
Anthemius.
What Riothamus cannot illustrate is the formation of Brittany. On the
continent he is associated with Berry and the Lyonnais. The migration of
Britons to western Aremorica is curiously difficult to trace. While it is true
that the region came to be called Britannia by the late fifth century, and that
there were British ecclesiastics and saints there from that period onwards, 68
there is no clear evidence for a large-scale migration – and there is no good
reason to read Gildas as describing one, even though he does state that
some people fled overseas during the Saxon uprising of the mid fifth
century. 69 It may well be that the migration of a limited number of powerful
families, within what had long been a single cultural province, uniting
western Britain and Brittany, was enough to provide western Aremorica
with its new name and to prompt certain linguistic developments.
While Riothamus and Ecdicius may represent groups intent on remaining
within the empire, Aegidius in Gaul and Ambrosius Aurelianus in
Britain apparently represent groups willing to opt out. Aegidius seems to
have remained loyal to the memory of Majorian, but he was certainly not
loyal to succeeding emperors. Gregory of Tours, writing in the 570s, could
remember Aegidius’ son Syagrius as a king of the Romans, Romanorum rex. 70
Ambrosius is often represented as a more Roman figure than Vortigern,
because of the latter’s involvement in the settlement of Saxons in Britain,
yet in employing federates Vortigern was not necessarily breaking from the
empire, while Ambrosius was undoubtedly behaving in as independent a
fashion as was Aegidius. Moreover, if Gildas is right to say that Ambrosius’
parents wore the purple, 71 he came from a family of usurpers.
It is possible to see Aegidius and Ambrosius as transitional figures in a
development of ‘sub-Roman’ kingship, a development which came to fruition
in western Britain, but which was stopped short in Gaul with the defeat
and execution of Aegidius’ son, Syagrius, at the hands of the Frank,
Clovis. 72 Clearly there were Celtic elements in the lifestyle and in the somewhat
relaxed attitude towards holy orders of the five sixth-century kings –
Aurelius Caninus, Constantine, Cuneglasus, Maglocunus and Vortipor –
castigated by Gildas, 73 but they were also heirs to a Roman past. 74 Two of
them had ostentatiously Roman names and Vortipor may have been the
Voteporix commemorated as Protector by the Latin memorial stone at
Castell Dwyran. 75 Equally Roman is the remarkable group of inscriptions
68 The evidence is collected by Jackson (1953) 12–16, and Chadwick (1969) 193–226. The case for
substantial numbers migrating, however, depends on assumptions about the differences between
British and Gaulish and on the nature of the linguistic impact of the British.
69 Gildas, De Excidio Britanniae 25. 70 Greg. Tur. Hist. ii.27.
71 Gildas, De Excidio Britanniae 25. 72 Greg. Tur. Hist. ii.27.
73 Gildas, De Excidio Britanniae 28–36; Kerlouegan (1987) 526–45. 74 Dark (1994) 110.
75 Thomas (1994) 82.
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