Gildas The Wise - On The Ruin of Britain Part I - c. 540 AD

De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae (Latin: On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain, sometimes just On the Ruin of Britain) is a work written in Latin by the 6th-century AD British cleric St Gildas. It is a sermon in three parts condemning the acts of Gildas' contemporaries, both secular and religious, whom he blames for the dire state of affairs in sub-Roman Britain. It is one of the most important sources for the history of Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries, as it is the only significant source for the period written by a near contemporary of the people and events described.

Part I contains a narrative of British history from the Roman conquest to Gildas' time; it includes references to Ambrosius Aurelianus and the Britons' victory against the Saxons at the Battle of Mons Badonicus.

PREFACE.
00:00:00 Motives for writing stated.

PART I.
Description of Britain, Character of its People; Introductory narrative of events, extending from the First Parthian Peace and the Roman expedition into Britain which followed it, to the writer's own time (A.D. 117-c. 540). Reference to the rise of Christianity under Tiberius, and its progress in Britain inserted.

00:13:18 Description of Britain. De situ.

00:15:37 Character of people. De contumacia.

00:18:32 Subjection by Rome. De subjectione.

00:19:36 Insurrection against Rome. De rebellione.

00:20:46 Second subjection and servitude. Item de subiectione ac diro famulatu.

00:21:43 Rise of Christianity. De religione.

00:22:33 Evangelization of Britain. The Diocletian persecution. De persecutione.

00:23:51 Holy Martyrs. De sanctis martyribus.

00:27:51 Heresies. De diversis haeresibus.

00:28:35 The tyranni, particularly Maxi mus. De tyrannis.

00:30:08 Picts and Scots. De duabus gentibus vastatricibus.

00:30:37 Defence made against them. De defen sione.

00:32:04 Repeated devastation. Itemque vastatione.

00:32:39 Second revenge (by Roman aid). De secunda ultione.

00:36:30 Third devastation by Picts and Scots. Tertiaque vastatione.

00:37:28 The famine. De fame.

00:39:12 Letter to Agitius (Aetius). A.D. 446. De epistolis ad Agitium.

00:40:28 The victory over Picts and Scots. De victoria.

00:41:41 Growth of crimes among the Britons. De sceleribus.

00:44:23 The coming of the enemy suddenly made known. De nuntiatis subito hostibus.

00:46:23 The noted plague. De famosa peste.

00:47:17 Deliberation how to oppose the Picts and Scots. The Saxons invited to aid in their repulsion. De consilio.

00:48:33 The Saxons prove far more cruel than the former enemies. De saeviore multo primis hoste.

00:55:17 The final victory over the Saxons. Siege of Mons Badonicus. De postrema patriae victoria quae temporibus nostris Dei nutu donata est.