太田述正コラム#15304（2025.11.10）
＜Morris, Marc『The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England』を読む（その14）＞（2026.2.4公開）

　「・・・One thing which we can say for certain about Offa＜（注27）＞, which the scale of his dyke makes abundantly clear, is that he was an extremely powerful ruler.

　（注27）オファ（？～796年。マーシア王：757～796年）。「 757年、強勢を誇ったエゼルバルド王が衛兵に殺害され内乱状態となったマーシア国を鎮めて王となり、周辺の小国ウィッチェやマゴンサエテなどを従属させミッドランド（＜イギリス＞中央部）における支配を確立した。その後七王国のエセックス王国、ケント王国、サセックス王国、ウェセックス王国にマーシアの宗主権を認めさせ、イースト・アングリア王国ではエゼルベルト王の首を刎ね同国を服属させた。残るノーサンブリア王国はマーシアに従属することはなかったが、オファは娘を同国に嫁がせて軍事同盟関係を結んだ。またウェールズとの国境地帯には南北200kmに及ぶ長大な土塁を造り、ウェールズ人（ブリトン人）の来襲に備えた。この土塁は「オファの防塁＜（Dyke）＞」と呼ばれ＜る。＞・・・
　オファはアルフレッド大王以前でもっとも強大なアングロサクソンの王と評され、その統治時代はイングランドが統一への歩みを速めた王権発達の画期とされるが、一方でその権力はオファ個人の資質に依拠する所が大きく、死後マーシアの隆盛は永くは続かなかった。オファは796年に死去し、王位は息子エグフリッドが継承したが在位５か月にも満たずに死去し、遠縁のケンウルフ（チェンワルフ）がマーシア王となるがその勢いはオファに及ばす、825年マーシアはウェセックス王エグバートに敗れその属国となった。」
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%AA%E3%83%95%E3%82%A1_(%E3%83%9E%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B7%E3%82%A2%E7%8E%8B)

　Asser is quite correct to say that he ‘terrified all the neighbouring kings and provinces around him’. Mercia, of course, had been a dominant player in the struggle between the various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms since the mid-seventh century, when the pagan warlord Penda had violently compelled the other rulers of southern Britain to march under his banner.・・・
　There is no archaeological evidence to suggest that any of the earliest Anglo-Saxons settled in this urban wasteland. It was only with the arrival of St Augustine’s mission at the close of the sixth century that London＜（注28）＞ acquired its first inhabitants in almost two centuries, when Mellitus, the newly appointed bishop of the East Saxons, established himself in the deserted city with a small band of companions.・・・

　（注28）by the end of the 5th century was practically abandoned.・・・
　・・・the incomers had begun to settle there at least as early as the 6th century and possibly in the 5th. The main focus of this settlement was outside the Roman walls, clustering a short distance to the west along what is now the Strand, between the Aldwych and Trafalgar Square. It was known as Lundenwic, the -wic suffix here denoting a trading settlement. Recent excavations have also highlighted the population density and relatively sophisticated urban organisation of this earlier Anglo-Saxon London, which was laid out on a grid pattern and grew to house a likely population of 10,000 to 12,000.・・・
　In 604 King Sæberht of Essex converted to Christianity and London received Mellitus, its first post-Roman bishop.
　At this time Essex was under the overlordship of King Æthelberht of Kent, and it was under Æthelberht’s patronage that Mellitus founded the first St. Paul’s Cathedral, traditionally said to be on the site of an old Roman Temple of Diana (although Christopher Wren found no evidence of this). It would have only been a modest church at first and may well have been destroyed after he was expelled from the city by Saeberht’s pagan successors.
　The permanent establishment of Christianity in the East Saxon kingdom took place during the reign of King Sigeberht II in the 650s. During the 8th century, the kingdom of Mercia extended its dominance over south-eastern England, initially through overlordship which at times developed into outright annexation. London seems to have come under direct Mercian control in the 730s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_London

⇒「注25」を踏まえれば、その後、イギリスの中心となるロンドンを含む地域にキリスト教が確立したのは650年代だというのですから、ローマ帝国でキリスト教が国教化された392年から２世紀半余のことになるところ、意外に早かった感はあるものの、私見では、ベースとなったキリスト教が異端のペラギウス派的なものであったこともあり、この「遅れ」は、結構大きな違いをその後の西欧とイギリスの歴史に刻印することになるのです。（太田）

　To the Anglo-Saxons themselves, the cities established by the Romans were places of mystery, wondrous but useless, the haunted relics of a vanished civilization. The phrase used in more than one Old English poem to describe their massive ruins was enta geweorc – ‘the work of the giants’.・・・」（135～136）

⇒このようなロンドニウム（ロンドン）の廃墟観が、その後のイタリアへのイギリス人の入れ込みようの原点だったのではないでしょうか。（太田）

（続く）