太田述正コラム#15276（2025.10.27）
＜Morris, Marc『The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England』を読む（その７）＞（2026.1.21公開）

　「・・・It is well known because it was told by the Venerable Bede＜（注7）＞, whose Ecclesiastical History of the English People is without question the single most important and influential work of the whole Anglo-Saxon period.

　（注7）ビード/ベーダ（672/673～735年）。９世紀以降からベーダ・ヴェネラビリス（Beda Venerabilis、ラテン語）と呼ばれ＜る。＞・・・
　＜イギリス＞のキリスト教聖職者・歴史家・教会博士。・・・
　今日ベーダの主著として知られるのは『イングランド教会史』（羅: Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, 英: Ecclesiastical History of the English People, ５巻）・・校了は731年頃とされる・・である。この書はしばしば彼の名を付して『ベーダ』とのみ呼ばれる。これは現存する最古のイングランドの通史であり、ベーダはイギリス最初の史家として知られる」
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%99%E3%83%BC%E3%83%80%E3%83%BB%E3%83%B4%E3%82%A7%E3%83%8D%E3%83%A9%E3%83%93%E3%83%AA%E3%82%B9

⇒現存する最古の歴史書が、片や一私人によるもの、片や国によるものながら、イギリスにあっては731年頃、日本にあっては712年（古事記）/720年（日本書紀）
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8F%A4%E4%BA%8B%E8%A8%98
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E6%9B%B8%E7%B4%80
なので、これまた、奇しくも、ほぼ同じ時期ですね。（太田）

　According to Bede, the Britons,・・ previously forbidden from carrying weapons, could not learn the arts of war overnight.・・‘ignorant of the practice of warfare’, were reduced to such a wretched state by Pictish and Scottish attacks that they held a council, in which they decided to employ foreigners to fight on their behalf. At the invitation of their king, Vortigern, a force of Saxon warriors came to Britain in three ships and was granted a place to settle in the eastern part of the island. In the first instance these mercenaries acquitted themselves well, winning a victory against the Britons’ northern enemies. But, as Bede goes on to explain, the Saxons secretly intended to conquer the whole country for themselves. After their initial success they sent word back to their homelands that Britain was fertile and the Britons were cowards. Very soon a much larger fleet of Saxons arrived and joined together with the original cohort to form an invincible army. It was not long before the inevitable denouement. The Saxons suddenly made peace with the northern peoples they were supposed to be fighting and turned their weapons against their British hosts, demanding greater rewards for their service, and threatening to devastate the whole island if their demands were not met. When no more supplies were forthcoming, the Saxons burned and ravaged Britain from sea to sea. ‘Public and private buildings fell into ruins,’ says Bede, ‘priests were everywhere slain at the altars, prelates and people alike perished by sword and fire regardless of rank, and there was no one left to bury those who had died a cruel death.’・・・
　After a time, he says, the Saxons went home – presumably meaning their original settlements in Britain, rather than their homelands on the Continent – and God gave strength to the Britons. Gildas＜（注8）＞ names their leader as Ambrosius Aurelianus＜（注9）＞, who he indicates was a Roman of high birth.

　（注8）ギルダス（450/500～570年？）。a 6th-century British monk ＜born in＞・・・Strathclyde＜（現在の北西イギリスから南部スコットランドにまたがる地域）
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Strathclyde　＞
＜and died in＞ Brittany
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gildas
　De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae (English: On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain) is a work written in Latin in the late fifth or sixth century by the British religious polemicist 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 widely acknowledged by historians that the text cannot be straightforwardly used to construct a reliable narrative history of fifth- and sixth-century Britain. It nevertheless is one of the most important sources for the history of Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries, as it is the only significant historical source for the period written by a near contemporary of the people and events described.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Excidio_et_Conquestu_Britanniae
　（注9）アンブロシウス・アウレリアヌス。「５世紀ごろアングロ・サクソン人と戦ったブリトン人の指導者。」
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A2%E3%83%B3%E3%83%96%E3%83%AD%E3%82%B7%E3%82%A6%E3%82%B9%E3%83%BB%E3%82%A2%E3%82%A6%E3%83%AC%E3%83%AA%E3%82%A2%E3%83%8C%E3%82%B9

　 Under this man’s direction, we are told, the British people regained their confidence and defeated the Saxons in battle. After the Saxon revolt, therefore, Britain was evidently divided, with the newcomers in control of some areas and the pre-existing population in control of others.」（25～26、28～29）

⇒ローマが、ブリトン人が武器を帯びることを禁じたため、ローマが弱体化した時にサクソン人らの大ブリテン島侵略にブリトン人達だけで対処することができず、残存ローマ系人を指揮官として戴いたりする必要があった、というわけです。（太田）

（続く）