2. Britain under the Romans. Celtic tribes

Prehistoric population of Britain is practically unknown. Ancient Britain is believed to have been inhabited by Iberian people in 25-20 c. c. B.C. Stonehenge is one of the very few remnants of their culture. Iberians were replaced by the so-called Beaker-folk in. 20-16-8 c.c. B.C.

Of more recent people Celtic tribes are known who settled in Britain in 6 c. B. C. They were Britons and Gaels [geilz], the former in England, the latter in Scotland and Ireland. Their most known towns were Camulodun (modern Colchester) and Calleva (modern Cilchester).

In 55, 54 B. C. Julius Caesar undertook an attempt to attack Britain but his expedition was a failure.

In 43 A. D. Romans under Emperor Claudius conquered Celtic tribes in Britain. In 122 A.D. emperor Hadrian built his famous wall as a protective measure against Scots. Romans were settling in Britain for good bringing along their culture, habits, customs, arts and skills, domestic articles – all what is called the way of life, Celts became Romanized. Roman towns, villas, paved roads, baths spread all over the country. Very many Roman placenames have come to our time:

e.g. Londinium – London,

Durnovaria – Dorchester,

Portus Adurni – Portchester,

Lindo-colonia – Lincoln, etc.

The Roman rule continued in Britain up to the end of 5 c. when the Roman Empire could no longer resist the surge of Germanic tribes. In 401 A. D. the last Roman legion left Britain to defend Rome. In 410 A. D. the Emperor refused to help Britain.

3. The Anglo-Saxon invasion

For some forty years independent Celtic kingdoms and dukedoms existed on the territory of the former Roman colony in a state of constant feud. Celtic kings used to call on Germanic tribes as their allies against each other. That is how ancient Germans began to know Britain, a country of green woods and fertile lands, and chose to settle there.

According to the famous Old English chronicler Bede the Venerable the first landing of Germanic tribes, the Jutes, led by Hengist and Horsa took place in 449 A.D.

Britons resisted bravely. One of their chiefs was Aurelius Arnbrosianus later known as the legendary King Arthur.

Bede wrote that the newcomers were of the three strongest races of Germany: the Angles, the Saxons, the Jutes – the Saxons from Lowland Germany, the Angles from the lower basin of the Elbe and Southern Denmark. The three main streams of invasion – the Jutes, the Saxons and the Angles – occupied, respectively, Kent and the Isle of Wight; Sussex, Wessex and Essex; Mercia, East Anglia and Northumbria. There might have been some other Germanic tribes (Frisians) but no evidence is present.

Before 1000 A. D. the names Angelcynn, “Angle-race”, and, after that date, England, “land of Angles”, were used to denote collectively the Germanic peoples in Britain: Angles, Saxons and Jutes alike. From the beginning the language was always Englisc, “English”. Celts were either destroyed or driven into the woods and mountain areas. Only Wales, Cornwall and Scotland remained Celtic. The invaders prevailed over the natives. Germanic dialects began to be spoken all over Britain.