Book 27
8.4
And, since in giving an account of the history of the emperor Constans I described the ebb and flow of the oceanIn a lost book; the same expressions are used by Gellius, xiv. 1, 3, but in the order usual in English, senescit adolescitque. and the situation of Britain, as well as my powers permitted, I have thought it superfluous to unfold again what has once been set forth, just as Homer’s Ulysses among the Phaeacians Odyss. xii. 452 f. shrinks from repeating the details of his adventures because of the excessive difficulty of the task.
8.5
It will, however, be in place to say, that at 368 A.D. that time the Picts, divided into two tribes, called DicalydonesCalled Caledonians by Tacitus, Dio, and others. and Verturiones, as well as the Attacotti, a warlike race of men, and the Scots, were ranging widely and causing great devastation; while the Gallic regions,The coast of Gaul opposite Britain. wherever anyone could break in by land or by sea, were harassed by the Franks and their neighbours, the Saxons, with cruel robbery, fire, and the murder of all who were taken prisoners.
