Study the short Preface and these two chapters carefully.
You should read them over several times. This historical material is probably new to you, though much of it is not new to college students in England, We're studying British history and literature so we have some "catching-up" to do. You will become familiar with this material soon enough.
Maps: Since we are not British we are not very familiar with the geography of Britain, much less the political geography of Roman, post-Roman, "Dark Ages," Arthurian, Anglo-Saxon England, Medieval Wales, and post Norman Conquest (post 1066 A.D.) Britain. So, some maps will be helpful.
Please take a look at this map (also here) a colorful and somewhat more detailed version of the map in Ashley, p. xxi.
Please consult this map, Britain c. 540 A.D., in the time of Gildas.
Please study this map: Post-Roman Wales. It shows the major post-Roman kingdoms.
Please study this map, Northern Britain and Southern Scotland in Arthurian times (the "Dark Ages"). In the Middle Welsh language this was called "The Old North", 'Yr Hen Ogledd".
Print yourself out a copy of these four maps. Bring them to class with you every day for at least the first three weeks of class. Yes, even if you have a laptop.
Also begin to familiarize yourself with the first three maps in Ashley's book. They are listed on p. viii. I mean: "British Kingdoms in the fifth century," p. xxi; "Fourth-century Britain," p. 12, and "Principal Roman Roads," p. 15.
You simply have to become familiar with the political geography of Britain at this time, or the text will be meaningless to you.
Writing Assignment: Outline these chapters, discussing the political unrest in Britain in later Roman times.
Pre-Roman Britain was made up of tribes. The Celtic British did not identify as "Celts" but according to their tribes. This page has quotations from the Roman historian Tacitus about the various tribes at the time of the Roman conquest of Britain, 43 A.D. and following.
Please consider this quotation from Tacitus' book Agricola, Book I, 12 (it is also printed by Ashley, p. 9 in a slightly different translation):
12. Their strength is in infantry. Some tribes fight also with the chariot. The higher in rank is the charioteer; the dependants fight. They were once ruled by kings, but are now divided under chieftains into factions and parties. Our greatest advantage in coping with tribes so powerful is that they do not act in concert. Seldom is it that two or three states meet together to ward off a common danger. Thus, while they fight singly, all are conquered.
Write 350 words discussing the wars discussed by Ashley. What caused them? Outline at least five of them. Mention at least five of the personages discussed by Ashley.
Email to me in the proper format.
