The English and the Celts - no genocide?

[authun]

... the 'Roman' units based here for the defence of Britain would undoubtedly consist mainly of local, British recruits.

Hi Ambrosius,

I thought that British would be recruited for service abroad, not in Britain.

Secondly, the attitude of newly recruited Germanic troops (from
outside the Empire) in c.100 towards Celtic peoples in general may
indeed have remained the same from c.100 to c.500. Certainly, the
linguistic evidence you've given us still has Celtic peoples being called:
Volcae/Welsh by Germanic peoples (especially Romanized Celtic ones).

Firstly, you don't know if the word Britunculi was used by a germanic or that, if it was, it was typical of all the germanics towards the british in the 1st cent. Furthermore, it is a leap of faith to project that onto the attitudes of the 5th cent. germanics. Referring to celtic speakers by the term wahl is not necessarily derogatory either. It is merely a description of the language that they spoke. Slavic speakers were called Wends by the germanics and areas such as 'Das Wendland' still exist in Germany today, apparantly, still slavic speaking in the middle ages. It's the interaction between germanic speakers and slavic speakers and the use of wahl as a term to describe the language of a people that gives rise to the modern polish term for italians, wlochy.

Secondly, there are other sources, which I don't have to hand, which describe emnity between the romans, irrespective of ethnicity, and the Britons. I can't accept that there is any evidence at all for an 'anti-celtic' attitude amongst germanics in the 1st cent AD save for that typical of conflict.

best

Harry Amphlett