El Ninio & post Roman Britain

[ambrosius]

Hi Agraes,

Yes, "Bretons" mainly came from south Wales and even more from Dumnonia (Cornwall and Devon).

See my reply to Robert for why the evidence for that
can so easily be misunderstood. Though at least you recognise that
Brythonic was also spoken in Dumnonia, as well as 'Wales'. :wink:
The truth is, of course, it was spoken by all 5th c. Britons.

Seems like the strongest resistance of the Britons was in the areas where the romans were the less present:
http://www.roman-britain.org/maps/indus ... ap.htm#tic

But yet again, that's a msileading statement. If we accept
that all 5th c. 'Britons' are fairly well Romanized (Romano-British) then
they're going to be 'Roman citizens' throughout the territory of modern
England and Wales. The assumption always has been that Western
Britain and Wales were less 'Romanized' than Eastern Britain - because
there are less 'towns' in the west than the East. But then, there are more
villas in the west than the East. And in the 5th & 6th c. we find all the
evidence for Gallo-Roman and Byzantine imports of wine, ceramics,
coins, etc in the West. And all the Christian burials. So, you tell me:
Who was more Romanized in the 5th c.... East or West?

Britons from the west and the north had probably some autonomy to defend themselves even under roman rule, or as foederati for the Selgovae and the Votadini.

True. The Votadini seem to be a client kingdom/buffer state
between Hadrian's Wall and the Picts.

In the south east, there was probably no strong leaders nor a "warrior culture", so it was easy for the Saxons to take the place.

You get the picture. 8) Except for the possibility that many
of the Saxon Shore Forts were still garrisoned (by native troops) who
could have held them-up for a few decades (as Robert says, the Anglo-
Saxon Kingdoms don't get formed straight away, but only after a few
decades of being here). And then there is the possibility of a form of
field-army (consisting of the units of cavalry based in the North) who
could easily have come South to keep the East free for a while.

For the Romano British, it may have been only to choose between a Briton from the West or the North, sometime half Gael or half Pict, and a germanic warlord... both were probably equally violents.

I know which I'd chose. :lol:

I hope you got my point, I got troubles to explain my thoughts perfectly in english :wink:

Don't worry, I understood you perfectly. You wouldn't like
my Breton - it's awful! :lol:

Cheers,
Ambrosius/Mike