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162 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xxxviii ever destitute of science or virtue, sufficiently abounds with acts of blood and military renown. The tomb of Vortimer, the son of Vortigern, was erected on the margin of the sea-shore, as a landmark formidable to the Saxons, whom he had thrice vanquished in the fields of Kent. Ambrosius Aurelian was descended from a noble family of Romans, 145 his modesty was equal to his valour, and his valour, till the last fatal action, 146 was crowned with splendid success. But every British name is effaced by the illustrious name of Arthur, 147 the hereditary prince of the Silures, in South Wales, and the elective king or general of the nation. According to the most rational account, he defeated, in twelve successive battles, the Angles of the North and the Saxons of the West ; but the declining age of the hero was embittered by popular ingratitude and domestic misfortunes. The events of his life are less interesting than the singular revolutions of his fame. During a period of five hundred years the tradition of his exploits was preserved, and rudely embellished, by the obscure bards of Wales and Armorica, who were odious to the Saxons and unknown to the rest of mankind. The pride and curiosity of the Norman conquerors prompted them to enquire into the ancient history of Britain : they listened with fond credulity to the tale of Arthur, and eagerly applauded the merit of a prince who had triumphed over the Saxons, their common enemies. His romance, transcribed in the Latin of Jeffrey of Monmouth, and afterwards translated into the fashionable idiom of the times, was enriched with the various, though incoherent, ornaments which were familiar to the experience, the learning, or the 145 Bede, who in his chronicle (p. 28) places Ambrosius under the reign of Zeno (a.d. 474-491), observes that his parents had been " purpura induti ! " which he explains, in his ecclesiastical history, by " regiurn nomen et insigne fer- entibus " (1. i. c. 16, p. 53). The expression of Nennius (o. 44, p. 110, edit. Gale [c. 42, p. 186, ed. Mommsen]) is still more singular, " Unus de consulibus gentis Romanicee est pater meus ". 146 By the unanimous, though doubtful, conjecture of our antiquarians, Am- brosius is confounded with Natanleod, who (a.d. 508) lost his own life and five thousand of his subjects in a battle against Cerdic, the West Saxon (Chron. Saxon, p. 17, 18). 147 As I am a stranger to the Welsh bards Myrdhin, Llomarch, and Taliessin, my faith in the existenoe and exploits of Arthur principally rests on the simple and circumstantial testimony of NenniuB (Hist. Brit. c. 62, 63, p. 114). Mr. Whitaker (Hist, of Manchester, vol. ii. p. 31-71) has framed an interesting, and even probable, narrative of the wars of Arthur ; though it is impossible to allow the reality of the round table.