Europe. The ala Thracum Herculania is known from an inscription on the base of a statue found at Vaisons in France, and certainly the six last letters of the third line of the inscription before us, would allow the correction THR. HERC; but the circumstance of another sepulchral monument having been found in Shropshire (see Camden's Britannia 11. p. 413), where mention is made of a horseman of the Cohors Thracum, induces me to read here also EQ(u)ES. ALAE. THRAC(um). The deceased, Sextus Valerius Genialis, was a native of Friesland; and it is rendered probable by this inscription, that some soldiers of that nation served among the auxiliary troops which followed the Romans into Britain; without, however, constituting a separate part of the army, like their neighbours the Batavi, and the Tungri; for the cohorts of those nations are mentioned by Tacitus (Hist. iv. 12, and Agric. cap. 36,) as having contributed more than any other part of the Roman army, to one of the most important victories gained by Agricola; and a great number of inscriptions found in different parts of Great Britain, but chiefly in Cumberland and Northumberland, prove the assertion of Tacitus to be true. As far as I have been able to ascertain, none of the ancient authors record the fact of the Frisians having served in the Roman army in England. From the other sepulchral inscriptions of individuals of the same nation, found in Italy, we learn that they were selected by the Emperor Nero and his successors, to serve as the Imperial private body-guard. Lysons, in his Reliquiae Britannico-Romanae 1. pl. x11., has published a fragment of an altar found at Binchester, in the Bishoprick of Durham, on which we read, "that Amandus, a citizen of Frisia, Ex. c(ivitate) FRIS (iorum) discharged his vow to Vinovia," the personification, and ancient name of the place where the monument was erected; but there is no proof that this Amandus belonged to the Roman army. Besides the monuments spoken of in the Gentleman's Magazine (for Sept. 1835, page 303), we may mention another, published by Camden, "Philus Cassavi filius, civis Sequanus, (vixit) annos quadraginta quinque. Hic situs est.”—i. e. "Philus the son of Cassavus, a citizen of the Sequani, five and forty years old, is buried here." The deceased was probably one of the negotiatores, or merchants, who followed the Roman army, and established themselves in their camps and other military stations: either for the purpose of supplying the soldiers with provisions and other necessaries, or of taking advantage of the more constant and easy communication opened at every military establishment, which at the same time might be regarded in the light of an extensive market. The Sequani were the neighbours of the Rauraci, and lived in the environs of Lyons, in France, as is proved by different inscriptions found near that place, and at St. Pierre Mont-Jou, in Switzerland; but above all, by one published by Gruter, in his Corp. Inser. pag. DCXLIX. 7. in which occurs the name of Julius Poppilius, the Sequanian, a citizen of Lugdunum or Lyons. The discovery of the three Watermore inscriptions, the great number of antiquities and remains of Roman buildings found before in the same neighbourhood, and the circumstance that different Roman roads meet in the same spot, prove it to be the ancient Corinium or Duroconovium, which seems to have been a place of considerable importance during the period when the Romans were settled in this island, and it is therefore to be expected, that more interesting monuments remain to be discovered in the vicinity. I hope that if this is the case, your Journal will prove the medium, by which antiquaries may become informed concerning them; and that you will allow me to claim your kind assistance again, in becoming acquainted with such particulars, as may perhaps lead to higher and more important results, than those I have been able to communicate on this occasion. In the meantime I intend entering in another place on a fuller discussion of the present monuments, adding the necessary quotations, and such additional remarks, as will lead me to a greater length than would be desirable on the present occasion. Yours, &c. Dr. C. LEEMANS. * In a paper addressed to the Society of Antiquaries; see p. 640. ON THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS, AND THE WRITINGS OF WACE.* AFTER all that has from time to time been written on the Norman invasion of England, and the memorable battle of Hastings, to us by far the most interesting account is the simple but detailed narrative given by the Anglo-Norman chronicler, Wace. Besides being full of incidents that are historically true and valuable, the events of the battle and the deeds of all the great barons, are told with so much spirit, that we may almost imagine ourselves to be reading the exploits of the Grecian heroes in the Iliad. It may naturally be supposed that the Anglo-Norman songster is partial to his countrymen and to Duke William, and that, while sustaining the right of the latter to the English throne, he is highly prejudiced against the family of Godwin; but in the account of the battle most of his national prejudices are dropped in the importance of his subject, and he neither attempts to conceal the superiority of the army of William, or the bravery of Harold and the English soldiery. Duke William had himself been brought up amongst troubles and violence, and had been made courageous and enterprising by the difficulties which he had to overcome in his youth. The barons of Normandy, whom his father Robert had left him to govern, were as turbulent and unruly in William's youth, as their descendants in England were during the reigns of his immediate successors. "The mourning for Duke Robert," saith Master Wace, "was great, and last The ed long; and William his son, who was yet very young, sorrowed much. feuds against him were many, and his friends few; for he found that most were ill inclined towards him; those even whom his father held dear, he found haughty and evil disposed. The barons warred upon each other; the strong oppressed the weak; and he could not prevent it, for he could not do justice upon them all. So they burned and pillaged the villages, and robbed and plundered the villains, injuring them in many ways. A mighty feud broke out between Walkelin de Ferrieres and Hugh Lord of Montfort; I know not which was right and which wrong; but they waged fierce war with each other, and were not to be reconciled; neither by bishop nor lord could peace or love be established between them. Both were good knights, bold and brave. Once upon a time they met, and the rage of each against the other was so great that they fought to the death. I know not which carried himself most gallantly, or who fell the first, but the issue of the affray was that Hugh was slain, and Walkelin fell also; both lost their lives in the same affray, and on the same day."-p. 7. The only merit which even a Norman could discover in Edward the Confessor was, that he was a partizan of the Normans and their Duke, loved their manners and their language, and took, strangers into his court, and set them above his English nobles. It was not until forced by his subjects to do so, that he would send away his foreign favourites; and in the weakness of his love for them, he made over the crown of England to a foreign dynasty, without even con Master Wace, his Chronicle of the Norman Conquest, from the Roman de Rou, translated with Notes and Illustrations, by Edgar Taylor, Esq. F. S. A. London. William Pickering, 1837. 8vo. feared he could not bear so great a labour; that the pilgrimage was too long, seeing his great age; that if he should go to Rome, and death or any other mischance should prevent his return, the loss of their king would be a great misfortune to them; and that they would send to the Apostle (the Pope), and get him to grant absolution from the vow, so that he might be quit of it, even if some other penance should be imposed instead. sulting the will of his people. Whatever the English might think of Edward's right to take such a step, it furnished a sufficient pretext for the invasion, and the Norman chroniclers are agreed in extolling to the skies the piety and justice of the king who had made them so rich a present. It would be difficult to give any more sufficient proof of his piety, than the endowment of the Abbey of West--Accordingly they sent to the Apostle, minster; and his rigorous adherence to the dictates of justice may be reasonably doubted for more than one reason. According to Wace's own account of it, his giving up of the hostages of Godwin (one of his nephews and one of his sons) to Duke William, must be considered as an act of the blackest treachery. Wace owns that, according to the opinion of every one, it "looked as if he wished William always to keep them, for the purpose of securing the kingdom to himself in case of Edward's death." "Co fu semblant k'il voulsist Ke toz tems cil les retenist, Co distrent genz, ke il péust Sun regne aveiz s'il ainz morust." The ignorance shown by Wace with regard to the events of Edward's reign, and the partiality with which he always speaks of him, shows how much the documents of Anglo-Saxon history, and the people over whom they were come to rule, were despised by the Norman invaders, even up to the middle of the twelfth century. He thus delineates Edward's charac ter: "King Edward was debonaire; he neither wished nor did ill to any man; he was without pride or avarice, and desired strict justice to be done to all. He endowed abbeys with fiefs, and divers goodly gifts, and Westminster in particular. We shall hear the reason why. On some occasion, whether of sickness or on the recovery of his kingdom, or on some escape from peril at sea, he had vowed a pilgrimage to Rome, there to say his prayers, and crave pardon for his sins; to speak with the Apostle, and reSo at the time ceive penance from him. he had appointed, he prepared for his journey; but the barons met together, and the bishops and the abbots conferred with each other, and they counselled him by no means to go. They said they and he absolved the King of his vow, but enjoined him, by way of acquittance of it, to select some poor abbey dedicated to St. Peter, honouring and endowing it with so many goods and rents, that it might for all time to come be resorted to, and the name of St. Peter thereby exalted."-p. 68. It is scarcely necessary to add, that the place selected by Edward was the Abbey of Thorney, afterwards distinguished by the title of the WestMinster. An interesting feature of Mr. Taylor's beautiful volume is the scries of wood-cuts by which it is illustrated, amounting in number to near seventy, and many of them extremely elaborate. The subjects are chiefly taken either from the celebrated tapestry of Bayeux, or the splendid MS. of an Anglo-Norman metrical life of St. Edward preserved in the public library of the University of Cambridge. We have given the foregoing extract from Mr. Taylor's elegant (though almost literal) version of Wace, partly to introduce in illustration of it one of his engravings, of which we could not otherwise convey to our readers an accurate impression. In the accompanying wood-cut, taken from the aforesaid Cambridge MS., we have King Edward seated on his throne, and surrounded by his nobles, his bishops, and his abbots, who are persuading him to renounce his intended pilgrimage to Rome. The other cut we have selected is taken from the same MS., and represents the monks of Waltham depositing the body of the unfortunate Harold in a rich shrine. The artist has not well studied his subject, for Harold is here buried with the ceremonies of royalty, and his obsequies attended apparently by his successor and by three bishops. The shrine bears some resemblance to the monument ascribed to Archbishop Theobold, at Canterbury. With regard to the value of these drawings, in illustrating costume and manners, it must be observed that the MS. from which they are taken is of the thirteenth century. The text of Wace is, if possible, more valuable in illustrating manners and customs even than the cuts which here adorn it. It is so admirably translated by Mr. Edgar Taylor, and his numerous notes are throughout so extremely learned and valuable, that we would rather send our readers to the book itself than multiply our extracts, and we are sure that there are few who take interest in English history and antiquities, or in AngloNorman genealogies, who will not furnish themselves with a copy. object is only to give an account of it. But we cannot resist the temptation of quoting one or two of the chivalrous deeds of Hastings. "The Normans," says Wace, Our were playing their part well, when an English knight came rushing up, having in his company a hundred men, furnished with various arms. He wielded a northern hatchet, with the blade a full foot long; and was well armed after his manner, being tall, bold, and of noble carriage. In the front of the battle, where the Normans thronged most, he came bounding on swifter than the stag, many Normans falling before him and his company. He rushed straight upon a Norman who was armed and riding on a war horse, and tried with his hatchet of steel to cleave his helmet; but the blow miscarried, and the sharp blade glanced down before the saddle bow, driving through the horse's neck down to the ground, so that both horse and master fell together to the earth. I know not whether the Englishman struck another blow; but the Normans who saw the stroke were astonished, and about to abandon the assault, when Rogier de Montgomeri came galloping up, with his lance set, and heeding not the long handled axe which the Englishman wielded aloft, struck him down, and left him stretched upon the ground. Then Rogier cried out, Frenchmen, strike! the day is ours!' And again a fierce melée was to be seen, with many a blow of lance and sword: the English still defending themselves, killing the horses and cleaving the shields."—p. 200. "On the other side was an Englishman who much annoyed the French, continually assaulting them with a keen edged hatchet. He had a helmet made of wood, he was making was seen by a gallant Such were the "fair deeds of arms" on the field of Hastings, the memory of which was probably in Wace's time still matter of boast in the fami lies of the Norman chieftains who had performed them. Wace, the chronicler of these events, has given a short account of himself. "If any one ask who it is that tells it and writes this history, let him know that I am Wace, of the Isle of Jersey, which is in the western sea, appendant to the fief of Normandy. I was born in the island of Jersey, but was taken to Caen when young; and, being there taught, went afterwards to France, where I remained for a long time. When I returned thence, I dwelt long at Caen, and there turned myself to making romances, of which I wrote many. "In former times, they who wrote gests and histories of other days used to be beloved, and much prized and honoured. They had rich gifts from the barons and noble ladies; but now I may ponder long, and write and translate books, and may make many a romance and sirvente, ere I find any one, how courteous soever he may be, who will do me any honour, or give me enough even to pay a scribe. I talk to rich men who have rents and money; it is for them that the book is made, that the tale is well told and writ ten down; but noblesse now is dead, and largesse hath perished with it; so that I have found none, let me travel where I will, who will bestow ought upon me, save King Henry the Second. He gave me, so God reward him! a prebend at Bayeux, and many other good gifts."-p. 4. The most important of Wace's writings is the Roman de Rou, or Chronicle of the Norman dukes from Rollo to the year 1106, when he ends abruptly. It is in this work that he gives the account of the battle of Hastings and the Norman Conquest which Mr. Taylor has so ably translated. The only edition of it is that printed at Rouen by Ed. Frere, in 1827, edited by M. Pluquet (2 vols. 8vo.) Unfortunately, the text is not found in its original state, for it is our impression that none of the MSS. are older than the middle of the thirteenth century. Another valuable work by our author is the Roman de Brut, or history of the fabulous period of British history, founded on the work of Geoffrey of Monmouth. Of this work, also, an edition is now in the press at Rouen, edited by M. Le Roux de Lincy, to make similarly two volumes 8vo. The first volume was published a few months ago,* and we expect soon to receive the second, when we intend to give a more detailed notice of it. Wace has left us two or three other pieces-his Metrical life of St. Nicholas has been most ably edited by M. Monmerqué for the Société des Bibliophiles Français : his poem on the establishment of the Festival of the Conception, dicte la feste as Normands, merits also to be published. * Le Roman de Brut, par Wace, Poète du xiie siecle, publié pour la première fois d'après les manuscrits des Bibliothèques de Paris, avec un Commentaire et des Notes, par Le Roux de Lincy. Tome 1. Rouen, Frere, London, Pickering. 1836. 8vo. |