Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden maonachi Cestrensis; together with the English translations of John Trevisa and of an unknown writer of the fifteenth century.

Capitulum septimumdecimum.

XERSES the viij^the kynge of men of Persida reignede after Artaxerses by ii. monethes. In the tyme of whom Plato the [folio 143a] noble philosophre was borne. After whom Fogodianus reignede ix. monethes; after whom Darius other Nothus, the x^the kynge of Persida, whiche reignede xix. yere. Galfridus et Alfridus. In whiche tyme Belinus, the son of Molimicius,

reignede amonge the Briteynes, reteynenge to hym Loegria with Wales, and ȝafe to Brennius his broþer alle his londe ouer the water of Humbre, with Albania, nowe namede Scottelande. The v^the yere of his reigne y-paste, Brennius began to rebelle ageyn Belinus his broþer, whiche Brennius putte to fliȝhte, wente to the duke of the Lesse Briteyne, whose doȝhter he had mariede, to haue that realme after his dissease. And after that he hade receyvede þat realme, in the firste yere he come to Briteyn with a grete hoste of Frensche men and of Allobroges, to ȝiffe batelle ageyne his broþer; but þeire moder, a woman of grete age, schewenge to theyme her breste, and pullenge down her eiere of here hede, procurede peas amonge theyme. And in the yere folowenge after the acorde made betwene the brether, thei coniuncte togedre, made Fraunce subiecte to theyme, and destroyede a grete parte of Germany, and at the laste thei lade sege

to the cite of Rome. In whiche tyme Dionisius the firste exercisede grete crudelite in Sicille. And Furius Canillus made a dictator amonge þe Romanes, ouercome the Beneuen|tanes and Faliscones; whiche was putte and expulsede from the cite of Rome as for enuy, in that the peple seide that he diuidede ylle the pray and goodes thei hade geten. Titus, When that the Romanes in segenge þe Vegence hade sustenede grete infortunes by the space of x. yere, Furius Canillus put a grete siȝhte of connynges vnder the erthe in oon parte of the cite, thro the erthes of whom his knyȝhtes entrenge in to the cite toke a grete towre of hit, while that Furius Camillus oppugnede the walles in an oþer parte of the cite. The citesynnes seenge that, yoldede the cite, but Canillus displeasede so the peple in the diuision of theire pray that he was to a iuggemente. Whiche dredenge dethe went voluntaryly [folio 143b] in to exile in to the cite of Ardeia, whom the Romanes con|dempnede

in a grete summe of goode; whiche commenge afterwarde dissoluede the sege of the Frensche men, and putte theyme to fliȝhte.