Camden's Britannia newly translated into English, with large additions and improvements ; publish'd by Edmund Gibson ...

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SILURES.

IT seems most adviseable, before we go to the other parts of England, to take a round into Cambria, or Wales, still possest by the posterity of the old Britains. Tho' I can∣not look upon this as a digression, but a pursuing of the natural course of things. For this tract is spread out along by the sides of the Cornavii, and seems to have a right to be consider'd here, as in its proper place. Especially, seeing the British or Welsh, the Inhabitants of these parts, enjoy the same laws and privileges with us, and have been this long time as it were engrafted into our Government.

Wales* 1.1 therefore (which formerly comprehended all that lies beyond the Severn, but has now narrower bounds) was formerly inhabited by three People, the Silures,* 1.2 the Dimetae,* 1.3 and the Ordovices.* 1.4 To these did not only belong the twelve Counties of Wales, but also the two others lying beyond the Severn, Herefordshire and Mon∣mouthshire, now reckon'd among the Counties of England. To take them then as they lye: the Silures (as we gather from Ptolemy's description of them) inhabited those Countries which the Welsh call by one general name Deheubarth, i.e. the Southern part; at this day brancht into the new names of Herefordshire, Radnorshire, Brecknockshire, Monmouthshire, and Glamorganshire; within which compass there are still some remains of the name Silures As to the derivation of the word, I can think of none that will answer the nature of the Country; but as to the original of the People, Tacitus* 1.5 imagines them to have come first from Iberia, upon account of their* 1.6 ruddy complexion, their curl'd hair, and their situation over against Spain. But Florianus del Campo, a Spaniard, is very positive in that matter, and takes a great deal of pains to find the Silures in Spain, and to obtrude upon us I know not what stories about Soloria and Siloria among the old Astures. However, this Country was very large (for it seems probable from Pliny and Tacitus that they were possess'd of all South-Wales,) and the Inhabitants were hardy, stout, warlike, averse to servitude, of great boldness and resolution (term'd by the Romans† 1.7 obstinacy and stubbornness) not to be wrought upon either by threats or kindness: and their posterity have not degenerated in any of these particulars. When the Ro∣mans, out of an itching desire of enlarging their Empire, made attempts upon them,* 1.8 they (partly reposing a confidence in the courage and conduct of King Caratacus, and partly incens'd by a saying of Claudius the Emperour, That they were to be as entirely routed as the Sugambri had been) engag'd the Romans in a very troublesome and difficult war. For having intercepted the Auxiliary Troops, cut off the Legion under Marius Valens, and wasted the territories of their Allies, P. Ostorius, Propraetor in Britain, was quite wore out with all these crosses, and dy'd of grief. Ve∣ranius too, who govern'd Britain under Nero, was baffled in this enterprize against them. For where Tacitus says,* 1.9 Illum modicis excursibus Sylvas populatum esse, that he destroy'd and wasted the woods with slight excursions; instead of Sylvas, with the Learned Lipsius only read Siluras, and all's right. Nor could an end be made of this war before Vespasian's reign. For then Julius Frontinus subdu'd them, and kept them quiet by garisons of the Legi∣ons. A certain Countryman of ours has wrested that verse of Juvenal upon Crispinus, to these Silures:

—magnâ qui voce solebat Vendere municipes, fractâ de merce Siluros. —Who with hideous cry Bawl'd out his broken Sturgeon in the streets.

As if some of our Silures had been taken prisoners, and expos'd to sale at Rome. But take it upon my word, he has mistook the genuine sense of the Poet. For any one that reads that passage with attention, will quickly perceive that by Siluros he designs to express a sort of Fish, and not a People.