f Osiers. Then passing between Rusicada and the hilly
country of Syria, they travelled by the river Malva through Mauritania
as far as the Pillars of Hercules; and crossing the Tyrrhene Sea, landed
in Spain, where they continued many years, having greatly increased and
multiplied. Thence, a thousand and two years after the Egyptians were
lost in the Red Sea, they passed into Ireland, and the district of
Dalrieta.* At that period, Brutus, who first exercised the consular
office, reigned over the Romans; and the state, which before was
governed by regal power, was afterwards ruled, during four hundred and
forty-seven years, by consuls, tribunes of the people, and dictators.

* North-western part of Antrim in Ulster.

The Britons came to Britain in the third age of the world; and in the
fourth, the Scots took possession of Ireland.

The Britons who, suspecting no hostilities, were unprovided with the
means of defence, were unanimously and incessantly attacked, both by the
Scots from the west, and by the Picts from the north. A long interval
after this, the Romans obtained the empire of the world.

16. From the first arrival of the Saxons into Britain, to the fourth
year of king Mermenus, are computed four hundred and twenty eight years;
from the nativity of our Lord to the coming of St. Patrick among the
Scots, four hundred and five years; from the death of St. Patrick to
that of St. Bridget, forty years; and from the birth of Columeille(1) to
the death of St Bridget four years.(2)

(1) V.R. Columba.

(2) Some MSS. add, the beginning of the calculation is 23
cycles of 19 years from the incarnation of our Lord to the
arrival of St. Patrick in Ireland, and they make 438 years.
And from the arrival of St. Patrick to the cycle of 19 years
in which we live are 22 cycles, which make 421 years.

17. I have learned another account of this Brutus from the ancient books
of our ancestors.* After the deluge, the three sons of Noah severally
occupied three different parts of the earth: Shem extended his borders
into Asia, Ham into Africa, and Japheth in Europe.

* This proves the tradition of Brutus to be older than
Geoffrey or Tyssilio, unless these notices of Brutus have
been interpolated in the original work of Nennius.

The first man that dwelt in Europe was Alanus, with his three sons,
Hisicion, Armenon, and Neugio. Hisicion had four sons, Francus, Romanus,
Alamanus, and