ably it is
either earlier than the Gallic Empire of 258-73, or falls between that
and the revolt of Carausius in 287. The notion of O. Fiebiger (_De
classium Italicarum historia_, in _Leipziger Studien_, xv. 304) that it
belongs to the Aremoric revolts of the fifth century is, I think, wrong.
Such an expedition from Britain at such a date is incredible.]

[Footnote 2: The attempt to find eastern British names in Brittany seems
a failure. M. de la Borderie, for instance, thinks that Corisopitum (or
whatever the exact form of the name is) was colonized from Corstopitum
(Corbridge on the Tyne, near Hadrian's Wall). But the latter, always to
some extent a military site, can hardly have sent out ordinary
_emigres_, while the former has hardly an historical existence at all,
and may be an ancient error for _civitas Coriosolitum_ (C. xiii (I), i.
p. 491).]

[Footnote 3: Freeman (_Western Europe in the Fifth Century_, p. 164)
suggests that a migration of Britons into Gaul had been in progress,
perhaps since the days of Magnus Maximus, and that by 470 there was a
regular British state on the Loire, from which Riotamus led his 12,000
men. Hodgkin (_Cornwall and Brittany_, Penryn, 1911) suggests that the
soldiers of Maximus settled on the Loire about 388, and that Riotamus
was one of their descendants. He quotes Gildas as saying that the
British troops of Maximus went abroad with him and never returned. That,
however, is an entirely different thing from saying that they settled in
a definite part of Gaul. For this latter statement I can find no
evidence, and the Celtic revival in our island seems to provide a better
setting for the whole incident of Riotamus.

If Professor Bury is right (_Life of Patrick_, p. 354), Riotamus had a
predecessor in Dathi, who is said to have gone from Ireland to Gaul
about A.D. 428 to help the Romans and Aetius. Zimmer (_Nennius Vind._,
p. 85) rejects the tale. But it fits in well with the Celtic revival.]

This destruction of Romano-British life produced a curious result which
would be difficult to explain if we could not assign it to this cause.
There is a marked and unmistakable gap between the Romano-British and
the Later Celtic periods. However numerous may be the Latin personal
names and 'culture words' in Welsh, it is beyond question that the
tradition of Roman days was lost in Britain during the fifth or early
sixth century. That is seen plainly in the scanty literature of the age.
Gildas