e
master in the militarily-organised Roman frontier districts:
encouraged by the embarrassments of the authorities it advanced into
the peaceful provinces.

It is of importance to remark what the fate of Britain was in these
struggles.

From the Romanised territory an Augustus, called Constantine, set up
by the revolted legions, invaded Gaul, not merely to check the inroads
of the barbarians, but at the same time to possess himself of the
Empire. He at one time held a great position, when the legions of Gaul
and Aquitaine also took his side, and Spain saluted him Emperor. But
the authority of Honorius the generally recognised Emperor could not
be so easily set aside: discontented followers of the new Augustus
again went over to the old one: before them and the barbarians
combined Constantine fell, and soon after paid for his attempt with
his life.

The result, then, was that Honorius restored his authority to a
certain extent everywhere on the Continent, but not in Britain. To the
towns which had taken up arms while Constantine was there he gave the
right of self-defence--he could do nothing for them. The Roman Empire
was not exactly overthrown in Britain--it ceased to be.[3]

At this time, when the connexion between Rome and Roman Britain was
broken off, the Germans possessed themselves of the latter country.

_The Anglo-Saxons and Christianity._

Germans had been long ago settled in this as in so many other
provinces of the Western and Eastern Empires. Antoninus had brought
over German tribes from the Danube, Probus others from the Rhineland.
In the legions we find German cohorts, and very many others joined
them as free allies. In the civil wars between the Emperors we hear of
one side relying on the Franks, the other on the Alemanni in their
service; Constantine the Great is called to be Caesar by help of the
chiefs of the Alemanni. But besides this, German seafarers, who
appeared under the name of Saxons, after they had learnt shipbuilding
and navigation from the Romans, settled on the opposite coasts of
Britain and Gaul, and gave their name to both. Not then for the first
time, nor at the invitation of the Britons, as the Saga declares,[4]
did the descendants of Wodan make their first trial of the sea in
light vessels. Alternating between piracy and alliance--now with a
usurper and now with the lawful Emperor, between independence and
subjection, German seafarers had long ago filled all seas and coasts