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'Days as dark as night. [Annates Cambriae)

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DUX BELLORUM HEN WE COME TO

so

it,

little is

known about Arthur

that

whom only the We do not know

he threatens to remain an insubstantial figure action of the imagination can flesh out.

when he was

born, or where (various sources suggest Wales

making him truly

or Cornwall, the Midlands or Scotland,

son of Britain); neither can died. Lacking these

we

say where or

when

or

a

how he

two pivotal points, the years between fade into a mist which

only an occasional flash of light illuminates.

someone - whom for the sake of argument we may call Arthur — drew together the last remnant of Romano-British defence, as Ambrosius had begun to do before him, and added to this the wilder lessdisciplined forces of the native kings, welding them into a force powerful enough to push back the Saxon advance to the coast on every side and there to

What

is

contain them. largely of

is

that

We

also

clear

know with

mounted men, armed

reasonable surety that this force consisted

like the

Roman

cavalry,

known

as cataphracti.

Reconstruction of the

Timber Hall Camp.

Planks

o \°

oO

in rill

beam

Earth-fast staves

Wattle

HALL

CHAMBER

i

j

c_

I

4 \

'>i

(J

o

restored post- positions

fH-^-cr^-s^\^

56

°o^

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