Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Gildas and the History of Britain

1979; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 10; Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/526057

1753-5352

E. A. Thompson,

Classical Antiquity Studies

I shall assume that Gildas wrote towards the middle of the sixth century and that he composed the De Excidio much as Mommsen printed it. I shall also assume that, apart from the works of St Patrick, his book is the only British literary source of authentic information about the history of Britain in the mid-fifth century. To be sure, Bede's conjectures deserve careful attention, but scholars (apart from Dr D. N. Dumville) have unwisely disregarded Mommsen's words about the De Excidio: ‘unicus liber omnino qui eius saeculi condicionem insulae publicam aliqua luce illustret’.