Stelle Si quis autem scire voluerit quand...; (Historia Brittonum (829 - 830), p. 62 (ch. 15)) [812]

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ID 812
Text Historia Brittonum (829 - 830) Nennius
Quotation Si quis autem scire voluerit quando vel quo tempore fuit inhabitabilis et deserta Hibernia, sic mihi peritissimi Scottorum nuntiaverunt. Quando venerunt per Mare Rubrum filii Israhel, Aegyptii venerunt, et secuti sunt et demersi sunt, ut in Lege legitur. Erat vir nobilis de Scythia cum magna familia apud Aegyptios, et expulsus est a regno suo, et ibi erat quando Aegyptii mersi sunt, et non perrexit ad sequendum populum Dei. Illi autem qui superfuerant inierunt consilium ut expellerent illum, ne regnum illorum obsideret et occuparet, quia fortes illorum demersi erant in Rubrum mare, †iste gener Pharaonis erat, id est mas Scotte, filie Pharaonis, a quo ut fertur Scocia appellata fuit† et expulsus est. At ille per XLII annos ambulavit per Africam, et venerunt ad aras Filistinorum ... et transierunt per Maritaniam ad columnas Erculis, et navigaverunt Tyrrenum mare, et pervenerunt ad Hispaniam usque, et ibi habitaverunt per multos annos, et creverunt et multiplicati sunt nimis, et gens illorum multiplicata est nimis. Et postea venerunt ad Hiberniam post MII annos, postquam mersi sunt Aegyptii in Rubrum mare, et ad regiones Darieta, in tempore quo regnabat Brutus apud Romanos, a quo consules esse coeperunt, deinde tribuni plebis ac dictatores. ... Brittones venerunt in tertia aetate mundi ad Brittaniam; Scotti autem in quarta obtinuerunt Hiberniam. Scotti autem, qui sunt in occidente, et Picti de aquilone pugnabant unanimiter et uno impetu contra Brittones indesinenter, quia sine armis utebantur Brittones. Et post multum intervallum temporis Romani monarchiam totius mundi obtinuerunt.
Translation If anyone wants to know when Ireland was inhabited and when it was deserted, this is what the Irish scholars have told me. When the children of Israel crossed through the Red Sea, the Egyptians came and pursued them and were drowned, as may be read in the Law. Among the Egyptians was a nobleman of Scythia, with a great following, who had been expelled from his kingdom, and was there when the Egyptians were drowned, but did not join in the pursuit of the children of God. The survivors took counsel to expel him, lest he should attack their kingdom and occupy it, for their strenght had been drowned in the Red Sea; †for his wife was Scotta, the daughter of Pharaoh, from whom Scotia, Ireland, is said to be named.† He was expelled and he wandered for 42 years through Africa, and they came to the Altars of Philistines, ... and crossed through Marocco to the Pilars of Hercules, and sailed over the Tyrrhene Sea, and came to Spain, and there they lived for many years, and grew and multiplied exceedingly, and their people multiplied exceedingly. After they had come to Spain, and 1002 years after the Egyptians had been drowned in the Red Sea, they came to the country of Dal Riada, at the time when Brutus was ruling among the Romans, with whom the Consuls began, and then the Tribunes of the Plebs and the Dictators. The Consuls however held the State for 447 years, which had previously suffered the rule of Kings. The British came to Britain in the Third Age of the world; but the Irish secured Ireland in the Fourth Age. But the Irish, who are in the west, and Picts from the north, fought together in a united assault on the British unremittingly, for the British were unused to weapons; and after a long interval the Roman secured the monarchy of the whole world. (J. Morris, p. 21)
Quotation source p. 62 (ch. 15)
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