mong the rest, the Thames and the
Severn, which formerly, like the two arms of Britain, bore the ships
employed in the conveyance of riches acquired by commerce. The Britons
were once very populous, and exercised extensive dominion from sea to
sea.

10.* Respecting the period when this island became inhabited
subsequently to the flood, I have seen two distinct relations. According
to the annals of the Roman history, the Britons deduce their origin both
from the Greeks and Romans. On the side of the mother, from Lavinia, the
daughter of Latinus, king of Italy, and of the race of Silvanus, the son
of Inachus, the son of Dardanus; who was the son of Saturn, king of the
Greeks, and who, having possessed himself of a part of Asia, built the
city of Troy. Dardanus was the father of Troius, who was the father
of Priam and Anchises; Anchises was the father of Aeneas, who was the
father of Ascanius and Silvius; and this Silvius was the son of Aeneas
and Lavinia, the daughter of the king of Italy. From the sons of Aeneas
and Lavinia descended Romulus and Remus, who were the sons of the
holy queen Rhea, and the founders of Rome. Brutus was consul when
he conquered Spain, and reduced that country to a Roman province. He
afterwards subdued the island of Britain, whose inhabitants were
the descendants of the Romans, from Silvius Posthumus. He was called
Posthumus because he was born after the death of Aeneas his father; and
his mother Lavinia concealed herself during her pregnancy; he was called
Silvius, because he was born in a wood. Hence the Roman kings were
called Silvan, and the Britons from Brutus, and rose from the family of
Brutus.

* The whole of this, as far as the end of the paragraph, is
omitted in several MSS.

Aeneas, after the Trojan war, arrived with his son in Italy; and Having
vanquished Turnus, married Lavinia, the daughter of king Latinus, who
was the son of Faunus, the son of Picus, the son of Saturn. After the
death of Latinus, Aeneas obtained the kingdom Of the Romans, and Lavinia
brought forth a son, who was named Silvius. Ascanius founded Alba, and
afterwards married. And Lavinia bore to Aeneas a son, named Silvius;
but Ascanius (1) married a wife, who conceived and became pregnant.
And Aeneas, having been informed that his daughter-in-law was pregnant,
ordered his son to send his magician to examine his wife, whether the
child conceived were male or female. The magician came and examined the
wi