Eusebius, Isidorus, Prosper, and from the annals of
the Scots and Saxons, and from our ancient traditions. Many teachers
and scribes have attempted to write this, but somehow or other have
abandoned it from its difficulty, either on account of frequent deaths,
or the often recurring calamities of war. I pray that every reader
who shall read this book, may pardon me, for having attempted, like a
chattering jay, or like some weak witness, to write these things, after
they had failed. I yield to him who knows more of these things than I
do.

III. THE HISTORY.

4, 5. From Adam to the flood, are two thousand and forty-two years. From
the flood of Abraham, nine hundred and forty-two. From Abraham to Moses,
six hundred.* From Moses to Solomon, and the first building of the
temple, four hundred and forty-eight. From Solomon to the rebuilding of
the temple, which was under Darius, king of the Persians, six hundred
and twelve years are computed. From Darius to the ministry of our Lord
Jesus Christ, and to the fifteenth year of the emperor Tiberius, are
five hundred and forty-eight years. So that from Adam to the ministry of
Christ and the fifteenth year of the emperor Tiberius, are five thousand
two hundred and twenty-eight years. From the passion of Christ are
completed nine hundred and forty-six; from his incarnation, nine hundred
and seventy-six: being the fifth year of Edmund, king of the Angles.

* And forty, according to Stevenson's new edition. The rest
of this chronology is much contracted in several of the
manuscripts, and hardly two of them contain it exactly the
same.

6. The first age of the world is from Adam to Noah; the second from Noah
to Abraham; the third from Abraham to David; the fourth from David
to Daniel; the fifth to John the Baptist; the sixth from John to the
judgment, when our Lord Jesus Christ will come to judge the living and
the dead, and the world by fire.

The first Julius.
The second Claudius.
The third Severus.
The fourth Carinus.
The fifth Constantius.
The sixth Maximus.
The seventh Maximianus.
The eighth another Severus Aequantius.
The ninth Constantius.*

* This list of the Roman emperors who visited Britain, is
omitted in many of the MSS.

Here beginneth the history of the Britons, edited by Mark the anchorite,
a holy bishop of that people.

7. The island of Britain derives its name from Br