the claims of allegiance
and protection were succeeded by the mutual and voluntary offices of
national friendship. [178]

[Footnote 173: Zosimus (l. vi. 376, 383) relates in a few words the
revolt of Britain and Armorica. Our antiquarians, even the great Cambder
himself, have been betrayed into many gross errors, by their imperfect
knowledge of the history of the continent.]

[Footnote 174: The limits of Armorica are defined by two national
geographers, Messieurs De Valois and D'Anville, in their Notitias
of Ancient Gaul. The word had been used in a more extensive, and was
afterwards contracted to a much narrower, signification.]

[Footnote 175: Gens inter geminos notissima clauditur amnes,

Armoricana prius veteri cognomine dicta.
Torva, ferox, ventosa, procax, incauta, rebellis;
Inconstans, disparque sibi novitatis amore;
Prodiga verborum, sed non et prodiga facti.

Erricus, Monach. in Vit. St. Germani. l. v. apud Vales. Notit.
Galliarum, p. 43. Valesius alleges several testimonies to confirm
this character; to which I shall add the evidence of the presbyter
Constantine, (A.D. 488,) who, in the life of St. Germain, calls the
Armorican rebels mobilem et indisciplinatum populum. See the Historians
of France, tom. i. p. 643.]

[Footnote 176: I thought it necessary to enter my protest against
this part of the system of the Abbe Dubos, which Montesquieu has so
vigorously opposed. See Esprit des Loix, l. xxx. c. 24. Note: See
Memoires de Gallet sur l'Origine des Bretons, quoted by Daru Histoire
de Bretagne, i. p. 57. According to the opinion of these authors,
the government of Armorica was monarchical from the period of its
independence on the Roman empire.--M.]

[Footnote 177: The words of Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 2, p.
181, Louvre edition) in a very important passage, which has been too
much neglected Even Bede (Hist. Gent. Anglican. l. i. c. 12, p. 50,
edit. Smith) acknowledges that the Romans finally left Britain in the
reign of Honorius. Yet our modern historians and antiquaries extend the
term of their dominion; and there are some who allow only the interval
of a few months between their departure and the arrival of the Saxons.]

[Footnote 178: Bede has not forgotten the occasional aid of the legions
against the Scots and Picts; and more authentic proof will hereafter be
produced, that the independent Britons raised 12,000 men for the service
of the emperor Anthemius, in Gaul