De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniæ

About This Book

De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae is a work written in Latin in the late fifth or sixth century by the British religious polemicist Gildas. It is a sermon in three parts condemning the acts of Gildas' contemporaries, both secular and religious, whom he blames for the dire state of affairs in sub-Roman Britain. It is widely acknowledged by historians that the text cannot be straightforwardly used to construct a reliable narrative history of fifth- and sixth-century Britain. It nevertheless is one of the most important sources for the history of Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries, as it is the only significant historical source for the period written by a near contemporary of the people and events described.

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