Gildas, Historian of the immediate post-Roman period in Britain. He knew of an appeal to Aetius, the gemitus Britanniorum, and was able to quote from it; but for the most part he has to rely on oral evidence. Given this limitation and the inevitable resulting factual errors (as in his treatment of the Roman Walls), he gives a picture that is not altogether out of line with the evidence of placenames and archaeology. He tells of the settlement of German federates in the early fifth century to protect Roman Britain, their rebellion, the resistance led initially by Ambrosius Aurelianus, and (as he saw it) the containment of the Saxons by heavy fighting culminating in the siege of Mount Badon.
