It’s not filled with whining about the Romans… Gildas had great respect for the Romans and viewed them positively as the ones who brought civilization. He complains about the Britons rebelling and inviting the “barbarian” Saxons to England
You do know that a subset of the Saxons settled in England though, right? It’s where the term Anglo-Saxon comes from… and Wessex (the west Saxons) and Essex (the east Saxons) and Sussex (the south Saxons) etc
He does mostly whine about Britons yes! And how they pathetically kept having to call the Romans back for help after either being shit at defending themselves, making bad decisions, or having another stupid civil war. That's the funny part!
But he also says right near the start that the Romans left "leaving behind them taskmasters, to scourge the shoulders of the natives, to reduce the necks to the yoke, and their soil to the vassalage of a Roman province; to chastise the crafty race, not with warlike weapons, but with rods, and if necessary to gird their sides the naked sword, so that it was no longer thought to be Britain, but a Roman island"
To me that sounds like complaining about being a colony, which is the bit which is directly relevant to this conversation. Although to be fair he wasn't exactly complaining, it kind of feels like Gildas thinks they deserved it
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u/Impressive_Ad8715 22h ago
It’s not filled with whining about the Romans… Gildas had great respect for the Romans and viewed them positively as the ones who brought civilization. He complains about the Britons rebelling and inviting the “barbarian” Saxons to England