The rampart itself was usually twelve feet high, and defended by a
ditch twelve feet in depth, as well as in breadth. This important
labour was performed by the legionaries themselves, to whom the use of
the spade and the pick-axe was no less familiar than the sword and the
pilum" ("Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," vol. i., p. 27.) This
gives a faithful description of the Roman encampment (Castra Stativa)
at Boulogne, which is described by St. Patrick as Bonaven Tabernise, or
Bononia, where the Roman encampment was pitched. Bononia, according to
Bertrand's "History of Boulogne," was regarded by the Romans as their
"principal dockyard" in Northern Gaul; and Suetonius, in his "Lives of
the Twelve Caesars," describes it "as the port from which the Roman
legions successively departed for Britain" (p. 283, note).

Many err in supposing that Gessoriac and Bononia were one and the same
town, originally called Gessoriac, and later, that is to say during the
reign of Constantine the Great, known as Bononia. It is true, however,
that during that Emperor's reign Gessoriac also came to be called
Bononia.

It is well to observe that the Morini, or inhabitants of the coast in
the neighbourhood of Boulogne, were converted to Christianity by St.
Firmin about the close of the second century; and that St. Fusian built
a chapel on the banks of the River Liane, which flows through Boulogne,
in the year 275.

St. Patrick, in his "Confession," represents himself and the fellow-
citizens of his youth as Christians who had not observed the
Commandments of God, and who had not been obedient to their priests. At
that time the Northern Britons were pagans; St. Ninian, who flourished
about the year 400, was the first missioner who preached the Gospel to