again a little further, thus:--"The barbarians drive us to the
sea; the sea throws us back on the barbarians: thus two modes of
death await us, we are either slain or drowned." The Romans,
however, could not assist them, and in the meantime the discomfited
people, wandering in the woods, began to feel the effects of a
severe famine, which compelled many of them without delay to yield
themselves up to their cruel persecutors, to obtain subsistence:
others of them, however, lying hid in mountains, caves and woods,
continually sallied out from thence to renew the war. And then
it was, for the first time, that they overthrew their enemies, who
had for so many years been living in their country; for their
trust was not in man, but in God; according to the maxim of Philo,
"We must have divine assistance, when that of man fails." The
boldness of the enemy was for a while checked, but not the
wickedness of our countrymen; the enemy left our people, but the
people did not leave their sins.

* Or Agitius, according to another reading.

21. For it has always been a custom with our nation, as it is
at present, to be impotent in repelling foreign foes, but bold
and invincible in raising civil war, and bearing the burdens of
their offences: they are impotent, I say, in following the standard
of peace and truth, but bold in wickedness and falsehood. The
audacious invaders therefore return to their winter quarters,
determined before long again to return and plunder. And then,
too, the Picts for the first time seated themselves at the extremity
of the island, where they afterwards continued, occasionally
plundering and wasting the country. During these truces, the
wounds of the distressed people are healed, but another sore,