"What is your origin?" he replied, "A Roman consul was my father."

Then the king assigned him that city, with all the western Provinces of
Britain; and departing with his wise men to the sinistral district,
he arrived in the region named Gueneri, where he built a city which,
according to his name, was called Cair Guorthegirn.*

* An ancient scholiast adds, "He then built Guasmoric, near
Lugubalia (Carlisle), a city which in English is called
Palmecaster." Some difference of opinion exists among
antiquaries respecting the site of vortigern's castle or
city. Usher places it at Gwent, Monmouthshire, which name,
he ways, was taken from Caer-Went, near Chepstow. This
appears to agree with Geoffrey's account, {illegible} See
Usher's Britan. Eccles. cap. v. p.23. According to others,
supposed to be the city from the ruins of which arose the
castle of Gurthrenion, in Radnorshire, Camden's Britannia,
p.479. Whitaker, however, says that Cair Guorthegirn was
the Maridunum of the Romans, and the present Caermarthen.
(Hist. Of Manchester, book ii. c. 1.) See also Nennius,
sec.47.

43. At length Vortimer, the son of Vortigern, valiantly fought against
Hengist, Horsa, and his people; drove them to the isle of Thanet, and
thrice enclosed them within it, and beset them on the Western side.

The Saxons now despatched deputies to Germany to solicit large
reinforcements, and an additional number of ships: having obtained
these, they fought against the kings and princes of Britain, and
sometimes extended their boundaries by victory, and sometimes were