CHAPTER IV - THE CYMRY AND THE ROMANS, A.D. 96—306

Summary

Not Fortune's slave is man; our state

Enjoins, while firm resolves await

On wishes just and wise,

That strenuous action follow both,

And life be one perpetual growth

Of heaven-ward enterprise.

Wordsworth: The Wishing-Gate destroyed.

§ 1. Domitian was followed upon the imperial throne by Nerva (a.d. 96), under whose short reign few events that affected Britain appear to have occurred; but a general spirit of discontent, merely repressed by force of arms, evidently prevailed for many years after the island's subjection by Agricola. At the period of Trajan's accession (a.d. 98) it is probable that the aged Brân ab Llyr and his heroic son Caradog had both passed away.

§ 2. Eigen, the daughter of Caradog ab Brân, is mentioned in the Triads as the first female saint of the Britons. Her husband, according to Cymric authority, was Sarllog, lord of Caersarllog (Old Sarum), and she headed, probably in later life and widowhood, a society of twelve pious women, who devoted themselves to the diffusion of Christianity and to works of kindness and charity. Attempts have been made to identify Eigen, who is also called Eurgain, with Claudia, the saint in Cæsar's household mentioned by St. Paul, 2 Tim. iv. 21; and also with the British wife of Pudens, whose extraordinary beauty, genius, and accomplishments are celebrated in two epigrams by Martial the Roman poet.

Cyllin, king of the Silures, the brother of Eigen, is also reckoned among the Cymric saints, or primitive Christians, of Britain in the first century.