of their tender age, were unequal to the management of the kingdom, his brother, Cassibelaunus, was raised to the throne in their stead. Afterwards, when he was invested with the crown, he began to be so celebrated for liberality and honour, that his fame became known throughout distant kingdoms, owing to which, it happened that the sovereignty over the whole realm was given to him, and not to his nephews. Still, Cassibelaunus gratified his natural affection by not leaving the young men destitute of royal power, but by dividing a great part of the kingdom among them. For he gave the city of Trinovantum, in the duchy of Kent, to Androgeus, and the duchy of Cornwall to Tennancius. But he himself retained the kingly crown, and was supreme over them and all the other princes in the whole island. CH . XXVI.—Julius Caesar invades Britain—He is defeated and returns to Gaul—The Death of Nennius. IN the mean time it happened, that Julius Cassar, having subjugated Gaul, came to' the coast of the Ruteni.1 And when he beheld Britain from that point, he asked of the bystanders what country it was, and what nation dwelt across the sea. Then, when he had learnt the name of the island from his informants, he sent messengers over thither to the king of the island, demanding, with threats, that he should pay him tribute every year, in the same way that he received it from other nations. But Cassibelaunus, king of the Britons, when he had learnt the object of the coming of the ambassadors, answered with indignation, that he would by no means pay any tribute. The Britons, said he, are of the same vein of nobility with the Romans, being equally descended from the daughter of Priam and iEneas, and our offspring is accustomed to enjoy such a degree of liberty, as to be utterly ignorant what slavery is. And if the gods themselves were to attempt to deprive us of it, we would labour with all our energies to resist them, even if we were forced to encounter death in the maintenance of it. When the ambassadors returned, and when Julius Cassar had received this answer, he was very angry, and ordered vessels to he got ready, in order to prosecute by force the demand which * Th e Ruteni were a tribe of Northern France—their chief town was Segedunum, now Rhodes.