De Excidio Patriae : civic discourse in Gildas’ Britain

This article explores the use of civic discourse in Gildas’ De Excidio Britonum. It argues that such language and imagery functioned within a larger dialectical argument exhorted readers to choose virtue over vice. Gildas assigned Britons collective moral agency by styling them citizens (cives) shared homeland (patria) defined cities (civitates). Due citizens’ failings, however, this urban landscape had been compromised: enemies destroyed patria’s cities, rendering it place desolation. Only return could save from ruin grant access heavenly Jerusalem.