our standard historical meta-narrative about the ambivalent progress of human civilization, where freedoms are lost as societies grow bigger and more complex – was invented largely for the purpose of neutralizing the threat of indigenous critique.

Whatever the complexities of Britannia’s terminal political history, the fragmentary remains that survive from these few manuscripts, remote in time and distance from events on the ground, are unsatisfactory grounds for telling the whole story. In themselves they paint a crude picture of conflict, insecurity, imperial impotence and internal dissens