CHAPTER III

PART IV: ALL GOOD THINGS COME TO AN END

Breaking camp

The Romans did good things for

Britain

(that is beyond dispute) although undoubtedly the most benefited people were those at the top of the heap. But nothing lasts for ever.

Roman legions were stationed in Britain up to the beginning of the 5^th century: 40,000 men at a rough estimate were maintained in three fortresses (York, Chester and Caerleon) and some auxiliary regiments along the Welsh and Northern English borders completed the army. They were in charge of keeping the Pax Romana (the Roman peace); and they did so..., when they could. Around 367 AD they started to have problems:

· They had problems with the Picts (remember they had been kept out by Hadrian’s Wall), who were already fed up with having a wall opposite them and were making constant raids to demolish it, climb it or jump it, probably moved by the misinterpretation of the saying “the grass is greener on the other side of the fence”.

· To make matters worse, a new bunch of people from the Continent were beginning to feel interest in our beloved island. They were the Saxons, who would later give history much to talk about.

· And if that weren’t enough, revolts against the empire broke out in Gaul. As a consequence, more and more troops had to be sent to the Continent, and those which remained in

Britain

were not sufficient to protect the island against Picts and Saxons. For the soldiers who were sent to the Continent there was not much difference between fighting the Britons or fighting the Gauls (the former were as savage as the latter), but for the history of Britain that decision was crucial, since the progressive withdrawal of Roman troops left the door open to new invaders.

The final curtain

Therefore, attacked from three sides at the same time, the Romans started to understand that their rule of

Britain

was drawing to a close. There was a last agonizing attempt to solve the situation when the Romano-Britons begged Emperor Honorius to help them, but considering that it would be like fighting a losing battle, he did not lift a finger to help them and they had to stand on their own two feet. ‘Good luck, Britons. It has been a pleasure to meet you, but now muddle through on your own’. The withdrawal of the legions which had begun c. 400 AD finished in 409 AD when the last Roman soldiers left

Britain

Give them an inch and they will take a yard

Whatever happened after the Romans departed is not quite clear for there are only a few written accounts of historical facts of this age; and there are scarce documents on which to base because, when the Romans left, most of the people who could write left with them too, and

Britain

remained practically an illiterate country. So we will have to trust the words of a 6^th century monk, Gildas, author of De excidio et conquestu Britanniae, where he writes about Vortigern, Hengist, Horsa and Roman Britain in general. According to him, after the Roman exodus power fell into the hands of tyrants; and one of them was Vortigern. Feeling defenceless against the threat of invasion by the Picts, he “invited” some tribes from the Continent (from present-day Germany and Denmark), led by King Hengist and King Horsa, to come to

Britain

so that they could help him to prevent the Picts from attacking his people. They accepted the invitation..., but they stayed longer than Vortigern had expected..., much longer.

We came, we saw, we stayed (Exercises)

1.- They stood head over shoulders above anyone else

Parts of the body appear in some well-known idioms. Head and shoulder are two of them. Below there are some expressions in which these words have been dropped. Decide which of them is appropriate inr each case and connect them with the meaning that you consider correct.

1.- to have a good _____ for something

2.- to give someone the cold _____

3.- to rub _____ with someone

4.- to lose one’s _____

5.- to come to a _____

6.- to come straight from the _____

7.- to be over someone’s _____

8.- to be shoulder to _____

9.- a _____ to cry on

10.- to have a swollen ____

a.- to be side by side, close together

b.- to be very proud of one’s abilities and achievements

c.- to panic

d.- to ignore someone

e.- to be naturally good at something which requires a good

brain

f.- to reach a crisis/state where you have to act urgently

g.- a person who will listen sympathetically to one’s troubles

and will try to comfort you

h.- to be direct and frank

i.- to be too difficult for them to understand

j.- to come into social contact with someone

1.-

2.-

3.-

4.-

5.-

6.-

7.-

8.-

9.-

10.-

2.- They thought that they were the cat’s whiskers

You can say the same idea using two other expressions. Which of the phrases below could be used instead of the cat’s whiskers?

the dog’s ears the horse’s saddle

the bee’s knees the mouse’s tail

the peacock’s feathers the cat’s pyjamas

3.- The Romans had a sweet tooth / Tooth and nail / To show one’s teeth

In this chapter three expressions with tooth/teeth have appeared. Below you will find out some more. You are given their meanings and one/two word(s) so that you can make them up.

3.1.- to deliberately tell lies (lie / through ): _______________________

3.2.- to carry a lot of weapons (armed): _______________________

3.3.- to manage to do something but nearly fail (skin / of ): _______________________

3.4.- to become very involved in doing something and deal

with it with much concentration and energy (get / into ): _______________________

3.5.- to be very dissastified or bored with something (fed / to ): _______________________

4.- To turn the clocks back

To turn back is a phrase consisting of a verb plus a particle. Verbs followed by a particle are classified into two groups: prepositional verbs (if that particle is a preposition, for example, look after) and phrasal verbs (if it is an adverb, for example, turn back). The meaning of the verb + the particle is often very different from the meanings of the two words when they are considered separately.

Prepositional verbs always have an object (I’m looking after the children/ I’m looking after them); as regards phrasal verbs, some of them are intransitive (sit down, get up) and others are transitive. When we are dealing with transitive ones, the position of the object, if it is a noun, is optional; so to turn back the clocks is also possible. But if the object is a pronoun, this must go between the verb and the particle: to turn them back, not ~~to turn back them~~. If the object is a long phrase, it seems more sensible to place it after the particle; so I had to put off the party that my sister, my brother and I had been preparing for such a long time seems more logical than ~~I had to put the party that my sister, my brother and I had been preparing for such a long time off~~ (???).

And now a very simple exercise. Replace the nouns with pronouns in the following cases, and if there appears a phrasal verb, write the phrase in its two possible forms.

First form	Second form (if possible)	Pronoun
to turn the clocks back	to turn back the clocks	to turn them back
to look after the children	X	to look after them
to talk about politics
to bring up the children
to put up the prices
to turn out the lights
to get off the bus
to make up a story
to break into a conversation
to call for your friends

5.- Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s

Historical and biblical names are used in some expressions. Below you have some more names of this kind. Place them in the correct spaces and connect them with the meanings which appear on the right. (Note: the name Job appears twice; one of them in the example)

1.- as rich as _______	a.- a sceptic	1.-
2.- as patient as Job__	b.- to be more wicked than the worst of tyrants	2.- d
3.- a doubting _______	c.- an imminent evil or danger	3.-
4.- a _______’s comforter	d.- extremely patient	4.-
5.- even _____sometimes nods	e.- very wealthy	5.-
6.- to out-herod _______	f.- everyone is liable to make mistakes	6.-
7.- not to know someone from _______	g.- of an incredibly advanced age	7.-
8.- to raise _______	h.- not to know/recognize someone at all	8.-
9.- as old as _______	i.- something which is won at too heavy a price	9.-
10.- the sword of _______	j.- to make a noisy disturbance	10.-
11.- a _______ victory	k.- to put your thumb to your nose and spread wide the fingers	11.-
12.- Queen _______’s fan	l.- to have the ability to make a financial success of all one’s projects	12.-
13.- to have the _______ touch	m.- someone who tries to sympathize with you in your sorrow but finally makes you feel even unhappier than you were	13.-

~~Job~~ Job Adam Herod Methuselah Cain

Anne Damocles Croesus Midas pyrrhic (from Pyrrhus)

Thomas Homer

6.- Taken by storm / To take place / If we take into account / Four legions took part

In the box there are more expressions with the verb take. Complete the spaces using the correct form of the verb and make the changes that you consider necessary.

~~take part~~

take someone by surprise

take care of

take one’s word

take a lot out of someone take seriously

be hard to take

take care

take someone out of themselves

be taken aback

6.1.- He has taken part in local administration for fifteen years

6.2.- A good worker always _______________ what he does.

6.3.- _______________, darling, the pavement is slippery and you might fall down.

6.4.- I think that his behaviour _______________. We can’t accept it.

6.5.- _______________ the children while I’m out, OK?.

6.6.- She ________when I told her that I had forgotten where I had parked our car.

6.7.- Working as a teacher _______________. It is really a tiring job.

6.8.- Oh, please, _______________. I’m not lying.

6.9.- The announcement of their wedding _______________. Who could have expected that would happen?

6.10.- The reading of that wonderful poem by Wordsworth _______________. When I finished reading. I lay on the sofa, relaxed and all my problems went away.

7.- Prevention is better than cure / A bad excuse is better than none / Better be the head of a mouse than the tail of a lion / Her better half / Two heads are better than one

A good number of expressions which include the word better have appeared in this chapter. The list is completed below, but those which appear next have been split into two parts. In another box you will find their meanings. Match these meanings and the appropriate expressions.

for better	of the matter	for better or (for) worse
to be better	than the devil you don’t know
to think better	the better
better late than	nature
better the devil you know	or (for) worse
the sooner	never
someone’s better	is better than none
half a loaf	than one’s word

1 to give something further consideration

2 something will be more benefecial if it is done earlier

3 we should content ourselves with what we have received, though we hoped to receive more

4 it is better to do something, even if it should have been done earlier, than not to do it at all

5 you are not sure what the consequences will be but now there is no turning back

6 it is better to deal with someone you already know, even though you don’t like them, than with someone you don’t know at all

7 to do more than one promised

8 someone’s feelings of kindness and sympathy for other people

¨ ________________________________________: ( )

¨ for better or (for) worse : ( 5 )

¨ ________________________________________: ( )

8.- That could mean lining their pockets

To line one’s pockets means “to make a lot of money, especially dishonestly”. In the following list of expressions there is ONE which means the same. Which one do you think it is?

to stretch one’s legs

to feather one’s nest

to throw good money after bad

to bring the house down

to keep one’s nose to the grindstone

to stick one’s neck out

9.- The more one has, the more one desires

We use the construction the more...the more when two changes happen together. Write new sentences using this structure as in the example:

Example: I am growing older. I am happier as time goes by.

The older I grow, the happier I am

9.1.- If you start work soon, you’ll finish it soon too