Albonium

Volume XIX - Fellic Empire

Book XXXVI - Lamentations

I - Lamentations of Sura

He was in a Trireme that was sailing to Hispania! He had departed from Britannia!

He looked back to Britannia. Once he was its king, but now, he fled from it!

He spoke out of his soul. To whom could he speak to? He spoke to the waves, for they were not irritated by his words.

The waves, ever-rising, ever-falling!

They would do the same for thousands of years. And so was Britannia, ever great, ever-powerful! But it was always below the first!

There was Boudica! But her uprising was slaughtered, as were the first Britons. And so the founding of England came under Alfred the Saxon!

Yet the English called themselves Trojan. They claimed, "When Aeneas the Trojan fled and settled in Italy, his grandson, Brutus traveled and founded the kingdom of the Britons." And if their myth was true, then Britain was a son of Troy, and a brother to Rome!

But was not the history of Rome that of an usurper? Once the descendants of Aeneas founded Alba Longa, capital of the Latins before it was conquered by Rome! Rome was made by the weak and the underdog, Romulus, banished from the lineage of Aeneas.

And so to anyone who asked, "But was not Britain overrun by Saxons?" the English replied only, "Was not Alba Longa overrun by Romans?"

Thus was Brutus, and he was Aeneas! Thus was Arthur, and he was Amulius! And so then came Alfred, who was Romulus!

And soon Rome was sacked, and thus came William the Norman. Yet the Norman nobility became the English nobility!

Thus was the end of the similarities. Byzantium was conquered by the Arabs, yet the English became the British!

So this was him, the English brother, who had lived like a weakling, who had been bullied for centuries by foreigners, but had made peace with them while his brother died a good death. Thus was he, the coward! And the coward's years were equal to death, for the dead man could do nothing, and the coward could do nothing of value.

And so the coward had slumbered for hundreds of years, but now he acted! And thus he put his masters into the world.

Now there was Richard, leader of the Crusade! Was he Scipio Africanus? But he had overcome him, for he was king. Yet he was below him out of his inferior skill!

And so now the English had separated from the legacy of the Romans, and as a son to Troy, journeyed along his own path...

Thus was Cromwell and Marlborough! And then, Wellington! And at its zenith, then came the British Empire!

Thus was the great British Empire, that which the sun shined on each hour, and never was it in the darkness. It ruled India, it ruled that which was once Akkad, Sumer, and Babylonia! Thus was its landmass, and it was great beyond any Roman's imagination, yet the lands were far poorer than those of Rome.

And indeed, there was no unification in their culture! Thus was the end of Britain as a son of Troy, for now the Trojan spirit had left him, and had entered America.

And so he cried out to the Britannia, "Oh! Britannia! Always were you good to me, always were you kind!

"You are a producer of fine men, you are the queen who defeated Saladin and Napoleon!

"You are the sacker of many cities, and it was you who finally put Delhi on a leash, for even Alexander and Nader could not hold it for long.

"But always were you inferior to Rome. Indeed, even at your peak, men would still look to Rome as the zenith of virtue! And if they did not, they would look towards Persia, but never to you!