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 that exhorted readers to choose virtue over vice. Gildas assigned the Britons collective moral agency by styling them citizens (cives) of a shared homeland (patria) defined by cities (civitates). Due to the citizens’ moral failings, however, this urban landscape had been compromised: enemies had destroyed the patria’s cities, rendering it a place of desolation. Only a return to virtue could save the Britons from ruin and grant them access to heavenly Jerusalem.

中文翻译：

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爱国者的Ex Excidio：吉尔达斯的英国的公民话语

本文探讨了吉尔达斯的《不列颠励志》中公民话语的使用。它认为，这种语言和意象在更大的辩证论证中起作用，这促使读者选择美德而不是恶习。吉尔达斯（ Gildas ）通过将城市（公民）所定义的共享家园（ patria ）的公民（ cives ）的样式定为英国人的集体道德机构。但是，由于公民的道德失灵，这种城市景观遭到破坏：敌人摧毁了爱国者的城市，使之成为荒凉的地方。只有恢复美德才能使英国人免于毁灭，并使他们进入天上的耶路撒冷。