Expert: Mark Smith - 6/17/2005

Question
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Followup To
Question - Ya well thanks to modern technology, DNA samples of the people in Wales compared with certain peoples in the med around greece would seperte fact from fiction pretty quick- thank god! Anyways this has got me thinking that the country of Wales in the medieval ages best traces its CULTURE back to Rome (from the romanization period of the Brittons) and of course to the Celtic empire/tribes of ancient Europe. How does that sound?
traditional lore says that the ancient Trogens under the leadership of brutus came to the UK and became the brittons. is there any validity to this theory?
Answer -
Hello. The story is entirely a myth. The first civilized people to reach the British Isles was an expedition led by the Greek navigator Pytheas in about 325 BC. Brutus the legendary leader of the Trojans had supposedly conquered the islands over 1000 years earlier, so he is obviously a myth. My own theory is that the story of Pytheas' expedition got twisted over the centuries so that when monk chronicler Geoffrey of Monmouth first wrote about Brutus in the 12th century the story had become garbled into a Trojan expedition that stayed in the British Isles instead of a Greek one that circumnavigated it but didn't stay.
Mark

Answer
Hello. I'm not sure I agree with all of that. The Celts of Wales, Scotland and Ireland have always preferred to trace their culture back to their northern and central European roots rather than to the Romans who were their traditional enemies from the 1st century BC. It's the English who look back fondly on ancient Rome as the source of their culture.   
Mark