312), was captured in
Armorica, and who, according to Hersart de la Villemarque and Dr.
Lanigan, was taken captive at Boulogne, was well aware that every
Irishman would know the town to which he was referring when he declared
in his "Confession" that his father, Calphurnius, and consequently he
himself, hailed from the suburban district of Bonaven Taberniae, or
Bononia, where the Roman encampment stood.
HISTORY OF THE TOWN BONAVEN, OR BONONIA.
THE ancient records of Bononia, or Boulogne-sur-Mer, date back to about
half a century before Christ--to the time when Julius Caesar,
anticipating Napoleon the Great, stood on the north-eastern cliffs of
that town gazing through the Channel mist on the dim outline of that
Britain which he had resolved to subjugate.
At that period two headlands stretched out into the sea for a distance
of three miles--one on the northeastern side of the town, near to what
is now known as Fort la Cresche; and the other from Cape Alpreck, about
three miles lower down on the south-western coast. These headlands,
stretching out into the sea, so encircled a bay as to form it into an
outward haven.
The inner harbour of Boulogne was approached by a narrow channel
dividing the north-eastern from the south-western cliffs; and the
waters of the bay, flowing through it and uniting with the River Liane
in covering the present site of the lower town, rushed onwards as far
as the valley of Tintelleries and the vale of St.
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