surnamed the "Wise," and also "Badonius," from the battle of Badon (Bath), which happened soon after his birth, said by some to have taken place 493 A.D., and by others in 511. He was the son of the British prince Caw who emigrated to North Wales in order to avoid submission to the Anglo-Saxons; was a pupil of Illitus, abbot of Morgan, and became a monk of Bangor. After visiting Ireland, France, and Italy, he returned to his native country, where he became eminent as a preacher. In his journeys he visited the monastery of Llancarvan, then recently founded by a nobleman of South Wales, whose example Gildas urged others to imitate. He is supposed to have died at Bangor about 590 A.D., though some date his death 20 years earlier. He is the most ancient historian of Britain; but his only complete work now extant is Epistola de Excidio Britanniae et Castigatione Ordinis Ecclesiastici, in which he graphically depicts and mourns over the total ruin of his country, as well as the revolting profligacy of manners then prevailing. This work was first published by Polydore Virgil in 1525; but the best edition is that of Gale, in the first volume of his Historia Britannicae, Saxoniae, etc., Scriptores quindecim, London, 1691, folio. Gildas also wrote several letters and pieces, of which only extracts remain. An excellent edition of his Excidio Britanniae has been published under the care of the English Historical Society, by Jos. Stevenson, London, 1838, 8vo, and it has been translated into English by J. A. Giles, LL.D., London, 1841, 8vo. It had previously been translated by T. Habington, and published in London so early as 1638.