figured into the Brittonic prophetic tradition as a messianic saviour who would return to lead his people in a time of need. A Cynan appears in several prophetic poems, most notably the Armes Prydein, where he is named alongside Cadwaladr as a figure whose return is promised. Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose knowledge of this tradition is evinced in both the Historia Regum Britanniae and the Vita Merlini, specifically identified this Cynan with Conan Meriadoc. Rachel Bromwich suggests that Geoffrey was relying on an older tradition identifying the founder of Brittany with the prophetic Cynan, and argues that this identification is made already in Armes Prydein. At the time Armes Prydein was composed, the Breton nobility under Alan II, Duke of Brittany had forged an alliance with Æthelstan, king of England, in the face of Viking attacks on their territory. Hywel Dda, then ruler of most of Wales, had also formed a similar relationship with Æthelstan at that time. In spite of this, the poet repeatedly refers to the men of Llydaw (Brittany) as part of his prophesied pan-Celtic union which will oust the English from Britain for good. Bromwich reads the line "A chymot Cynan gan y gilyd" ("there will be concord between Cynan and his fellow") as a reference to the reunion of the Bretons and their leader Conan Meriadoc with their fellow Britons. Geoffrey and the Dream of Macsen The story of Conan is attested in several medieval sources, the most substantial versions being those included in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae and the Welsh tale known as The Dream of Macsen Wledig. Both of these tie Conan and the founding of Brittany to the story of the Roman usurper Magnus Maximus, though in both cases this is heavily embellished. In Geoffrey, Conan is the nephew of Octavius, King of the Britons (Welsh Eudaf Hen), and a potential heir to the throne. When the throne is offered instead to "Maximianus", Geoffrey's version of Magnus Maximus, Conan at first opposes him, but the two are reconciled after Maximianus' marriage to Octavius' daughter. Later Maximianus leads the armies of Britain to march on Rome, and he quickly conquers Armorica, where he establishes Conan as the king with instructions to found "another Britain". He does so, and repels numerous attacks from the Gauls and Aquitanians, and asks for British wives for his men from Maximianus' regent Dionotus, with whose daughter,