Fuimus Troes is a verse drama attributed to Jasper Fisher about Julius Caesar's invasion of Britain in 55 BC.
The drama is written in blank verse, interspersed with lyrics; Druids, poets, and a harper are introduced, and it ends with a masque and chorus.
The title page describes it as, "Fuimus Troes, the True Trojans, being a story of the Britaines valour at the Romanes first invasion.
(Who may fitly sing of Mars array'd in adamant mail, or Merion, black with dust of Troy, or Tydeus' son by Pallas' aid strong against gods to thrust?).
The play's title, "we were Trojans", refers to the legend that both the Britons and the Romans were descended from the survivors of ancient Troy, through Aeneas.
In the context of the Protestant culture of the time, the play seeks to validate an opposition between Britain and Rome, setting up the British as eternal enemies of Roman authority.
The British leader Cassibelan attempts to appeal to their common ancestry, saying "As you from Troy, so we, our pedigree do claim; / Why should the branches fight, when as the root's the same?
However, the common Trojan origin is set against a model of pan-Celtic identity, with the ghost of the Gallic warlord Brennus, who sacked Rome in 387 BC, supporting the Britons.
[1] The ghosts of the Gallic leader Brennus and his Roman antagonist Camillus discuss the long-standing conflicts between their peoples as they watch Caesar preparing to invade Britain.
At his funeral, a fencing match between tribal champions leads to the death of Cassibelan's nephew Hirildas at the hands of his friend Eulinus.
Brennus insists that only a Caesar could beat the Britons, and that should Rome ever become tyrannous "generous spirits will break this compact like a spider's web".