Arthur is also not mentioned in Bede's "Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum" ("Ecclesiastical History of the English People"), which dates to c. 731, or any other surviving work until around 829, the date ascribed to the "Historia Brittonum", attributed to a Welsh ecclesiastic called Nennius. The "Historia" says: "Then in those days Arthur fought with the kings of the Britons against them [the Saxons] but he himself was the commander of battles ("dux bellorum")". Twelve battles fought by Arthur are listed. Commenting on Arthur's post-Conquest portrayal as a king, the historian Nicholas Higham observes "Earlier texts are uniform in depicting Arthur solely as a warrior or a leader of warriors, whether ‘real’ or supernatural...In the context of the central Middle Ages, it was a king’s role to head the army, leading the forces of subaltern rulers. ‘Overkingship’ was well known, in Wales as elsewhere. It was a small step therefore from ‘commander of battles’ to a quasi-imperial figure commanding the Welsh kings as well as their forces. This was to prove a landmark shift within the Arthurian tradition, leading directly to ‘King’ Arthur."