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Dionysius PeriegetesAlmost nothing is known of Dionysius Periegetes (The Guide), whoprobably wrote his geographical survey of the inhabitable world sometimein the early second century ..His hexameter poemof just over , linesdescribes the known world from Ethiopia to Scythia to northern Europe,including a brief reference to the two Bretanides islands, though he doesnot specifically name Britain or Ireland:

, . , .(Orbis descriptio [Geographi Graeci Minores .])

Two other islands, the Bretanides, are near the northern shore ofthe Ocean, opposite the Rhine,

from there it sends forth its final eddies into the sea. Great is theirsize, nor do any other

islands equal the Bretanides.

Dionysius does not claim originality in his survey and is clearly drawingon earlier Greek geographers. In describing the Bretanides islands as thelargest known, he is in the same tradition as the earlier Pseudo-Aristotle.107

PtolemyPtolemy (Claudius Ptolemaeus) was one of the most important writers onmathematics, astronomy, and geography in the ancient world; his influencehas been felt even into modern times. He also far exceeds any ancient au-thor before or after him in his detailed and generally accurate descriptionof the geography of Ireland.

Almagest

Ptolemy first mentions Ireland as Little Britain ( ) whilediscussing latitudes in his earliest astronomical work, known through laterArabic translations as the Almagest: 108

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and their testimony for general patterns of distribution in the first throughearly fifth centuries .. can be fruitful for understanding the relationsbetween Ireland and the classical world (see Figs. and ).

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Contact between Ireland and the Mediterranean undoubtedly began be-fore the Roman period, but pre-Roman artifacts are few and often of ques-tionable origin. Such finds include Bronze Age double-axes and faiencebeads of respective Aegean and Egyptian manufacture.2 A barbary apeskull dated to the last few centuries .. was unearthed kilometers south-west of Armagh at the site of Navan, also known as Emain Macha, famousin early Irish literature as the capital of the Ulaid (Ptolemys Woluntioi).The barbary ape was native to north Africa and thus indicates at least in-direct trade routes connecting Ireland and the western Mediterranean inthe centuries before Roman advances into the British Isles.3 Four smallbronze figurines in the National Museum in Dublin dating from the sec-ond to first centuries .. also indicate early trade between Italy and Ire-land.The four include an Etruscan warrior found in County Roscommon,a robed Etruscan figure from County Sligo, and two Hercules figures ofunspecified provenience.

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Themajority of Romanmaterial of the first century .. is found, not sur-prisingly, along the east coast facing Roman Britain, although some arti-facts have been unearthed farther inland and on the northern coast. A tinysherd of first-century .. Arretine ware of Italian origin was found in-land from the coast at Ballinderry, County Offaly, while a sherd of southGaulish Samian ware, a brooch, and a Roman bronze fibula, all from thefirst century .., were found, respectively, in Counties Tyrone, Dublin,and Armagh.4 Another first-century Samian ware fragment, along withother Roman items, comes from the Drumanagh promontory at Lough-shinny, kilometers north of Dublin.5Of additional interest are the first-to second-century .. burial objects from the small island of Lambay, fivekilometers off the coast of County Dublin, where a number of fibulae, abeaded torque, bronze discs, and other objects of arguably British originwere recovered from several inhumation burials.6 A commercial connec-tion with the Brigantes tribe across the Irish Sea in central Britain, and

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scribes as between Ireland and Britain (inter Hiberniam ac Britanniam).In several cases, the best we can do is try to match them to islands listedseventy-five years later by Ptolemy, who does give locations, or to matchthem to names and locations in other authors. Pliny states that there areforty Orcades islands near Britain, which can be no other than the Ork-ney Islands just off the northern Scottish coast (see Fig. ).72 The sevenAcmodae are more difficult to identify precisely, but they are probably theShetland Islands to the northeast of the Orkneys.73 Plinys thirty Hebudesmust be the Hebrides, just off Scotlands northwest coast.74 The islandsthat Pliny describes as lying between Ireland and Britain, such as Mona,present more difficulties in identification. Caesar says thatMona is locatedmidway (medio cursu) between Britain and Ireland, which fits the Isle ofMan very well.75 Ptolemy also places Mona () midway in the IrishSea, which argues for Man, though he frequently places islands too far offa coast.76 Tacitus, on the other hand, is very clear that Mona is Anglesey(Welsh Mn), which is separated from the northwest Welsh coast only bya narrow channel that the Roman army waded across to destroy a druidstronghold.77 Pliny complicates the matter by saying thatMonapia also liesbetween Britain and Ireland.Monapia,whichmay be the same as PtolemysMonaoida (), is also identified with the Isle of Man in the classicaltradition.78 Plinys Riginia,which Ptolemy calls Rhikina () and placesoff the northeast coast of Ireland, may be Rathlin Island in the channel be-tween Scotland and Ireland.79 The island of Vectis is almost certainly theIsle of Wight, which is not between Ireland and Britain at all, but just offthe southern British coast.80 Silumnusmay be one of the Scilly Isles off thewestern coast of Cornwall (almost in the Irish Sea), while Andros mightpossibly be Howth or Lambay near Dublin Bay.81

Perhaps more important than the precise identification of individualislands with their modern counterparts is what the report of these islandsby Pliny tells us about how relations between Ireland and the classical worldimproved from the first century .. to the first century .. In the mid-first century .., Caesar had only a vague idea that Ireland lay beyondthe island of Mona to the west of Britain and was roughly half as large.82

Strabo knew of some small islands around Britain in the early first cen-tury .., but did not name them or say they were near Ireland.83 Evenat the time of the Roman conquest of southern Britain in .., Pom-ponius Mela mentioned only the Orcades and Acmodae off Britains north-ern coast.84 But by the time Pliny is writing, around .., the Romans

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First Century A.D. Second Century A.D.

Third Century A.D. Fourth-Early-Fifth-Centuries A.D.

...

...

..

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..

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...

.. ..

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250 km

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..

100 km

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. Roman Archaeological Finds in Ireland (Accepted Finds of FixedDate)

possibly even identification of the site with Brigantian refugees, are fea-sible, especially given the crushing defeat of the Brigantes by the Romansin .. .7

A key site with Roman material dating from the first through fourthcenturies .. is the Brug na Binne, a sacred mound at Newgrange onthe Boyne River. This Neolithic tumulus has yielded coinage from emper-ors fromDomitian (.. ) to Arcadius (.. ) and numerous

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.. make him an important source for early ethnographic information.Three of his glossary items refer to Ireland:

, . .

Iern, an island at the edge of the world toward the west. The ethnicname is Iernaios, like Lernaios.

, . .

Iwernia, a Pretanic island, the lesser of the two. The ethnic name isIwerniats.

, . .

Iwern, a Pretanic city. The ethnic name is Iwernoi.

Ptolemy (Geography .) also lists an Iwernoi ( ) tribe and a towncalled Iwernis ( ) in southern Ireland. Stephanus, as an insatiablecollector of words, is drawing onGreek authors who both use and omit thew () in I(w)ern ( []).

From Avienus to Stephanus of Byzantium, the literary sources on Irelandprovide our clearest picture of relations between Ireland and the classicalworld. Although much of the information is incomplete, repetitive, andeven fanciful, we are still able to construct a reasonably accurate pictureof what the Greeks and Romans knew of this island at the edge of theirworld. Linguistics supports this literary evidence by strongly suggestingcontacts between the Irish and outsiders, as shown through borrowingsof both vocabulary and writing. Archaeology also contributes by provid-ing physical evidence of trade contacts from at least the first century ..until the collapse of the western Roman empireand undoubtedly thereare many discoveries yet to be unearthed that will make the picture evenclearer. But it is the literature that continues to serve as our primary source.For classical studies, these early writings on Ireland provide one of the bestethnographic examples of how the Greek and Roman world viewed theplaces and tribes beyond their lands. For students of Ireland, they are avital source for the beginnings of Irish history.

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covernext page>

title:Ireland and the Classical World

author:Freeman, Philip.

publisher:University of Texas Press

isbn10 | asin:0292725183

print isbn13:9780292725188

ebook isbn13:9780292798274

language:English

subjectIreland--History--To 1172--Sources, Irish language--Foreign elements--Latin, Latin language--Influence on Irish, Ireland--Relations--Greece, Greece--Relations--Ireland, Ireland--Antiquities, Roman, Ireland--Relations--Rome, Rome--Relations--Ireland, Civil

publication date:2001

lcc:DA931.F74 2001eb

ddc:303.48/23615038

subject:Ireland--History--To 1172--Sources, Irish language--Foreign elements--Latin, Latin language--Influence on Irish, Ireland--Relations--Greece, Greece--Relations--Ireland, Ireland--Antiquities, Roman, Ireland--Relations--Rome, Rome--Relations--Ireland, Civil

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Ancaius expertly held the rudder,passing then near the isle of Iern.

The Orphic poet is here surprisingly confused about the Britannic Isles,which would include Britain, Ireland, and the surrounding smaller islands,and renames them all the Irish Isles.

PacatusTheGallic orator Latinius Pacatus Drepanius celebrated the victory of theemperor Theodosius I over the usurper Magnus Maximus on the occasionof a visit by Theodosius to Rome in .. . In the panegyric, Pacatuspraised Theodosius Flavius, the father of Theodosius I, for his recoveryof Britain from the Saxons, Picts, and Scoti in .. :175

attritam pedestribus proeliis Britanniam referam? Saxo consumptus bellisnavalibus offeretur. redactum ad palades suas Scotum loquar? (Panegyricon Theodosius .)

Shall I tell how Britain was worn down by infantry battles? TheSaxon defeated in naval battles is an example. Shall I speak of theScoti driven back to their own swamps?

Theodosius Flavius arrived in southern Britain and drove back themaraud-ing barbarians to reestablish Roman rule in the area, recovering and re-turning most of the booty stolen from the Britons.176The reference to theScoti driven back to their own swamps could imply Roman naval actionagainst the Irish Scoti as well as against the Saxons, but even so it wouldnot necessarily mean that Roman troops followed the Scoti into the IrishSea or to Ireland. Claudian intriguingly speaks of Theodosius Flavius inthe same campaign pursuing the Scoti afar and sailing the HyperboreanOcean (which Ptolemy places off Irelands northern coast); but the pane-gyric genre frequently employs hyperbole and exaggeration.177 Neverthe-less, Romanmilitary action on the Irish Sea and even reaching into Irelandat this time cannot be totally ruled out.

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north than Iern. Adding this distance to that fromMassalia to Iernyields a total of , stadia [, kilometers].

Though Hipparchus was considered the greatest of the ancient astrono-mers and the first to systematically apply rigorous mathematical standardsto geography, Strabo has no difficulty in disagreeing with him where Hip-parchus measurements contradict his own.

Strabo subsequently returns to his theme of Irelands northern loca-tion and comments on the character of its inhabitants:

- -, , , . . . , , , . (Geography ..)

But I think that the limit of the inhabitable world is much farthersouth than this. For modern researchers have nothing to say on landsbeyond Iern, which lies near Britain to its north, where completelywild people live a wretched existence on account of the cold. Thisplace, I believe, is the limit of the habitableworld. . . . But the distanceone should set down from Britain to Iern is no longer known, norif there are habitable regions beyond, nor is it necessary to considerthe problem if we believe the above arguments.

Before this passage begins, Strabo has related that Pytheas placed the in-habited island of Thule at the Arctic Circle, degrees north latitude, alocation that would fit either Iceland or Scandinavia. But Strabo believesinstead that Ireland is the northernmost inhabitable land in the world andlies south of this line. As earlier he appealed to the lack of sightings ofThule by those who sailed to Britain and Ireland as evidence that Thulewas a figment of Pytheas imagination, he here appeals to its absence inthe writings of modern researchers (). Strabo previously haddeduced that any land as cold as he believed Ireland to be would also bea miserable place to live, but here he adds that the freezing climate of theisland has made the inhabitants complete savages. This view, which in hisfinal passage he admits is pure speculation, simply follows a prejudicial tra-dition against marginal peoples stretching from Homer to modern times.

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Hebrides Islands, , , , , , Hebudes (see Hebrides Islands)Hellenistic geographers, Helvetii, Hercules, Herodian, Herodotus, , , Hiberni, , , , , Hibernia, , , , , ,

, , , , , , ,

Hierni, , Himilco, , n.Hispania (see Iberia)Historia Augusta, Hipparchus, , Hiverione Sea, Hiverne, , Homer, , , , n.Honorius, , Horace, Howth, , , hyperbole, , Hyperborean Ocean, , , , ,

, ,

Iberia, , , , , , , ,, , , , , , , ,,

Iceland, , , Iernaios, Ierne, , , , , , , ,

, , , Iernu River, , , incest (see sex)India, , , , , , Indic grammarians, Indo-European, ingots, , n.Inishkea North, inscriptions, , , , , ,

n., invasion, , Ireland

climate, , , ,, , ,

inhabitants, , , ,, , , , ,, ,

size, , , , , ,, , , , ,

Iris, Irish Isles, Isamnion Cape, , , , , Isidorus, , , Isidorus of Seville, , n.Isla de Ons, , Isle of Man, , , , , , , ,

Isle of Mull, , Isle of Wight, , Isles of the Blessed, , Issedones, , Italy, , itineraries, Iuverna, , , , n.Ivernium River, n.Iviza, Iweriu, , Iwerne, , Iwernia, , , , , ,

, , Iwerniates, Iwernikos Ocean, , , , ,

, Iwernis, , , , , , , Iwernoi, , , , , , Iwernos,

Jackson, Kenneth, xvJerome, Saint, , , , , jewelry, , n.Josephus, Julian, Justin, Juvenal, , Juventus Tutianus, Marcus,

Kaukoi, , , , Kenmare River, , Kenney, James, xv, n.

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The West Coast

, A description of the western coast, . bordering on theWestern Ocean

,

After the NorthernCape, which is

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Mouth of the SnuRiver

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Mouth of the DurRiver

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Southern Cape