8 ROMAN AND GltEEK ACCOUNTS OF THE NORTHMEN. 



before the time of Tacitus, an hypothesis which is implied by 

 the Eddas and Sagas as well as by the antiquities discovered. 



That the Sueones, with such fleets, did not navigate westward 

 further than Frisia is not credible, the more so that it was 

 only necessary for them to follow the coast in order to come to 

 the shores of Gaul, from which they could see Britain, and 

 such maritime people must have had intercourse with the 

 inhabitants of that island at that period ; indeed, the objects 

 of the earlier iron age discovered in Britain, which were until 

 lately classed as Anglo-Roman, are identical with those of the 

 country from which these people came, i.e., Scandinavia. 



The Veneti, a tribe who inhabited Brittany, and whose 

 power on the sea is described by Caesar, were in all proba- 

 bility the advance-guard of the tribes of the North ; their ships 

 were built of oak, with iron nails, just as those of the North- 

 men ; and the people of the country in which they settled were 

 not seafaring. 1 Moreover, the similarity of the name to that 

 of the Venedi, who are conjecturally placed by Tacitus on the 

 shores of the Baltic, and to the Vends, so frequently mentioned 

 in the Sagas, can scarcely be regarded as a mere accident. 



" The Veneti have a very great number of ships, with which 

 they have been accustomed to sail to Britain, and excel the 

 rest of the people in their knowledge and experience of 

 nautical affairs ; and as only a few ports lie scattered along 



1 " Hujus est civitatis longe amplissima que tenuiter confectas, has sive propter 



auctoritas omuis ores maritimae regionutn lini inojiiam atque ejus usus inscientiam, 



earum, quod et naves habent Veneti : sive eo, quod est magis verisimile, quod 



plurimas, quibus in Britanniam navigare tantas tempestates Oceani tantosque 



consuerunt, et scientia atque usu nauti- , impetus ventorum sustineri, ac tanta 



carum rerum reliquos antecedunt, et in I ouera navium regi velis non satis com- 



magno impetu maris atque aperto, paucis 

 portibus iuterjectis, quos tenent ipsi, 

 omnes fere qui eo mari uti consuerunt, 

 habent vectigales "(Gallic War, iii. c. 8). 

 "Namque ipsorum naves ad hunc 

 modum facts armatacque erant ; carinae 

 aliquanto planiores, quam nostrarum 

 navium, quo facilius vada ac decessum 



mode posse arbitrabantur. Cum his 

 navibus nostrae class! ejusmodi congressus 

 erat, ut una celeritute et pulsu remorum 

 pra?staret ; reliqua, pro loci Datura, 

 pro vi tempestatum, illis essent aptiora 

 et accommodatiora. Neque euim hi* nostra 

 rostro nocere poterant (tanta in his erat 

 rirmitudo), neque propter altitudinem 



restus excipere possent ; prorae admodum facile telum adjiciebatur, et eadem de 



erectae, atque item puppes ad magnitu- causa minus commode copulis contine- 



dinem fluctuum tempestatumque accom- ! bautur. Accedebat, ut, cum saevire 



modatae; naves tola.' facta^ ex robore ad | ventus coepi=set et se vento dedissent, et 



quam vis vim et contumeliam perferendam; t*>nipestalem ferrent facilius, et in vadis 



transtra pedalibus in latitudinem trabibus j consisterent tutius, et ab aestu relictae 



confixa clavis ferreis digiti pollicis eras- nihil saxa et cautes timerent ; quarum 



situdine ; ancorae pro funibus ferreis 



rerum omnium nostris navibus casus 



catenis reviiietae ; pelles pro velis alutse- ' erat extimescendus " (c. ll-j). 



