39 



The name of Scotia does not, however, appear to have been yet 

 imparted to the country at large, and although the people were so 

 called Scots, the old appellation of lernis or lerne, continued from 

 the days of Orpheus to those of Claudian, while by Roman authors it 

 was more usually termed Hibernia, and by some, as by Juvenal, 

 Juverna. Accordingly, in the Cosmography attributed to iEthicus, 

 and which is said to have been drawn up by the orders of Julius 

 Cassar, after describing Ireland as narrower than Britain, but " more 

 congenial in the temperature of its air and heat," he says " it is inha- 

 bited by the nations of the Scots," and adds a testimony that would 

 induce the belief of this roving people having also established them- 

 selves in the Isle of Man. " The island of Menavia is equally with 

 Hibernia inhabited by the Scots."* 



Caesar had himself previously noticed Ireland as about *'half the 

 size of Britain, according to common belief, (ut existimatur,) but 

 equally distant from it as Gaul is from Britain ; in the mid-channel 

 is an island which is called Mona."-f- Soon after him Propertius 

 records " the Getse of Hibernia and the Britons, with their painted 

 chariots.":J: Dionysius, the author of the Periegesis, before cited, is 

 the next who (A. D. 3.) alludes to Ireland as one of what were then 

 called the Britannic Isles, situated over against the Rhine, (" avria 

 Vrivov")% After which come the geographical notices of Strabo, 

 (A. D. 20.)ll but his glaring errors in the position of Ireland, placing 



• "Caeli solisque temperiemagis utilis Hibernia a Scotorumgentibuscolitur: * * * * 

 Menavia insula aeque ac Hibernia Scotorum gentibus habitatur.'' 



\ " Qua ex parte est Hibernia dimidio minor ut existimatur quam Britannia, sed pari spatio 

 transmissus atque ex Gallia est in Britanniam. In hoc medio cursu est insula quae appellatur 

 Mona."— De Bell. Gall. lib. 5, c. 13. 



i " Hibernique Getae pictoque Brittania curru." 



§ Perieges. V. 568. || Geog. lib. 2. 



