118 



besides other minor towns. Marcianus Heracleota, who flourished 

 in the third century, in his notice of Ireland, says it has sixteen 

 nations and eleven cities of note, (" E^et ^e sSfvij t^, ttoXsiq eirariiiovg 

 evdeKa' Sec.")* yet, both Ptolemy and Marcianus must have been 

 ignorant of many places, and consequently of many cities and towns 

 in the interior of the island. Saxo Grammaticus mentions Fridlevus 

 as besieging the city of Dublin, (" Duflynum oppidum,"-\-) in the 

 first century, and only at length succeeding in its capture by strata- 

 gem ; and again records the taking of Dublin, (" Dufflinam urbem") 

 in the reign of Frotho the fourth. Holingshed says, " Dublin was 

 builded, or rather the building thereof enlarged, about the year 155," 

 and though Jocelin introduces Saint Patrick prophesying of that 

 place, as then but "a small village, which yet shall be great here- 

 after," (" Pagus iste, nu7ic exiguus, eximius erit,")^^ nevertheless, in 

 the next chapter he styles it a noble city, and speaks of the conversion 

 of its king by Saint Patrick ; (" Urbem nobilem quae vocatur Dublinia 

 ***** cujus Regem Patricius convertit.")§ 



Structures, of still more splendor, are in the Irish accounts stated 

 to have existed in the interior of the country, of which the most 

 remarkable were Eamania and Tara; the former, the palace of the 

 Kings of Ulster, is alleged to have been built by Cimbaoth, about 

 350 years before the Christian era, and as all its splendor consisted 

 in the arrangement of perishable materials, trunks of trees driven into 

 the earth, connected with woven osiers and wicker work, and lined 

 with rushes and mats, there is nothing vitally improbable in the ac- 

 counts of its extent. According to 0'Donnell,ll it existed in Columba's 

 time, but had ceased to be a royal residence on the advancement of 



* Marc. Heracl. Peripl. p. 91. f Post, at close of this period. 



■J Jocelin, c. 69. § Jocelin, c, 71. 



II Life of Columba, lib. 1. c. 84. 



