158 



records two sea fights about the same period. Claudian speaks of 

 the naval expedition of the Irish against Stilicho with much im- 

 portance, 



" Totam cum Scotus lemen 

 Movit, et infesto spumavit remige Tethys !" 



while Whitaker marks the same as a grand naval armament, though 

 Gildas spitefully represents these very Scots as having crossed the 

 seas in their curraghs, " emergunt certatim de curicis, quibus sunt 

 trans Tithicam vallem vecti/'* 



SECTION VI. 



Commerce, Customs, General Habits, SfC. 



Of the commerce of Ireland at this period, Tacitus gives an unan- 

 swerable commendation in the passage already referred to. " Its 

 channels and harbours are better known to merchants than those of 

 Britain. "-f" A eulogy, which, as it of course refers to the first century, 

 and more particularly to the reign of Conary, confirms the correctness 

 of the native annals, that while they make frequent mention of the 

 custom of goods imported into the country, the harbour profits, &c. 

 do allege a decline of trade in the second century, being about the 

 period of the famine already noticed.+ That the commerce alluded 

 to by Tacitus was not carried on by Roman merchants, is suflliciently 

 clear from the admissions of his literary countrymen of their ignorance 



* Hist. c. XT. t Mte, p. 51. 



X Ante, p. 53. 



