2'"» S. V. 122., May 1. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



351 



In another place Britannia is introduced as 

 using the following words : — 



" Me quoque vicinis pereuntem gentibus, inquit, 

 Munivit Stilichon, totani quum Scotus lernen 

 ]\Iovit, et infesto spumavit reraigo Tethys." 



In Prim. Cons. Stilich. ii. 250 — 2. 



In these two passages nearly all tiie manuscripts 

 read Uyherne and Hybernam, which may be the 

 forms used by Claudian. The first syllable of 

 Hibernus is shortened by Avienus : — 

 " Eamque late gens Hibernorum colit." — Ora Marit. 111. 



Its quantity distinguished it from the adjective 

 hyhernus, wintry. All the names for Ireland in 

 the classical writers seem to be derived from some 

 variety of the native appellation, Erin. See Die- 

 fenbach, Cekica, vol. iii. p. 375. 



The belief of the severe cold of Ireland enter- 

 tained by some of the ancients was founded on 

 the vague idea of its position in the extreme 

 north. The accounts of the savage manners of its 

 inhabitants are doubtless strongly tinctured with 

 fable ; but it is probable that, having less inter- 

 course with the continent than the inhabitants of 

 southern Britain, they were less civilised in their 

 customs. In some of the passages a knowledge 

 of the rich pasturage of the Emerald Isle, which 

 must have been derived from the reports of eye- 

 witnesses, is perceptible. 



Such are the most ancient testimonies respect- 

 ing Ireland which occur in the works of writers 

 wlaose age is ascertained. One testimony, how- 

 ever, which, by Mannert, Dr. Latham, and other 

 modern writers has been considered as containing 

 the earliest mention of this island, remains to be 

 noticed. 



The author of the Aristotelic Treatise concerning 

 the Universe (irepl KcJo-juou), adopting the received 

 notion of the Greeks, which descended from the 

 Homeric age, describes the inhabited world as 

 surrounded by the ocean. He first traces it from 

 the Pillars of Hercules along the Mediterranean 

 to the Pontus and the Palus Magotis ; and he then 

 follows its eastern course upon the shores of Asia. 



" In one direction (he says) it forms the Indian and 

 Persian gulfs, with which the Red Sea is continuous ; in 

 the other, it passes through a long and narrow channel, 

 and widens into the Caspian Sea. Further on it encircles 

 the space beyond the Palus Maeotis. Then stretching its 

 course above Scythia and Celtica, it encompasses the in- 

 habited -world, in the direction of the Gallic Gulf and the 

 Pillars of Hercules. In this part of the ocean there are 

 two great islands, larger than any in the Mediterranean, 

 called the Britannic islands, Albion and lerne, situated 

 beyond the country of the Celts. Equal in size to 

 these are Taprobane, on the further side of India, turned 

 obliquely to the mainland, and the island named Phebol, 

 lying near the Arabian Gulf. Many small islands like- 

 wise are placed around this continent, near the Britannic 

 islands and Iberia." (c. iii. p. 393. ed. Bekker.) 



The belief of the ancients up to a comparatively 

 recent period was that the ocean, in its circum- 

 fluous course, passed from the Pillars of Hercules 



round Iberia, Gaul, Germany, and Scythia to the 

 north of India, and that the Caspian was a gulf of 

 the great northern sea, connected with it by a nar- 

 row strait. The erroneous idea that the Caspian 

 Sea was a gulf of the ocean was not dispelled by 

 the expedition of Alexander (Plut. Alex. 44., 

 Strab. ix. 6. 1.) Arrian represents Alexander as 

 assuring his soldiers that if they will continue 

 their march eastward, they will discover that the 

 great Eastern Sea is continuous with the Caspian 

 (v. 26., compare vii. 16.) Both Mela and Pliny 

 state that the Caspian is connected with the Nor- 

 thern Ocean by a long and narrow channel (Mela, 

 iii. 5. ; Plin. iV. H. vi. 15.). Even with respect to 

 the Palus Maeotis the latter writer mentions that 

 it was considered either a gulf of the Northern 

 Ocean or a lagoon separated from it by a narrow 

 strip of land (ii. 67.). In the Periplus of the 

 Erythraean Sea, attributed to Arrian, the Palus 

 Mseotis is likewise described as communicating 

 with the ocean (c. 64. ed. Miillei'). 



One of the versions of the Argonautic voyage, 

 followed by Timaeus and other historians, repre- 

 sented the Argo as returning by the Palus Maeotis, 

 ascending the Tanais, carried some way overland 

 to a river which fell into the great Northern Sea ; 

 then coasting along the northern shores of Europe 

 to the Pillars of Hercules, and by this circuitous 

 course reaching the Mediterranean (Diod. iv. 56. ; 

 Scymnus ap. SchoL Apoll. Rhod. 284.) 



Pytheas affirmed that, in returning from his 

 great northern voyage, in which he first obtained 

 accounts of the remote island of Thule, he had 

 sailed along the entire coast of the ocean between 

 Gadeira and the Tanais (Strab. ii. 91.) ; that is, 

 from Cadiz, round Spain, Gaul, Germany, and 

 Scythia to the Don, which was considered by the 

 ancients as the boundary of Europe and Asia. 

 This statement implies the same idea of a northern 

 sea encompassing Europe between these points ; 

 and it ignores the existence of the Scandinavian 

 peninsula, and of a large part of llussia ; it fur- 

 nishes at the same time an additional proof of 

 the mendacity of Pytheas. (Compare Forbiger, 

 Handbuch der alten Geographic^ vol. i. p. 150.) 



Pliny and Mela mention in proof of an external 

 sea connecting the northern shores of Germany 

 with India, that Q. Metellus Celer, when pro- 

 consul of Cisalpine Gaul, in 62 b.c, received as 

 a present from the king of the Suevi some Indians, 

 who were said to have sailed from India for pur- 

 poses of trade, and to have been carried by ad- 

 verse winds to Germany (Plin. ii. 67. ; Mela, iii. 

 5. ; Cic. ad Div. v. 1, 2.). The Suevi were a Ger- 

 man tribe who inhabited the country on the 

 eastern bank of the -Rhine. The Indians, of 

 whom this fable was narrated, by whatever road 

 they reached Germany, must have been sent to 

 Metellus across the Alps. Forbiger (^Handbuch, 

 vol. ii. p. 4.) conjectures that these supposed In- 



