130 BRITAIN IN THE ROMAN POETS 



though, there still remained in men's minds the awe and 

 superstition felt for the "Ocean" of early antiquity, 

 that fabulous stream which encircled the world. 



It was almost sacrilege to cross it; besides the Eomans 

 were bad sailors, and the waves were not the only terror, 

 real or imaginary, of the British seas, of the 



Beluosus qui remotis 

 Obstrepit Oceanus Britannis/ 



(The nionster-hauiited ocean which roars against the shores of 

 distant Britain.) 



A hundred years later the size of the British whale had 

 almost passed into a proverb. 



Et cuncta exsuperans patrimonia census 

 Quanto delphinis ballaena Britannica maior.* 



(And estates as much larger than all other fortunes as the British 

 whale is larger than a dolphin.) 



The inhabitants were no less formidable than the storms 

 and creatures of the ocean. 



Visam Britannos hospitibus feros 



Et laetum equino sanguine Concanum.' 



(I shall visit the Britons fierce towards strangers and the Concani 

 who delight in horses' blood.) 



One wonders what kind of reception the Romans 

 expected. When we remember Tacitus' account ^ of the 

 human sacrifices of the Druids, we are not surprised to 

 see the Britons coupled with the bloodthirsty Concani. 

 The Irish seem to have had an even worse reputation. 

 Strabo says that the inhabitants of " lerne " were more 



5. Hor. Odes IV., 14, 47. 



6. Juv. X., 14. 



7. Hor. Odes, III., iv., 33. 



8. Annals iv., 30, and see Lucan, Phars i., 44, for a description of the 

 jites and religion of the Druids. 



