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in the following verses, and also in several others of Ovid's poem 

 ' de Vistibus', which was written during his exile among those 



savages. 



I'dlibus, & sutis arcent male frigora braccis ; 

 Oraque ic toto corpore sola patent. 

 Saepe sonant uioti glacie pendente capilli, 

 Et nitet inducto Candida barba gelu : &c. 



The word is used adjectively by Propertius, as in the following 

 distich, in which it is applied to the ancient inhabitants of Li- 

 thuania, who were named after the river Borysthenes. 



HInc etenim tautum meruit mea gloria nomen, 

 Gloria -ad hibernos lata Dorysihenidas. 



Tf this distich had not escaped the notice of authors, it is jjro- 

 bable they would have been more cautious in their construction 

 of the former line. Such epithets were in common use among 

 the Roman Avriters, who believed most northern regions too cold 

 for the life of man. Even the mild climate of Ireland was, in 

 those days of geographical ignorance, termed glaciale, or icy, by 

 Claudius and Hadrianus Junius. 



Strabo observes of Ireland, ' it is scarcely inhabitable on ac- 

 count of the cold, insomuch that those places situate further to the 

 North are supposed to be vminhabitable :' tegre ob frigus inco- 

 litur, ita ut qute ulterius sunt habitari non posse existimentur.'" 



Propertius was cotemporary with Meca^nas, C. Gallus, Ovid, 

 Tibullus and other wits, in whose time, about that of Julius Cfesar, 

 it is by no means likely that he possessed information respecting 

 Ireland, which the former had not communicated, nor any prior 

 or subsequent writer acquired. Britain not having been known 

 to the Romans before the invasion of J. Ctesar, it is even probable 



56. Strab. Geograph. cum notis Casauboni, &c V. 1. p. 307- 



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