45 



undergone a greater change than we should expect in the course of 

 two centuries from tlie supposed date of their settlement to the time 

 of Ptolemy. — The capital of the Eburovices in Normandy was de- 

 nominated Mediolanum ; another, belonging to the Santones, in 

 Gallia, comata ; one in Italy, which, in the middle ages, was 

 called Milan ; another in Lombardy, beside a district so deno- 

 minated in Spain. "^- If then we were to argue from the similitude 

 of names, Dublin might have been colonized from either of those 

 places. 



The early Irisli accounts of Dublin, alluding to it having been 

 built and inhabited by the Danes in the 5th century, are evidently 

 anticipated. The Blanioi or Eblanoi of Ptolemy constitute the can- 

 tred of Dubhlana or Dubhlin of the Irish ; whence it is supposedj 

 Difelin of the Danes, Develin of the English, Dublinium and Dub- 

 linia of Latin writers, Dinas DuKn of the Welsh, Duflin of the 

 Saxons are taken."'^- Baile-cliath is comparatively a modern ap- 

 pellation. 



The commentators of Camden state, that, ' when Eagan king of 

 Munster visited it, it Avas called Atha-Cliath Dubhline ;' which is 

 interpreted, ' the passage of the ford of hurdles over the black 

 pool.' And they add, that ' the etymology of Ballacleith is founded 

 upon a veiy false supposition ; for the ground, upon which Dublin 

 stands, could at no time have been soft or quaggy. The ancient 

 city, once enclosed with walls, stands on very high and firm ground ; 

 and, in the lowest parts of it toward the river, where several new 

 streets have been built within 50 years, they come to a fine gravelly 

 foundation in a few feet.""- 



A recent writer derives the word from du, a cauutry, ibh, a 



111. Pliil. Cluver. Introd. Geogr. p. 6S & alibi. 



112. Camd. Brit. p. 327. 1 13. Idem. p. 335. 



