47 



nators were put to death, and the prisoners sold as slaves."''- The 

 remainder, it is probable, dreading the future wrath of Csesar, ac- 

 tuated by sudden impulse, determined, in imitation of several pre- 

 ceding tribes, on seeking a safe retreat. It is not unlikely, that the 

 Veneti, during their commerce with Britain, had acquired some in- 

 formation respecting the unoccupied state of the Irish coasts ; and, 

 in pursuance of this intelligence, they might have chosen the 

 west shore and the situation assigned by Ptolemy to the Venic- 

 nii, it being the most remote from Caesar's power. We may 

 reasonably suppose their neighbours in Gaul, the Namnatce, de- 

 sirous of fixing their residence contiguous to this, and where 

 Ptolemy has placed the Nagnati. The north-west coast being thus 

 occupied with these three tribes, including the Rhedones, we may 

 suppose the Diahlintce, from want of room, and lest any jealousy 

 should arise in trade, to have preferred a settlement on the oppo- 

 site coast ; where the attractions of a spacious harbour would na- 

 turally fix them in the situation of Dublin, and in the cantred of 

 Dubhlana : two denominations, which, if called after them, have 

 not suffered much by the corruption of ages. 



The subsequent occupation of Armorica by the Britons may be 

 adduced as an additional argument in favour of the opinion of the ' 

 emigration of those tribes. We find, in Adelmus Benedictus, the 

 regions of the Veneti and of the Curiosolitae particularly specified 

 as the place of retreat of the Britons ;"*■ and, as two other van- 

 quished tribes, the Diablinlae and Rhedones, were seated between 



117. C.Jul. Cass. Com. lib, 3. 16. 



1 18. Nam cum ab Anglis et Saxonibus Britannia insula fuisset invasa, magna pars incola- 

 rum ejus mare trajiciens, in ultimis Galliae finibus, Venctoi-um ct Corosolitaiura rcgiones oc. 

 cupavit. Corpus FrancicEe Historise Veteris, p. 396. 



