482 EAELY MAN IN BRITAIN. [CHAP. xiv. 



the mistake made by the Massilian Greeks in confound- 

 ing the V I/H9 of the sailors with iepa vfja-os, 1 the island of 

 the West (Erse, iar or eir, Thurnam 2 ) with Holy Island. 

 After the invasion of Csesar the attention of the geo- 

 graphers and historians was directed to the British Isles, 

 and in A.D. 84 their circumnavigation was completed by 

 a Koman fleet under the command of Agricola, which 

 subdued the Orcades (Orkneys). The northern coast of 

 Scotland had, however, been visited before 44 B.C., since 

 Diodorus Siculus mentions the promontory of Horca 

 (Dunnet Head) as the northern extremity of the island. 

 The whole of the British Isles, with the exception per- 

 haps of the Faroes, were well known by the year 120, 3 

 and there was no necessity for the further exploration of 

 the coasts. 



Physical Geography of Britain. 



Britain, at the beginning of the Historic period, 

 differed considerably from the Britain of to-day, although 

 there is no reason to suppose that any vertical move- 

 ments have altered the relation of sea to land. The dash 

 of the waves for the last nineteen centuries has destroyed 

 large tracts of land where the cliffs are composed of 

 soft and incoherent materials. The inroads of the sea 

 on the south coast have been so great in some places, 

 such as Pevensey and Pagham, in Sussex, that it 

 is by no means improbable that the Isle of Wight 

 may have been united at low water to the adjoining 

 coast during the Koman occupation. 4 Large tracts of 



1 Dr. Latham, Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. 



2 Crania Britannica, i. p. 64. 



3 Claudius Ptolemseus, Geographia, Mon. Hist. Brit. 



4 It was an island in the days of Claudius. Suetonius, Mon. Hist 

 Brit. 1. 



