No More Learning

Patrick's existence.
"
* See William F. Skene's Celtic Scot-
March 17. ] LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. 437 insular Britain, even before the Picts,5 Caledonians,^ Britons,^ Albainns,^
leader and
^neas the celebrated Trojan founder of tlie Roman Empire^^
came with his followers, from Bretagne,'^ into the island, afterwards named Britannia, from him. However, there are writers, who question the foregoing
accounts,'^ as deeming them inconsistent, with genealogical and chronological calculations. '9 Iberians or Basques^" are supposed to have preceded the his-
toric people, in Britain ; but, from Ireland, our old records relate, that the early waves of population first spread over to the neighbouring island. Perhaps,too,othercolonistsreachedit, fromtheEuropeanContinent. Through
'" "The — proper Scots,
were a Gaelic colony
statements of one Guanach — an probably
'° and Saxons,'^ on the theatre of action. " In the appear
Cymri,9 Scots,
heroic period, many nations have derived name, from some distinguished leader; and, if we seek for the oldest forms of British and Irish traditions, it will be found, that Briotan Maol—an Irishman of Scythian descent—or Briti- nia,'3 or Britan,^^ gave denomination to his followers, and to that country, where they dw—elt. Another account has it, that one Brutus, '5 the younger son —of
s These are also called Cniithnigli.
^ A learned on the very Dissertation,
Caledonian tribes and their Antiquities, will
"
be found, in George Chalmers'
or an Account, Historical and Topographic
of North Britain," vol. i. , book i. , chap, ii. , pp. 57 to 102.
^
reader may consult, what is stated, in Sir Winston
Islands adjacent, from the earliest Anti-
Regarding the insular Eritons, the
'3 Heis " called,
the son of Isocon," in
Churchhill's "Divi Britannici. " pp. 41 to 68.
Britaius,
one account.
'* See " The Irish Version of the Historia
Britonum of Nennius," edited by Dr. Todd and by the Hon. Algernon Herbert, pp. 26, 27. See, also. Dr. Geoffrey Keating's " General History of Ireland," part i.
'5 to some he was the According accounts,
son of Sylvius, the son of Ascanius, son to . ^neas. He is said, to have been driven out of Italy, to the Islands of the Torrian or Tyrrhene (Mediterranean) sea. Thence, he was expelled, by the Greeks ; and, after- wards, he went to France, where he founded Torinis, or Tours. At length, it is stated, he passed to the northern Island, and when himself, his followers, and his descendants, had filled it with inhabitants, the country received the name of Britannia.
" Or Albannaich. We are told, by Lieu- tenant-Colonel Forbes Leslie, that Albion was the name first applied to Britain—
" the same as Albainn, which evidently by
name Caledonia was known to the Gaels of Ireland. "—"The Early Races of Scotland, and their Monuments," vol. i. , chap, ii ,
P- 25-
9 By Sir William Betham, this race is de-
rived from the Cimric Chersonesus, or Jut- land, in the north of Europe. See "The Gael and the Cymbri, or an Inquiry into the Origin and History of the Irish Scoti, Britons, and Gauls, and of the Caledonians,
. . .
Picts, Welsh, Cornish and Bretons. "
Cymbri, chap, xi. , pp. 379
418.
original Scotia," Edward A. Freeman's
" of the Norman of Hi=;tory Conquest Eng-
'7 Some writers state, that Brutus first
conquered this part of Gaul, and called it
lanu, lis causes and its results," vol. i. , chap, ii. , p. 14, n.
Bretagne. Seethatearlyblack-letterbook,
" See Sharon Turner's learned "
"Le Grandes de Croniques
History of the Anglo-Saxons : comprising the His- toiy of England from the Earliest Period to
Bretagne," printed at Paris, in the seventeenth year of
the Norman Conquest," in three volumes, 8vo. , 4th edition. See regarding them, also, that admirable work of John Mitchell Kemble "The Saxons in
Louis XII. 's reign, in the year 15 14. Livre Premier, fol. iiii.
a His- tory of the English Commonwealth till the Period of the Norman Conquest," in two
hisce et —falsa
hujusmodi arguere, quam
volumes, Svo.
" In reference to the
consult " Britannia : or a Chorographical
Description of the flourishing Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, and the
sonium. Anno cld. ldclix.
'5 See " of Great John Speed's History
Britaine," book v. , chap, iii. , pp. 161 to 166. London edition, 1650, fol.
'° See W. Boyd Dawkin's " Cave Hunt- ing," p. 214.
subject
sular ethnological enquiry, the reader should
England,
Caledonia,
The
denies,
from the Ireland,
to
as no one
'*
This account is said to — on the depend
of this in-
William Camden. Translated from the edition, published by the Author in MDCVii. , Enlarged by the latest discoveries, by Richard Gough, F. A. and R. SS. , in three folio volumes. Illustrated with Maps
quity. " By
and other copperplates.
unknown Irish
the Chronicles of the Romans.
as also on
historiographer
'^
who concludes, " Et facilius sane est in
Amongst these is William Camden,
verum adstruere. " "Britannia," p.
2. Edition, Amstelodami, apud Joannem Jan-
438 LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. [March 17.
the Phoenicians, and their Carthaginian colonists, the Greeks had obtained some indistinct knowledge of the lernian—rather than the British—Islands, so early asthesixthcenturybeforetheChristianera. Theywerethencalledthelernian — withtheideaIrish—Isles ^' inthe
corresponding ; and,
subsequent century, they were very imperfectly known to Herodotus,^^ as the Cassiterides, or Tin Islands. InthefourthcenturybeforeChrist,thetwochiefislandsoftheBritan- nicgrouparecalledAlbionandlerne,byAristotle =^3 while,theGreekPoly-
;
bius,^* who lived in the second century before Christ, has allusion to them.
But, until the year 55, before the Christian era, little had been known, to the Greeks and Romans, regarding the manners, usages and tribal divisions of the Britons. Then the invasion of Julius C8esar,^5 and the subsequent writing of his celebrated Commentaries,^^ add much to our information, on this subject. Tacitus,""? with several other Greek and Latin historians, has increased our early knowledge of the Britannic Islands, and to such accounts, the student of their history must direct attention. From the Albiones,^^ the most ancient in- habitants of classically known Britain, the Picts and Caledonians ^9 were the sole remaining descendants, in Scotland. 3° Before the birth of Christ, we have few authentic records of their social state, and still less of their historic life ; however, an Irish or a Scots' migration introduced the people of our island, as very early colonizers of the southern and western parts of Scot- land. 3^ The Britons extended their inroads, in a corresponding measure, so that a varied population must have been in possession of Caledonia, before theRomansbegantoestablishsettlementswithinit. 3^ Fewandverydoubtful are the accounts of Diodorus Siculus^s and of Strabo,34 in reference to those distant islands. After the birth of Christ, our information becomes more ex-
=" A Greek
— poet, supposed
to have been ^' See "Annaliura," lib. xii. ,
Orpheus but, in reality, his name was xxxii. , xxxiii. , xxxiv. , xxxv. , xxxvi. , xxxvii. ,
—
Onomacritus about this period, alUides to
—"'VvriffOKTiv'Iepvlffiv S. ffffov tKW/xai. " Argonaut, v. 1 171. Leipsic edition, 1764, 8vo. This proves, that then Ireland was the
chief, most distinctive, and, perhaps, most populous island of the entire group.
" lie flourished 445 years before Christ.
"
Historianim," iii. , sect. 115. Ed. Schweigha;us, Argentorati, A. D. 1796.
"
term for Albanach.
'^ These names were not acknowledged by
themselves, but they were imposed on them by the Romans and Britons.
: them —
xxxviii. , xxxix. , xl. ;
Ilistoriaium," lib.
See Liber,
=3 He flourished 345 years, A. c. See Customs," vol. i. , part i. , chap, i. , p. 14.
" De Mundo," lib. iii. , Ed. Kappii, Altcnb.
—3' A legendary account of this
1792.
^•« In his celebrated History,
written m
probably
Forty Books, of which only five are pre- served,withsomefragmentsofothers. See
Ilistoria Britonum ofNennius. Edited,withatranslationand lib. iii. , cap. 57. Ed. Schweighceus, Leip- notes, by Dr. James Henthorn Todd, and
sise, 182S.
*s This remarkable man was born, at
Rome, the 12th of the month, Quintilis, A. U. C. 653, and after becoming the first Roman Emperor, he was assassinated, in the fifty-sixth year of his age, 43 years before the Christian era. The late Emperor of the French, Napoleon III. , has produced a
"
most interesting and learned
Jules Csesar," in two large 8vo volumes, but this work only brings his life events to the
by the Hon. Algernon Herbert, pp. 120 to 167. Also, see Appendix.
3^ For the most satisflxctory accounts and illustrations of this matter, we refer to William F. Skene's " Chronicles of the Picts, Chronicles of the Scots, and other Early Memorials of Scottish History. " Also to his admirable work, " Celtic Scotland : a History of Ancient Alban," vol. i. , book i. , chap, iv. , v. , pp. 16410274, with accom- panying Map.
33 He lived about the before
of the Rubicon. A large 410 Atlas of Maps and of Plates serves to illustrate the ancient Topography of places mentioned, in reference to his expeditions. Paris, 1865.
" year 44, Bibliothecce Ilistorica? ," lib.
passage
»6See"DeBelloGallico,"lib. iv. ,v.
3*Heflourishedinthe
year 30,
A. c. See
Histoire de
and
migration the main well based on
"Vita
This seems to have been the classic
xlv. also iii. , cap. . \liv. , ;
"^
Agricoloe. "
3" See William F. Skene's "
of Scotland, their Origin, History and Anti- quities ; with a Sketch of their ^Ianners and
in— or tradition
history
Irish Version of the
will be
met with, in the ""
Christ. See
i. , cap. 4. , lib. iii. , cap. 38, and lib. v. , cap. 21, 22. Ed. Dindorfii, Lipsiae, 1S28.
cap. xxxi. ,
Highlanders
March 17. ] LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. 439
tended, through allusions made thereto, by Pomponius Mela,35 and by the
second Pliny. 3^ Caius Julius Solinus37 not only presents an account of
Britain, but also of Hibernia, of Caledonia, of the Hebudan and Orcaden
Islands, and of the distant Thyle or Tliylen.
Geographically speaking, the
whole statement abounds with inaccuracies ; but, the writer details many
curious rumours, especially in reference to Hibernia. 3^ However, the Geo-
grapher Claudius Ptolemy,39 quoting more ancient authorities, was one of the
earliest Continental writers known, who gave a detailed, but still inaccurate,
description of the two Bretannic Islands, Ibernia and Albion. 4° Again, the
Greek Poet, Dionysius Periegetes,'»^ places these two Britannic Islands oppo-
site the mouths of the Rhine ^'^ while the Greeks, Marcianus Heracleota,'*3 ;
''
and Agathemerj-t-f with a Latin
the fourth century, relate many curious particulars of both those islands. "fs Again, Festus Rufus Avienus,46 a Latin poet,'*? from the account of Hamil-
263, 268, 269, 271, 277, 278. 1807, tomus i.
Ed. Oxford,
third century. See cap. 4, 8, 14. Ibid.
Geographise," lib. ii. ,
*° See " lib. Geographic,"
preserved. Theywerefirstpublished,A. D. 1634. ThesewereincludedinWernsdorf's
"
Poetoe Latini Minores. " Helmstadite, 1791, tome V.
•^ He flourished, about the latter end of the fourth century after Christ.
4^ He flourished, in the sixth century, B. C. 45 " Haec inter undas multa cespitem
jacet,
Eamque late gens Hibernorum colit.
Propinqua rursus insula Albionuni
patet. " —"
Oroe Maritimse. "
5° It is otherwise known as the " Iter Bri-
tannicarum. " See the Editio Wesselingii,
Amstetsed, 1735, p. 463.
5' Some think he composed it, in the
second, and others, in the beginning of the fourth, century.
5- This is thought to have been traced,
about the close of the fourth century. See
Editio Mannerti, LipsiK, 1824.
S3 It is supposed, that this account had
been drawn up, in the beginning of the fifth century. See it in Jean-Georges Grcvius
"Thesaurus Antiquitatum Romanorum," tomus vii. In Partibus Orientis, cap. Iv. ,
i. , cap, 7, II, 15, lib. ii. , cap. i, 2, 3, lib. vii. , cap. 5, pp. 214, 215, lib. viii. , cap. 2, pp. 223, 224,
Apud Bertium, Lugd. Batav. 1618. Also, ""
the Syntaxis Mathematics, torn, i. , lib. ii. , p. 85. Apud Halma, Paris, 1813.
*' He flourished, as is generally supposed, towards the close of the second century of the Christian era.
*^ See " Orbis Periegesis," versibus 283 et seq. , 561 et seq. Apud Hudson," Geo- graphi Minores," tomus iv. , p. 50, Oxonii, 1712.
*3 He is thought to have lived, in the
third See his " century.
Peripli,"
lib.
i. , pp.
cxliv. In Partibus
Occidentis, cap. i. , ii. ,
See " De Situ
•s An edition of this work has been issued by Gronovius, Lugd. Batav. 1722, pp. 711,
Cosmographia," composed about the end of
and to the Hiberni, and the adjacent island of Albion. But, perhaps, the most valuable
"
of the
distant Thule he even writes, concerning the sacred isle,"ty inhabited by
the — alludes to the
car,t^ Carthaginian, plains
of all the early topographical descriptions of Britain is that, called the
rarium Antonini Augusti," ^° by an anonymous writer si the
; also, fragment
of Peutinger's MapjS^ relative to Britain, and the " Notitia Utriusque Im- perii. " S3 Besides these, we have, at a later period, an interesting account of
""
his Geographiae," lib. i. , p. 92, lib. ii. , pp. 107, no, 130, 142, 153, 156, 159, 167, 168, lib. iii. , pp. 197, 239, lib. iv. , pp. 261,
9) 35) 48, 49) 57- Apud Hudson, Geo- graphi Alinores," tomus i. Ibid.
35 He flourished A. D. 45.
Orbis," lib. i. , cap. 3, lib. ii. , cap. 6, lib.
iii. , cap. 6. Ed. Gronovii, Lugd. Batav. 728, 729. This work is composed, with ex-
1748.
36 He lost his life a. d. 79. See his " His-
toria Nataralis," lib. ii. , sect. 77, 99, lib.
sect. lib. sect. lib. iii. , 20, iv. , 30, 33, 36,
vii. , sect. 57, lib. ix. , sect. 57, 79, lib. x. , sect. 29, lib. XV. , sect. 30, lib. xvi. , sect. 76, lib. xvii. , sect. 4, lib. xxii. , sect. 2, lib. xxv. , sect. 6, lib. xxvii. , sect. I, lib. xxx. , sect. 3, 4, lib. xxxii. , sect. 21, lib. xxxiii. , sect. 6, 16, lib. xxxiv. , sect. 49, lib. xxxvii. , sect. II. Ed. Harduini, Paris, 1723.
37 He flourished about A. D. 80, as gene- rally believed.
3^ See "Polyhistoriae," cap. xxii. , xxiii. , l:ii. Ed. Salmasii, Traject. ad Rhenum, A. D. 1689.
39 He flourished A. D. 120.
cerpts, from Julius Honorius and from Oro- sius.
Britons,
"* He is supposed to have written, in tlie "
''^
Only fragments of his Geographical
Poem " Orbis Terrse" have been Descriptio
Itine-
440 LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. []\Iarcii 17.
it, in the anonymous Geographer of Ravenna,54 who is presumed to have flourished, in the seventh century. ss But, it is probable, that the native
writers, GildaSjS^ the Wise, who lived and wrote in the sixth century,57 and the authors of the Anglo-Saxon Chroniclers—of uncertain date—give us the most reliable ancient accounts, regarding the Britons and their history. s9 Venerable Bede gives us an account of divers nations, who came from other countries, and who occupied, by degrees, the whole British island. ^° The first settlers were Britons, as he informs us ; and, from these, the island is said to have derived its name of Britain. Then, he adds, the Pictish nation migrated from Scythia ; and, according to him, they had been called Picts, even before they arrived in Great Britain. ^' After these colonists came the Scots, already known by that name, in Ireland. But, the father of English history relates, that the Albion Britons were said to have derived their descent from Gaulish Britons, who migrated from Armorica. ^^ Yet, certain writers, who treated the much-disputed subject, regarding the first settlement of the Britons in the country, now called Britany,^3 would have us believe, Bede did not mean to say, that the island of Britain derived its name from those colo- nists. ^* Speakingofpeople,dwellingonthesouth-easternandmaritimepartsof
xix. , xxvii. , xxxiv. , xli. , Ixviii. , Ixxi. , Ixxii. , Ixxxvii. In twelve folio volumes. Utrecht,
1694 to 1699.