Hibernia

By various Roman writers as Pliny, Juvenal, etc., Ireland is mentioned in those early times under the names “Juverna,” “Juvernia,” “Ouvernia,” “Ibernia,” “Ierna,” and “Vernia and by Ptolemy in the second century it is called “Iouernia” or “Ivernia,” all of which names, Hibernia, etc., are only changes and modifications of the Greek name Ierne. An ancient geographer, Marcianus of Heraclea, who wrote in the third century, and copied the works of the celebrated Greek geographer Artemidorus of Ephesus, who lived in the century before the Christian era, thus describes Ireland:—

“Juvernia Insula Britannica ad Boream quidem terminatur occano Hyperboreo appellato, ab Oriente vero oceano qui vocatur Hibernicus, a Meridie vero oceano Virgivio; sexdecem habet gentes; undecim civitates insignes; fluvios insignes quindecim; quinque promontoria insigni et insulas insignes sex.”

Translated:

“Juvernia (Ireland), a British isle, is bounded on the north by the ocean called the Hyperborean; on the east, by the sea which is called the Hibernian; and on the south, by the Virgivian sea; it contains “sixteen nations,” and eleven famous cities, fifteen large rivers, five great promontories, and six remarkable islands.”

The “Hyperborean” here mentioned is the Northern sea; the “Hibernian,” is the Irish sea between central Ireland and Great Britain (in the middle of which is the Isle of Man or the “Insula Mevania” of the ancients): the “Virgivian sea” is St. George’s Channel, between the South of Ireland and England. Gildas, the British historian in the sixth century, called St. George’s Channel and the Irish sea “Scythica Vallis” or the Scythian valley: because it was the sea that separated the Scythians or Irish Scots from Britain. The “sixteen nations,” also alluded to, refer to the several nations, as the Brigantes, etc., who settled in Ireland, but were subject to the Milesian kings.

Julius Cæsar, in his account of Britain, thus mentions Ireland: “Qua ex parte est Hibernia dimidio minor ut existimatur quam Britannia;” which may be translated thus:—“On which side (the west) lies Ireland, less by half, it is supposed, than Britain.” Tacitus, in the first century, in his “Life of Agricola,” mentions Ireland under the name of Hibernia, and says—“Melius aditus portusque per commercia et negociatores cogniti;” thus stating that its approaches and harbours were better known to commerce and to mariners than those of Britain. By Dioscorides, in the first century (as quoted by O’Flaherty), Ireland was called Hiberi; and in the “Itinerary” of Antoninus, quoted in O’Brien’s Irish Dictionary, at the word “Eirin,” Ireland is called Iberione; and by St Patrick, in the Latin work called his “Confession” (which is given in Vol. I. of O’Connor’s Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores Veteres), Ireland is called Hiberione and Hiberia, and the people Hiberiones and Hiberionaces.

We have seen that, in the century before the Christian era, Ireland was first called Hibernia, by Julius Cæsar: and the people, Hiberni. By various other Latin writers the Irish are called Hiberni and Hibernenses.