Note 179 — BOOK IV.
Reading edition
Claudius never was in Orkney; he spent only sixteen days altogether in Britain. Of certain sacred isles in the neighbourhood of Britain, Plutarch gives the following account, showing how little the Greeks knew of Britain eighty years after the reign of Claudius:
"A short time before Callistratus celebrated the Pythian games, two holy men from the opposite parts of the habitable earth came to us at Delphos, Demetrius the grammarian from Britain, returning home to Tarsus, and Cleombrotus the Lacedæmonian.... But Demetrius said, that there are many desert islands scattered around Britain, some of which have the name of being the islands of genii and heroes: that he had been sent by the emperor, for the sake of describing and viewing them, to that which lay nearest to the desert isles, and which had but few inhabitants; all of whom were esteemed by the Britons sacred and inviolable. Very soon after his arrival there was great turbulence in the air, and many portentous storms; the winds became tempestuous, and fiery whirlwinds rushed forth. When these ceased, the islanders said that the departure of some one of the superior genii had taken place. For as a light when burning, say they, has nothing disagreeable, but when extinguished is offensive to many; so likewise lofty spirits afford an illumination benignant and mild, but their extinction and destruction frequently, as at the present moment, excite winds and storms, and often infect the atmosphere with pestilential evils. Moreover, that there was one island there, wherein Saturn was confined by Briareus in sleep: for that sleep had been devised for his bonds; and that around him were many genii as his companions and attendants.
"Asclepiades asserts, that after their thirtieth year the Ethiopians, being scorched by the sun, quickly grow old, in consequence of their bodies being overheated; whereas in Britain they advance to an hundred and twenty years, in consequence of the coldness of the place and their retaining within themselves the vital heat: for the bodies of the Ethiopians are more slender from their being relaxed by the sun, whereas the inhabitants of the north are thick set in their persons, and on this account longer lived."