Note 20 — III. THULE, PART OF GREAT BRITAIN

The full passage of Tacitus is, “Hanc oram novissimi maris (the Deucaledonian Sea) tunc primum Romana classis circumvecta, insulam esse Britanniam affirmavit, ac simul incognitas ad id tempus insulas, quas Orcades vocant, invenit domuitque. Dispecta est et Thule” (alii “Thyle” and “Tyle”) “quadam trans: nix et hiems appetebat; sed mare pigrum et grave remigantibus: perhibent, ne ventis quidem perinde attolli; credo quod rariores terræ montesque, causa ac materia tempestatum et profunda moles continui maris tardius impellitur.” Plutarch, tells us (Life of Cæsar) that the very existence of such a place as Britain had been doubted. When Diodorus Siculus wrote (temp. J. Cæsar and Augustus), the British Isles were amongst the regions least known to the world: “Ἤκιστα πέπτωκεν ὑρὸ τὴν κοινὴν ἀνθρώπων ἐπίγνωσιν” (lib. iii.). Eusebius (nat. circ. A.D. 264) tells us in his Chronicon, “Claudius de Britannis triumphavit, et Orcades insulas Romano adjecit imperio.” Orosius (circ. A.D. 415) adds (vii. 6, Hist. Adver. Pag., libri vii.), “Cognitæ insulæ erant forte et ante Claudium et sub Claudio, non quidem armis Romanis, sed mercatoribus, aut etiam eruditis, Mela teste.” And Mela, who wrote in the days of Claudius, assures us (iii. 6), “Triginta sunt Orcades angustis inter se diductæ spatiis.”