Those waters, they say, are sluggish, and yield with difficulty to the oar, and are not even raised by the wind as other seas. Thule too was descried in the distance, which as yet had been hidden by the snows of winter. Round these coasts of remotest ocean the Roman fleet then for the first time sailed, ascertained that Britain is an island, and simultaneously discovered and conquered what are called the Orcades, islands hitherto unknown. There is, however, a large and irregular tract of land which juts out from its furthest shores, tapering off in a wedge-like form. And this no doubt is its shape without Caledonia, so that it has become the popular description of the whole island. The form of the entire country has been compared by Livy and Fabius Rusticus, the most graphic among ancient and modern historians, to an oblong shield or battle-axe. And so matters, which as being still not accurately known my predecessors embellished with their eloquence, shall now be related on the evidence of facts.īritain, the largest of the islands which Roman geography includes, is so situated that it faces Germany on the east, Spain on the west on the south it is even within sight of Gaul its northern extremities, which have no shores opposite to them, are beaten by the waves of a vast open sea. The geography and inhabitants of Britain, already described by many writers, I will speak of, not that my research and ability may be compared with theirs, but because the country was then for the first time thoroughly subdued. Sacred Texts Classics Index Previous Nextġ0.
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