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This webpage reproduces an article in the English Historical Review Vol. 28 (1913), pp1‑12 The text is in the public domain: F. J. Haverfield died in 1919. This page has been carefully proofread and I believe it to be free of errors. If you find a mistake though, please let me know!

 p1  Ancient Rome and Ireland

The Kelts are the spiritual heirs of the Roman empire more truly even than the Italians or the Romaic Greeks. Nearly every Keltic tribe in central and western Europe fell under Roman rule, accepted Roman culture, used Roman speech, and, save where it perished before Slavonic assault, preserved Roman civilization to later Europe. One land alone remained Keltic and not Roman. Far out in the western ocean, cut off from European influence not only by the sea but also by the wild highlands of western Britain,​1 Ireland remained untouched and independent throughout the four centuries of Roman imperial rule over Britain, Spain, and Gaul. It was not till after the fall of the empire in the west that Ireland came to influence the religion and the art of the continent. That development is so remarkable and its results so far-reaching that it deserves all attention. Even the antecedents which led to it may have an importance for wider circles of students than mere Romanists. I propose in the following pages to sketch the relations, such as they were, between Ireland and the empire while the empire was still strong in the west.

These relations began in the later years of the first century of the Christian era. It is plain from the references to Ireland in Greek and Roman writers before this date, that they knew little more than the facts that the island existed, that its grass was rich and its rain excessive. Somewhat fuller knowledge came when Frontinus began and Agricola put the last touch to the final conquest of Wales, and when the Roman arms spread Roman rule along the western coast of Britain into Scotland (about A.D. 72‑85). Agricola had even the idea of conquering  p2 the island. He was an optimist, the first of the countless optimists who have planned a future for Ireland. He believed that the whole of it could be conquered and kept with one legion and a few auxiliaries, that is, 7,000‑8,000 men. If it were conquered, he thought that it would form a link between Britain, Spain, and Gaul, and connect closer together 'a very strong part of the empire', namely, its western provinces.​2 How little he knew of Ireland is incidentally illustrated not only by his optimism, but by his geographical idea that Ireland lay directly between Britain and Spain.

Whether he went beyond the idea of invading Ireland has been disputed. Tacitus, however, does not suggest by even the merest phrase that an invasion actually took place, and the total absence in Ireland of Roman remains of Agricola's time, save for one single coin (no. 7, below), is fairly conclusive.​3 Indeed, Tacitus knows very little more of Britain than his predecessors. The one statement which he adds to those of earlier date is the remark, somewhat spoilt in transmission to us but nevertheless intelligible, that the approaches to Ireland and its harbours were known through commerce and traders.​4 Who these traders were, and whence they came, he does not say. But if we pass on to the next writer who mentions ancient Ireland, we seem to find the same fact before us. Ptolemy, who wrote towards the middle of the second century, and who preserves sometimes the knowledge of his own day and sometimes that of a writer who lived but a short time before him and may have been his elder contemporary, devotes a special chapter to Ireland. He mentions ten 'cities', of which seven are said to be inland, but of the seven two are called Regia and are obviously the capitals of chiefs about which Ptolemy knew nothing, and which may have been introduced to the greater glory of Ireland. He mentions further sixteen tribes, four of which repeat names of cities in their own names. He enumerates, lastly, six headlands and  p3 fifteen estuaries. The identification of these forty-seven names is not easy. A few can be equated with medieval or modern names with some certainty. Others are wholly doubtful. But we know enough to see that Ptolemy's knowledge of the south and west coast was less than his knowledge of the north and east. Nearly half of his names belong to the northern two‑thirds of the east coast, and to the eastern part of the north coat of arms, and these form by no means half of the whole coast-line. Of Connaught and Munster, and even of southern Leinster and western Ulster, he was plainly very ill informed. What he had heard must have been learned almost entirely from traders, and his details thus represent the commercial situation a generation or so after Agricola.

After Ptolemy silence falls on the island for two centuries. It is practically not mentioned again in Roman literature until after 300, and references only become common towards the end of the fourth century, when Irish tribes known under the collective name of Scoti or Scotti were invading Britain. An attempt has been made to fill the gap from conjecture. It has been suggested by the late Professor H. Zimmer​5 that during these centuries, and indeed before them, a lively sea-borne trade, mainly, though not solely, in wine, connected southern Ireland directly with western Gaul. The suggestion is of course quite possible. But it is not probable. That seamen of Roman or early medieval times were capable of voyaging from Gaul to Ireland is unquestionable. That they were fond of such voyages, or undertook them often, is less clear. The Barbary corsairs in the seventeenth century carried off slaves from the coasts of Iceland. But the occasions of their raids were very few. About A.D. 600 a trading ship of Alexandria sailed to Britain, discharged there a cargo of corn,º and brought back a cargo of tin. But the voyage is represented by its contemporary historian as needing, or at least enjoying, the special and miraculous aid of a saint. Although, therefore, intercourse by direct sea passage between the coasts of France and the coasts of the Irish Sea may well have existed in many ages, and though Dr. Zimmer can cite a few medieval instances and these might be increased in number,​6 we are not required to believe that it  p4 was incessant. The references to it are too few, the traces of it too scanty.

Amid these uncertainties it may be worth while to do what has not yet been attempted, and to collect the archaeological remains of Roman origin which are recorded to have been found in Ireland. In the list which follows this paper I have put together the Roman coins and other Roman objects which have been published in print as found in Ireland, or are otherwise known to me as of Irish provenance. They are very few. They are also, many of them, very doubtful. If we were to confine our view only to the quite certain examples, it would seem as if Roman remains were almost as rare in Ireland as Solinus declared the snakes and the bees to be. This is in part due to neglect; modern Ireland cares little for ancient Rome. But while I do not suppose that my list is exhaustive of what ought to have been recorded, or even of what has been recorded, I venture to hope that it attains some measure of completeness, and the map which I am able to add has a character and coherence which suggest that it is not all accident. (p5)

Let me try to sum the evidence yielded by this list. In the first place, one notes that the great majority of the finds come from the coasts or their neighbourhood. From the centre of the island little is recorded. In the second place, not all the coasts are represented, but only the north-east littoral from the neighbourhood of Lough Foyle in the north to a point somewhat south of Dublin in the east. This, it will be remembered, is exactly the district of which Ptolemy shows some knowledge. Plainly we have here the traces of intercourse between north Ireland and Britain, not between south Ireland (or indeed Ireland at any point) and Gaul. The voyages of medieval seamen from France to the western Irish coast had no precedents under the Roman empire. Thirdly, the finds are very few, and, few as they are, almost all are coins. There are only three exceptions, and among these three there is not one single piece of pottery. No fragment of Samian, no amphora, no ghost of a wine-jar, appears in the list. Whatever trade there was can only have been trifling in amount. The lebhafter Handel, of which Dr. Zimmer speaks, seems to be out of the question. Lastly, the coins belong to a large extent to special dates. Only one can be ascribed to the period of Agricola (no. 7), and only one or two others (no. 2) to the first century. Six cases belong to the second and third centuries (nos. 3, 4, 8, 13, 15, 16). The rest, so far as they are datable, must be ascribed to the fourth century; these are the great find described under no. 1, and lesser finds nos. 5, 8, 9, 11, 12, and 18.

The lesson of these finds will become clearer if they are  p6 compared, however briefly, with Roman finds made in other parts of Europe outside the empire. In Scotland, for example, the whole land between the Tay and the Moray Firth was touched by the Romans only in summer campaigns under Agricola or Severus,​7 while in the districts still further north, Ross, Caithness, Sutherland, no Roman that we know of can ever have been seen. Roman coins occur here occasionally, at least as far north as the Shetland Islands; pieces of Samian ware have been found even in the Orkneys, and an example of Roman bronze work has occurred in Sutherland.​8 Yet no one would profess to imagine that any vigorous commercial intercourse existed between Sutherlandshire and the Roman part of Caledonia. On the other hand, in central and eastern Germany, in Denmark and in southern Sweden, that is, in districts much further than Ireland from the nearest Roman frontier and in part at least cut off from the Roman world by intervening sea, Roman coins and many other Roman remains are extremely common.​9 These districts we can believe to have been connected with the Mediterranean by an active trade, and indeed we have other proofs of such trade than the Roman objects found on the Baltic coasts. Ireland is in quite a different case. We have neither evidence of trade, nor have we, save to a minute extent, Roman objects.

The view that during the larger part of the Roman empire Ireland was untouched by Roman influences, whether they came from Britain or oversea from Gaul, is not merely the view demanded by the archaeological evidence. It is also the only view which fits in with the historical sequel. As the Roman empire grew weaker in the fourth century, and perhaps even before, the Irish began to attack Britain. It is conceivable that they had done so on occasion even in the first two centuries. The remark of Tacitus suggests as much when he states that Agricola garrisoned the part of Britain which looks toward Ireland — whatever part that exactly be — in spem magis quam ob formidinem,  p7 in hope of conquest rather than in fear of raiders.​10 Indeed, the circumstances of the ancient world make it fairly certain that the Irish Channel was never absolutely free from pirates. But of raids in early times we have no specific record. It is only in the late third century that raids or migrations meet us. Then, about A.D. 270, according to the conventional chronology, the Dessi, or some of them, 'fled' from Deece in Meath to south Wales, though the Irish literature which records the fact gives us no clue to the number or character of these invaders or immigrants. Later still, when the Scotti began to invade the now weakly defended province, they came not as men who had long enjoyed trade with Roman lands, nor as civilized soldiers, but as Kelts, and it is to this fact amongst others that the Keltic revival in Britain itself is due. Had the lebhafter Handel, postulated by Dr. Zimmer, existed from A.D. 50 to A.D. 350, it would not only have left traces of itself in modern Ireland, it would have left its mark on the ancient Irish. It is true that the principal import from Gaul might have been wine, and wine is not in every respect a civilizing drink — any more than the rum and the muskets sold by modern men to various savage tribes. But the trade could hardly have been confined to wine, and after 300 years of it we should look for a different attitude to the Roman empire than we find in the feats of a king like Niall of the Nine Hostages, who was killed in the Ictian Sea — presumably the English Channel — somewhere about A.D. 400.

The real influence of the Empire on Ireland was not a matter of drink but of religion. Whether it was through trade or through prisoners or through missionaries, somehow Christianity came to Ireland about the end of the fourth century. It is no part of this paper to discuss the obscure problems which surround the history of its coming. It remains only to point to the historical fact that, as the empire approached its end in western Europe, there arose in the one un-Romanized Keltic land a new Keltic life, which gained and developed its one important civilized element, its religion, in a quite other way than came to pass within the limits of the empire.

Finds of Roman Coins, &c., in Ireland

(1) At Ballinrees, in the parish of Macosquin (co. Londonderry), •three and a half miles south-west of Coleraine, found in 1854, a very large hoard of 1,506 silver coins of the late empire and over 200 ounces of silver ingots or broken pieces of Roman ornamental silver-work. According to a writer  p8 in the Kilkenny Archaeological Society's Proceedings the coins numbered 1,937 and the silver weighed 341 ounces, but these figures are stated by the best authority, Mr. J. S. Porter, to be incorrect. Apparently about half the coins were ill-preserved. Those catalogued, 1,483 in number, ranged from Constantine II to Honorius and Arcadius, with one coin assigned to Constantine III; of the coins of Honorius the two latest are inscribed vot X mvlt xv (A.D. 403‑5) and votis xxx mvltis xxxx; but this latter has perhaps been misread or may not date so late as its figures suggest. Probably, therefore, the hoard was deposited about A.D. 406‑8. The silver pieces included two small axe-shaped ingots, inscribed exofpatrici and cvrmissi. These are described in some of the early accounts as 'battle-axes marked with Roman characters', but are, in fact, small axe-shaped silver bars of a kind known to have been in Roman use about A.D. 400, a stamped with a name (of moneyer or other), weighing •about 1 lb. and serving as a form of currency. The statement made in the Kilkenny Proceedings that the remains were found in an urn and with horse-armour seems to have been a mistake.

Mr. Porter adds that 195 silver coins of Valens, Gratian, and Honorius were found near the same place a little later on. Whether this is a separate find, as Wright calls it, or a fragment of the other, is not clear.

The best account is by J. S. Porter and J. Carruthers, Ulster Journal of Archaeology, II (1854) 182, mainly reprinted in the Numismatic Chronicle, XVII (1854) 101. See also Proceedings of the Kilkenny Archaeological Society, III (1854) 62; Wright, Arch. Cambr. (1866), p303; Brash, ibid. (1867), p90; A. Way, Archaeological Journal (1854), p283. For the inscribed ingots see Corp. Inscr. Lat. VII.1198 and Willers, Bronzeeimer von Hemmoor, p237, plate 12; they are now in the British Museum.

(2) Carn, •three miles south-east of Dungiven, in the middle of co. Londonderry, a copper coin of Nero (imp Nero Caesar Avg: reverse, a Victory (?) with shield, sc, possibly Cohen 288).

W. S. Mason, Statistical Account of Ireland, I (1814) 304, with fig. Vague mention in Lewis, Topogr. Dict. s.v. Dungiven. About 1814 in the possession of a Mr. A. Ogilby.

(3) Flowerhill, Ballyclough, near Bushmills, •four miles south-west of the Giant's Causeway (co. Antrim), in 1827, 300 Roman silver coins, never catalogued.

J. S. Porter, Ulster Journal of Archaeology, II (1854) 187.

(4) A little east of the Giant's Causeway, on the Faugh mountain near Pleaskin, found in 1831, under a flat stone, much silver coin of the early emperors, •about eight or eight and a half pounds weight, that is (reckoning 65‑70 denarii to the pound avoirdupois) about 550 coins. Of these, twenty-eight were exhibited to the Irish Academy in 1841; of the twenty-eight, seventeen were legible:

Presumably this is the hoard described in the Ulster Journal of Archaeology, II (1854) 187 n., and elsewhere, as found about 1830 near the Giant's  p9 Causeway at Tonduff, close to Pleaskin, and containing 500 silver coins; the writer adds that two other hoards were found by the same man who found the 500, but were concealed. Another writer, in the Proceedings of the Kilkenny Archaeological Society, III.61, states that, about 1820, 300 silver coins were found near the Giant's Causeway; most were illegible but one was a denarius of Matidia, niece of Trajan, and presumably the whole hoard belonged to the first and second centuries. It does not seem possible with our present evidence to say whether this is another account of the Pleaskin hoard, as is most likely, or refers to some other hoard or hoards. The hoard noted under no. 3 seems to be distinct. For similar hoards in Britain see my note in Archaeologia, LIV.489.

See Gent. Mag. (June 1831), p546; and a less valuable notice in February 1834, p217, apparently referring to the same find; Proceedings of the Irish Academy, II (1841) 184; J. S. Porter, Ulster Journal of Archaeology, II (1854) 187 (hence Way, Archaeological Journal (1854), pp283, 284); Numismatic Chronicle, II (1840) 256, very brief reference; Wright, Arch. Cambr. (1866), p303; Journal of the Kilkenny Archaeological Society I (1856‑7) 49.

(5) Near Ballintoy, •six miles east of the Giant's Causeway, co. Antrim. One gold coin of Valentinian (restitvtor rei pvblicae), found just before 1814 and then in possession of the Rev. R. Trail of Ballintoy.

W. S. Mason, Statistical Account of Ireland, I (1814) 155, hence Proceedings of the Irish Academy, II (1841) 186. Vague reference in Lewis, Topogr. Dict. s.v. Antrim, and hence Lindsay, View of the Coinage of Ireland (1839), p2.

(6) Town-land of Loughey, near Donaghadee, co. Down, found in ploughing on the coast, a pocket of black earth, and in it a small hoard of bronze tweezers, two bronze rings, a bronze fibula, the bowl of a spoon, 152 coloured glass beads, an armlet of purple glass, an armlet of Kimmeridge shale, a brass coin, and some other objects less fully recorded. The rather poor illustration of the fibula in the earliest account suggests that it dates from the early Roman period; the chronology of the beads is uncertain.

Archaeological Journal (1856), p407 = Journal of the Kilkenny Archaeol. Soc., I (1856‑7) 164, each with illustration; hence Wright, Arch. Cambr. (1866), p302; Brash, ibid. (1867), p91. Information from Sir H. Read, British Museum.

(7) Near Moira, in the north of co. Down, a coin of Vespasian, found in May 1911.

Information from Professor Knox McElderry.

(8) Near Downpatrick, co. Down, eight copper coins described as 1 Tiberius, 1 Hadrian, 1 Philip, 1 Maximian (these four, Second Brass), 1 Licinius, 1 Constantine the Great (these two, Third Brass), a First Brass of 'M. Antoninus', and a coin of 'Domitian, copper washed with silver'.

Described most fully, Proceedings of the Irish Academy, VI (1856) 525; more briefly, Proceedings of the Kilkenny Archaeol. Soc., III (1854) 2; hence Wright, Arch. Cambr. (1866), p302.

(9) New Grange, •five miles west of Drogheda, on the Tumulus, (i) a gold coin of Valentinian (Victoria Avgg. Trobs) and a gold coin of Theodosius (the same legend and mint), found, the former before 1699, the latter  p10 at the same time or a little later; (ii) five bits of gold, including a gold ring, a denarius of Geta, and two small bronze coins, found in 1842.

For the two gold coins see Edward Lhuyd (or Lhwyd), Transactions of the Royal Society, XXVII.503; T. Molyneux, Discourse concerning Danish Mounts, &c., in Ireland (1725), p206, figs. 8, 9, both quoted in Coffey's New Grange (1912), pp8, 10. From Molyneux, Ledwich, Antiq. of Ireland (1790), plate xxv, p316, briefly, and several other writers. For the finds of 1842 see Archaeologia, XXX.137, and Proceedings of the Numismatic Society.

(10) Lambay Island, Roman coin, details not recorded.

Proceedings of the Irish Academy, II (1841) 186.

(11) Hill of Tara, co. Meath, found close to the surface, in or just before 1900, fifteen coins of Constantine the Great, 'of small value,' metal not stated, but presumably bronze. These coins were not given to the R. S. A. I. Museum at Dublin, as has been stated in print, but went, as Mr. E. C. Armstrong tells me, to Bellintor House, the seat of the then owner of the site.

Journal of the Royal Society of Antiq. of Ireland, XXX (1900) 176. Information from Mr. George Coffey.

(12) Dublin, found in a field near the river Dodder, one gold coin of Valens (Victoria Avgg, mint mark Trobc, probably = Cohen, no. 53, in copper).

Communicated to me by Mr. George Coffey; now in the Royal Irish Academy Collection, Dublin. This is, I understand, the only Roman coin now in the collections of the Royal Irish Academy, the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland and Trinity College which is recorded to have been found in Ireland.

(13) Clondalkin, near Dublin, one 'Second Brass' coin of Pius.

Frazer, Journal of the Hist. Archaeol. Association of Ireland, VIII (1887‑8) 104.

(14) Rathfarnham, near Dublin, coins described, one as Byzantine, five others as Roman of the Republic. The descriptions are vague, but there seems to be no reason to doubt that Roman coins were found.

Proceedings of the Irish Academy, V (1853) 199, VI (1856) 442; Archaeological Journal (1859), p204. The Roman coins are said to have been presented to the Royal Irish Museum, Dublin, but Professor Purser and Mr. E. C. Armstrong testify that they are not now to be found there.

(15) Bray Head, south of Dublin, close to the sea beach, in 1835, Roman copper coins, some of Hadrian and Trajan, in graves with skeletons, one or two coins to each skeleton. The graves were apparently placed regularly in rows and divided from one another by thin slabs, in what is said to have been an Irish, and is certainly not a Roman, fashion.

Lewis, Topogr. Dict., hence Lindsay, View of the Coinage of Ireland (1839), p2; Proceedings of the Irish Academy, II (1841) 186; and corrected by Brash, ibid. (1867), p92.

(16) Templemore, co. Tipperary, found in 1821, one coin of Pius, one of Gordian III.

Proceedings of the Kilkenny Archaeol. Soc., III (1854‑5) 63; hence Frazer, Journal of the Hist. Archaeol. Assoc. of Ireland, VIII (1887‑8) 105.

 p11  (17) Golden Bridge, more often called Golden, •eight miles east of Tipperary, oculist's stamp, found 1842.

A. Way, Archaeol. Journal (1850), p355; Franks, Proceedings of the Soc. of Antiq. of London (1864), p409; CIL VII.1315; now in the British Museum.

(18) Near the church of Killenumery, •two miles south of Drumahaire, co. Leitrim, ill-recorded find of perhaps 100 coins. Seven were 'Third Brass' of Florian, Probus, Carinus, Diocletian, Maximian (one each) and Constantine the Great (two coins).

Frazer, Journal of the Hist. Archaeol. Assoc. of Ireland, VIII (1887‑8) 103.

(19) Fermanagh County, exact spot not recorded, three Roman copper coins, one perhaps Nero.

Proceedings of the Irish Academy, II (1841) 186.

(20) Co. Tyrone, exact spot not recorded, a 'Brass coin of Augustus', found in 1850. Obviously an ill-attested find. If it be accepted as more or less real, the attribution to 'Augustus' need not be taken literally. Inexpert antiquaries have often assigned to him Roman coins on which the emperor's name happened to be illegible to them while a part of the title, Avg., was readable.

Proceedings of the Kilkenny Archaeol. Soc., III (1854‑5) 62; hence Wright, Arch. Cambr. (1866), p302, and Frazer, Journal Hist. Archaeol. Assoc. of Ireland, VIII (1887‑8) 105.

(21) Castle Lyons, co. Cork. "In the Moat of a Rath, in the parish of Castle Lyons, was found in 1837 a Roman large brass coin of Gordian III; it is now in the possession of the author.'

John Lindsay, View of the Coinage of Ireland (Cork, 1839), p2.

(22‑3) Two other finds in Cork County may be added here, though they rest on weaker and more purely hearsay evidence than most of the preceding and cannot be called reasonably certain.

(22) Ballyphebane bog near Cork. 'A small Roman brass coin, said to have been dug up in Ballyphebane bog near Cork.'

John Lindsay, View of the Coinage of Ireland, p2. I have failed to find the name of the bog on the map.

(23) Buttevant, co. Cork. 'Several Roman Consular and Imperial coins were, a few years since, said to have been dug up at Buttevant.'

John Lindsay, View of the Coinage of Ireland, p2.

I conclude with two more than doubtful items, due pretty certainly to blunder or romance.

(24) Ferns Abbey, half-way between Wexford and Arklow, co. Wexford. The Dublin Penny Journal, III (1835) 230, records that a local museum at Piltown, co. Waterford, then contained 'a coin of Alexander the Great, which was found with a considerable number of others of different dates and countries, under the foundations of the northern gateway of the Abbey of Ferns.' Lindsay (op. cit., p2) repeats the notice, and suggests that the coin really belonged to Thasos. This from its description in the Journal seems likely — in which case the age of the object would be  p12 much B.C. It is quite clear, however, that the record cannot be trusted. If this coin was actually found at Ferns with others of different countries, it cannot be a survival of early days, but must be a modern loss or burial. Quite possibly it was never found at Ferns at all, but was brought from abroad in modern times and its true origin was forgotten, either by those who gave it to the local museum or by the keeper of the museum; thus it got mixed up incorrectly with local finds. That fate has befallen hundreds of other ancient objects brought from the continent to these islands in comparatively recent times.

(25) Lindsay (ibid.) records that 'a parcel of Greek coins of the Kings of Macedonian and Syria, were (sic) found a few years since on the south-west coast of Ireland, but further particulars I was not able to ascertain'. Here again the record is mere hearsay and cannot be trusted. We do not know who saw the coins, nor have we any details which might help us to criticize the story. In itself it is extremely improbable; there is, so far as I know, no authenticated case of such coins being found anywhere in the British Isles.11

F. Haverfield.

---

The Author's Notes:

1 The difference between the lowlands of southern, eastern, and central Britain the uplands of the west and north decided not only the course of the Roman conquest (Mommsen, Röm. Gesch., V.162), but also the development of the province itself (see my Romanization of Roman Britain (ed. 1912), pp20, 63).

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2 Tac. Agr. 24: 'Eam partem Britanniae quae Hiberniam aspicit copiis instruxit, in spem magis quam ob formidinem, si quidem Hibernia medio inter Britanniam atque Hispaniam sita et Gallico quoque mari opportuna valentissimam imperii partem magnis in vicem usibus miscuerit.' The meaning of val. imp. partem is fixed both by the context here and by Hist. III.53. The rendering of these words given by Zimmer (see below), 'Since Ireland stands in active trade relations with the strongest part of our Empire, namely Gaul,' seems to me to limit partem unduly, and to take miscuerit in an absolutely impossible way.

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3 Pfitzner, Ist Irland jemals von einem röm. Heere betreten worden? (Neustrelitz, 1893) and Jahrb. für Phil., CLIII.560, as well as Gudemann, Classical Review, XI.328, XIV.51, argue that a real invasion took place. I cannot think that their arguments, which are purely linguistic, have any weight, and they are almost the only serious writers who have held this opinion.

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4 Tac. Agr. 24: 'in melius aditus portusque per commercia et negotiatores cogniti.' So the MSS. Halm reads interiora parum; melius &c.; others omit the in. The true remedy is not clear. Fortunately the point is of no great importance to the historian.

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5 Zimmer, Sitzungsber. der kgl. preuss. Akad. 1909, 365 ff.: 'Über direkte Handelsverbindungen Westgalliens mit Irland im Altertum und frühen Mittelalter.' Some criticisms on other parts of Zimmer's paper are given by Levison, Historische Zeitschrift, CIX.1, and Krusch, Neues Archiv, XXXV.274.

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6 The Bodleian MS., Liber Luciani de laude Cestriae, of about A.D. 1200, lately edited by Miss M. Taylor, speaks of direct trade in wine between Chester and Aquitaine. In prehistoric times the distribution of certain forms of ornaments, such as the gold lunulae, has suggested to Mr. Coffey that there was occasional intercourse between Ireland and Gaul on the one hand, and Scandinavia on the other, by direct sea passage; this, however, no one would assert to have been habitual and long continued.

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7 Ephem. Epigr., IX pp630, 631. The most northerly permanent forts were on the line of Strathearn, and they were probably not held long. It has been suggested that there was for a while a permanent garrison at Inchtuthil, a few miles north of Perth, but this has yet to be proved. The most northerly 'marching camp' that has been detected in Scotland lies close to the sources of the Ythan in the north of Aberdeenshire; this appears from its plan to be Roman, but has not been tested with the spade.

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8 For the coins see my list in The Antonine Wall (Glasgow, 1899), appendix, pp164, 166. Pieces of Samian have been found at Gallanach near Oban, at the Brochs of Keiss, Everley, and Nybster in Sutherland — in two of these cases with other pieces of Roman pottery or glass — and at Bursay in Orkney. (I owe most of these examples to Mr. Curle.) For the bronze vessels from Helmsdale in Sutherlandshire, now at Dunrobin Castle, see Assoc. Archit. Soc. Reports, XIII.101, &c.

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9 See, for example, O. Montelius, Civilization of Sweden in Heathen Times (English translation), pp97 ff. There is a considerable foreign literature on the subject.

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10 See above, p2, n. 2. The district might be either Wales or the Cumberland coast, or possibly Wigton and Galloway, but here remains of Roman forts are entirely absent, and even Roman smaller objects are very rare. The idea that it was the Mull of Cantire is geographically and archaeologically absurd.

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11 See Numismatic Chronicle (1907), p147. Victoria Hist., Worcestershire, I.205, and Shropshire, I.260.

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