Description
Book Synopsis On the boundary of what the ancient Greeks and Romans considered the habitable world, Ireland was a land of myth and mystery in classical times. Classical authors frequently portrayed its people as savages—even as cannibals and devotees of incest—and evinced occasional uncertainty as to the island''s shape, size, and actual location. Unlike neighboring Britain, Ireland never knew Roman occupation, yet literary and archaeological evidence prove that Iuverna was more than simply terra incognita in classical antiquity.
In this book, Philip Freeman explores the relations between ancient Ireland and the classical world through a comprehensive survey of all Greek and Latin literary sources that mention Ireland. He analyzes passages (given in both the original language and English) from over thirty authors, including Julius Caesar, Strabo, Tacitus, Ptolemy, and St. Jerome. To amplify the literary sources, he also briefly reviews the archaeological and linguistic
Trade Review
" ... explores the evidence regarding Greek and (mostly) Roman knowledge of Ireland during the classical period and, to a lesser extent, the degree of actual interaction between the inhabitants of Ireland and Classical civilizations until the date traditionally ascribed to the arrival of St. Patrick in Ireland, A.D. 432... stakes out an appropriate middle ground between accessibility and specialized scholarship. Providing both the original Classical texts and English translations is particularly useful in this regard." Bryn Mawr Classical Review
Table of Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Introduction
- 1. The Archaeology of Roman Material in Ireland
- Pre-Roman Material
- First-Century Material
- Second-Century Material
- Third-Century Material
- Fourth- and Early-Fifth-Century Material
- 2. Language: The Influence Of Latin In Pre-Patrician Ireland
- Latin Loan-Words in Early Irish
- The Ogam Alphabet and the Latin Grammatical Tradition
- 3. Ancient Authors
- Rufius Festus Avienus
- The Hellenistic Geographers
- Diodorus Siculus
- Julius Caesar
- Strabo
- Isidorus
- Pomponius Mela
- Pliny the Elder
- Pseudo-Aristotle
- Tacitus
- Juvenal
- Dionysius Periegetes
- Ptolemy
- Apuleius
- Herodian
- Solinus
- Unattributed Works
- Panegyric on Constantius Caesar
- Maritime Itinerary of Antonius Augustus
- Panegyric on Constantine Augustus
- Nomina provinciarum omnium
- Orphic Argonautica
- Pacatus
- Ammianus Marcellinus
- Unattributed Work
- Pseudo-Hegesippus
- Jerome
- Prudentius
- Symmachus
- Servius
- Claudian
- Marcianus
- Stobaeus
- Orosius
- Pseudo-Agathemerus
- Stephanus of Byzantium
- Appendix One: The Greek Alphabet
- Appendix Two: Classical References to Ireland
- Appendix Three: The Names of Ireland
- References
- Index
