_Britannia_. It has generally been supposed (though Gesenius denies it in his Phenician Paloeography) that Britain was known to the Phenicians, those bold navigators and enterprising merchants of antiquity, under the name of the _Cassiterides_, or Tin Islands. Greek authors make early mention of Albion (plural of Alp?) and Ierne (Erin) as British Islands. Bochart derives the name (Britain) from the Phenician or Hebrew Baratanae, "the Land of Tin;" others from the Gallic _Britti_, Painted, in allusion to the custom among the inhabitants of painting their bodies. But according to the Welsh Triads, Britain derived its name from Prydain, a king, who early reigned in the island. Cf. Turner's His. Ang. Sax. 1, 2, seqq. The geographical description, which follows, cannot be exonerated from the charge of verbiage and grandiloquence. T. wanted the art of saying a plain thing plainly. _Spatio ac coelo_. Brit. not only stretches out or lies over against these several countries in _situation_, but it approaches them also in _climate_: a circumstance which illustrates the great size of the island (cf. _maxima_, above) and prepares the way for the description of both below. _Germaniae_ and _Hispaniae_ are dat. after _obtenditur_. The mistaken notion of the relative position of Spain and Britain is shared with T. by Caesar (B.G. 13), Dion (39, 50), and indeed by the ancients in general. It is so represented in maps as late as Richard of Cirencester. Cf. Prichard, III. 3, 9. _Etiam inspicitur_. It is even _seen_ by the Gauls, implying nearer approach to Gaul, than to Germany or Spain. _Nullis terris_. Abl. abs., _contra_ taking the place of the part., or rather limiting a part. understood. _Livius_. In his 105th Book; now lost, except in the Epitome. _Fabius Rusticus_. A friend of Seneca, and writer of history in the age of Claudius and Nero. _Oblongae scutulae_. Geometrically a trapezium. _Et est ea facies. And such is the form, exclusive of Caledonia, whence the account has been extended also to the whole Island_. _Sed--tenuatur. But a vast and irregular extent of lands jutting out here (jam_, cf. note, G. 44) _on this remotest shore_ (i.e. widening out again where they seemed already to have come to an end), _is narrowed down as it were into a wedge_. The author likens Caledonia to a wedge with its apex at the Friths of Clyde and Forth, and its base widening out on either side into the ocean beyond. _Enormis_ is a post-Augustan word. _Novissimi_==extreme, remotest. G. 24, note. _Affirmavit. Established_ the fact, hitherto supposed, but not fully ascertained. This was done in Agricola's last campaign in Britain, cf. 38. _Orcadas_. The Orkneys. Their name occurs earlier than this, but they were little known. _Dispecta est. Was seen_ through the mist, as it were; discovered in the distance and obscurity. Cf. note, H. 4, 55: dispecturas Gallias, etc.