GS CRANIA BRITANNICA. [CHAP. V. CHAP. V.] HISTORICAL ETHNOLOGY OF BEITAIN. 03
indicated, they lying chiefly towards the south-west of the Cornish promontory, withia short
distances of Moimt's Bay. The island of Ictis or Ictin, which at low water is described as joined
to the mainland, can be no other than St. Michael's Mount, which as Mr. Keniick observes,
"was excellently adapted, from this circumstance, to be the place of trade between foreign
dealers and the inhabitants of the continent (of Britain)." Some of the principal tin mines are at
Marazion and other places immediately adjacent. The tin, however, as we may infer from Eestus
Avienus, and more particularly from a passage from Timoeus, was taken to the Isle of Ictin, by
water as well as by land. TimiEus (300 B.C. ) , who seems to have derived this fact from Pythcas,
records that to the island of Mictis (Ictis), where tin is obtained, the Britons sailed over in their
boats of osier covered with sewed hides*. To what extent the Greeks of Massilia, who to late
times were distinguished as ship-builders, traded by sea to Britain, is doubtful. The disturbed
state of Spain, during the Punic wars, must have been unfavom-able to Massflian navigation in
the Atlantic; and the visits of the Greeks to the Cassiterides appear soon to have been replaced
by those of a new maritime people—the Veneti of Armorican Gaul. The overland journey, under
these circumstances, would necessarily come to be preferred; so that when Diodorus wrote,
the merchants are described as purchasing the tin in Britain, and " carrying it across to the
opposite coast of Gaul, where by a jommey of thirty days on horseback, it is conveyed to the
mouth of the river Rhone, to the people of Massalia, and to the city caUed Narbonf." In
this trade, the ships of the Veneti were at this time clearly employed; Csesar telling us of the
" great number of ships with which they used to sail to Britain," and that they " held as tributaries
almost aU those who traded in that sea J."
The story, in Strabo, of the ineffectual pursuit of a Gaditanian vessel by the Romans in
search of the " emporium" for tin, has already been referred to. This incident could haxdly
have occurred before the second Punic war (218-201 B.C. ) , when Spain was first occupied by the
Romans, or later than the Consulship of M. Lepidus and Q. Catulus (78 B.C.), when an alliance
between Rome and the city of Gades was made or eonirrmed. The Romans, however, ultimately
became sharers in the trade to the Cassiterides, and that previously, as would appear, to the
invasion of Britain by Julius. " After repeated attempts," says Strabo, " the Romans
discovered the way by sea; and as soon as Publius Crassus, passing over to them, perceived that
the metals were dug out at a little depth, and that the men, being at peace, were already
beginning in consequence of their leisure to busy themselves about the sea, he pointed out this
passage to evei-y one who wished to attempt it, although it was longer than that to Britain§."
The date of this voyage may be fixed, with much precision, about two years before the Roman
invasion of Britain, and as having taken place late in the year 57 B.C. Publius Crassus was the
lieutenant of Ctesar in Gaul, and subdued the Veneti towards the end of this year. They
revolted early in the following year; and it was probably during the interval that this young and
have been taken, was Ictin, and that this is important, as
bearing on the true signification of the word. See a paper by
Mr. Edmonds in " Report of the Penzance Natural History and
Antiquarian Society," 1849, p. 347.
* Pliny, lib. iv. c. 30. Timieus seems to have misunderstood
Pytheas, and to have confounded Ictis with Thnle, when
he describes the former as " six days' sail from Britain ; " this
being the distance at which Pytheas placed Thüle (Strabo,
lib. i. c. 4. § 2 ; Pliny, lib. ii. c. 77) ; and the introrsus of
Pliny, in the above passage, means on the eastern side of Britain,
the coast which Pytheas clearly navigated. Kenrick, loc. cit.
p. 221. PUuy (lib. xxxiv. c. 47) repeats the statement as to
the coracles, though in this passage he curiously treats the
whole as fabulous.
t Diodorus, hb. v. c. 22, 38. The exact course of this
traffic through Gaul, is probably to be gatliered from Strabo,
lib. iv. c. 1. § 2, 14.
J Bell. Gall. lib. iii. c. 8. Strabo also says that the Veneti
possessed the trade of Britain. Lib. iv. c. 4. § 1.
§ Strabo, lib. iii. c. 5. § 11. The expression in Strabo as
to " the men being at peace," evidently, we think, refers, not to
the people of the Cassiterides, but to the Gauls.
enterprising officer visited the south-west of Britain, in search of the famous Cassiterides; most
Uliely in a ship of the Veneti; sailing, as may be concluded, in the company of his Gallic
hostages, from the mouth of the Lou-e, near which he had his winter quarters, among the
Andecavi *. The tin imported by Roman merchants was no doubt taken to Narbon, as may be
inferred from Diodorus, who, in connexion with his description of the tin trade, dwells on the
importance of the trade of this Roman colony ; whilst that imported by the Greeks, was taken
to Massiliat.
It is then hardly to be doubted that the Bretanaic islands of the later HeUenic writers are
identical with the Cassiterides or tin isles of the earlier Greeks, and of those authors who copied
from them; and that the Cassiterides themselves are especially represented by the SciUy islets
and the Damnonian promontory, the district stiU celebrated for its tin. This name Brettanic,
Bretannic, or Pretannic, the origin of the present name of Britain, whence is it ? Many have
sought the etymology of the word in the Celtic, but, as may be seen in Camden and other
writers, not satisfactorily. There seems, indeed, no suflicient evidence that any part of the population
of the British isles, at this early period, called themselves Britons, and, as Dr. Latham
observes, the name may have been as strange to the people to whom it was applied as the word
Welsh is now to the natives of the Cambro-Briton principality J. The learned Bochart, in the
seventeenth century, seems first to have suggested an etymology from the Phoenician, which
may stUl merit consideration. The word bara, in construction harat, occurs in Chaldee, in the
sense of field, and anae is used by Amos for lead, a metal which the ancients often confounded
ivith tin. Bochart therefore supposed that the Phcenicians, whose language was closely aUied to
the Chaldee and Hebrew, called the Cassiterides and the adjacent island of Britain, Baratanac,
the field or land of tin§. Dr. Hincks, who has found the word anna, which appears to be the
same as anac, in an enumeration of metals in an Assyrian cuneiform inscription, regards this
etymology as rendered more probable by such discovery ||. "RTiether the name of the Cassiterides
be only the Greek form of the Semitic Baratanac, or not, it is clear that, however derived, the
name of Britain ultimately displaced the earlier Greek designation, in the usage of the Greeks
themselves; from whom, especially those of MassiUa, the name of Insulse Bretannicse seems to
have spread to the Romans and other people.
The first mention of Britain, under that name, by the ancients, has generally been thought
that in the treatise on the Universe, formerly attributed to Aristotle (345 B.C.). The authorship
and date of this work appear, however, very uncertain, and its date may be later even than our
* Strabo, in the above passage, appears to have followed
a Roman narrative now lost, and which probably referred to
the war in Gaul. This Publius Crassus was scut by Caisar
against the Aquitani, early in the year 56 n.c., and does not
appear to have returned to the north of Gaxil. He followed
his father, the t r iumw Crassus, to the Parthian war, and died
at Carrhue ui the year :)3 n.c. ("Cffisar," Bell. Gall.lib.i.e. 52 ;
lib. ii. c. 34 ; lib. iii. 7,8, 9, 11, 20 etseq.). It has sometimes
been supposed that the Publius Crassus who showed the Romans
the way to the Cassiterides was the grandfather of the
Crassus here referred to, who bore the same name (Publius
Licinius Crassus), and who, forty years earlier, had the command
in Spain against the Lusitani and other tribes. It may
be observed, however, that the expression, as to the passage to
the Cassiterides being longer than that to Britain, would apply
to a voyage from the north of Gaul, but not to one from Spain.
Hnet ("Com. des Anciens," 1727, c. 38. p. 183), it seems,
attributes this exploratory voyage to the younger Crassus.
Lappenberg and other writers do the same.
+ Diodorus, hb. v. c. 38.
J Latham, in Smith's, "Diet, of G. and R. Geog.," vol. i.
p. 434. The Frydain of the Welsh poets of the 5th century
is probably the Latin name Britannia in a Cymric form.
§ " GeographiaSacra," 1G74, Ub. i. c. 39. p . 719. "Porro
Bretanica mihi quidem nihil videtnr esse aliud qnam Baratanac,
id est ager sen terra stanui et plumhi." Bochart quotes Avicenua
and the prophets Daniel (c. 2. v. 38 ; c. 4. v. 12) and
Amos (c. 7. V. 7).
11 See Dr. Hmcks's letter in "Notes and Queries," 1853,
vol. viii. p. 345. "Wliat the et5Tnology of the word Kaaalrepos
itself may be, is not clear. Mr. Kenrick doubts the often supposed
origin of the word from the Sanscrit. Loc. cit. p. 213.
K 2