Of all the islands which have reached the knowledge of the
Romans, Britain is the largest. It extends towards Germany to the east,
towards Spain to the west. To the south it looks towards Gaul. Its
northern shore, beyond which there is no land, is beaten by a sea vast and
boundless. [Footnote: "Belluosus, qui remotis Obstrepit Oceanus
Britannis."] Britain is by Livy and Fabius Rusticus, the former the most
eloquent of the ancient historians, the latter of the moderns, compared in
shape to an oblong shield, or a broad knife with two edges. And such in
effect is its figure on this side Caledonia, whence common opinion has
thus also fashioned the whole. But a tract of territory huge and
unmeasurable stretches forward to the uttermost shore, and straitening by
degrees, terminates like a wedge. Round the coast of this sea, which
beyond it has no land, the Roman fleet now first sailed, and thence proved
Britain to be an island, as also discovered and subdued the Isles of
Orkney till then unknown. Thule was likewise descried, hitherto hid by
winter under eternal snow. This sea they report to be slow and stagnate,
difficult to the rowers, and indeed hardly to be raised by the force of
winds.
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