The British Isles are an archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, and over six thousand smaller islands. They have a total area of 315,159 km2 (121,684 sq mi) and a combined population of almost 72 million, and include two sovereign states, the Republic of Ireland, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Channel Islands, off the north coast of France, are normally taken to be part of the British Isles, even though geographically they do not form part of the archipelago. Under the UK Interpretation Act 1978, the Channel Islands are clarified as forming part of the British Islands, not to be confused with the British Isles.
This article concerns the period 149 BC – 140 BC.
The River Shannon ) is the major river on the island of Ireland, and at 360 km in length, is the longest river in the British Isles. It drains the Shannon River Basin, which has an area of 16,900 km2 (6,525 sq mi), – approximately one fifth of the area of Ireland.
Hibernia is the Classical Latin name for Ireland. The name Hibernia was taken from Greek geographical accounts. During his exploration of northwest Europe, Pytheas of Massalia called the island Iérnē. In his book Geographia, Claudius Ptolemaeus ("Ptolemy") called the island Iouerníā. The Roman historian Tacitus, in his book Agricola, uses the name Hibernia.
Eblana is an ancient Irish settlement that appears in the Geographia of Claudius Ptolemaeus (Ptolemy), the Greek astronomer and cartographer, around the year 140 AD. It was traditionally believed by scholars to refer to the same site as the modern city of Dublin. The 19th-century writer Louis Agassiz used Eblana as a Latin equivalent for Dublin. However, more recent scholarship favours the north County Dublin seaside village of Loughshinny due to its proximity to Drumanagh, an important trading site with links to Roman Britain; it has even been described as a bridgehead of a possible Roman invasion. However, there is no definitive proof to tie Eblana to any location, so its exact identity remains a matter of speculation.
Caledonia was the Latin name used by the Roman Empire to refer to the part of Scotland that lies north of the River Forth, which includes most of the land area of Scotland. Today, it is used as a romantic or poetic name for all of Scotland. During the Roman Empire's occupation of Scotland, the area they called Caledonia was physically separated from the rest of the island by the Antonine Wall. The Romans several times invaded and occupied it, but unlike the rest of the island, it remained outside the administration of Roman Britain.
The Ford Ranges are a collection of mountain groups and ranges standing east of Sulzberger Ice Shelf and Block Bay in the northwest part of Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica.
The Geography, also known by its Latin names as the Geographia and the Cosmographia, is a gazetteer, an atlas, and a treatise on cartography, compiling the geographical knowledge of the 2nd-century Roman Empire. Originally written by Claudius Ptolemy in Greek at Alexandria around 150 AD, the work was a revision of a now-lost atlas by Marinus of Tyre using additional Roman and Persian gazetteers and new principles. Its translation – Kitab Surat al-Ard – into Arabic by Al-Khwarismi in the 9th century was highly influential on the geographical knowledge and cartographic traditions of the Islamic world. Alongside the works of Islamic scholars – and the commentary containing revised and more accurate data by Alfraganus – Ptolemy's work was subsequently highly influential on Medieval and Renaissance Europe.
Pitane, near Çandarlı, Turkey, was an ancient Greek town of the ancient region of Aeolis, in Asia Minor. It was situated near the mouth of the river Evenus on the bay of Elaea. It was one of the eleven ancient Aeolian settlements and possessed considerable commercial advantages in having two harbours. It was the birthplace of the academic philosopher Arcesilaus, and in the reign of Titus it suffered severely from an earthquake. The town is still mentioned by Hierocles. Pliny the Elder mentions in its vicinity a river Canaius, which is not noticed by any other writer; but it may possibly be the river Pitanes, spoken of by Ptolemy, and which seems to derive its name from the town of Pitane.
The toponym "British Isles" refers to a European archipelago comprising Great Britain, Ireland and the smaller, adjacent islands. The word "British" has also become an adjective and demonym referring to the United Kingdom and more historically associated with the British Empire. For this reason, the name British Isles is avoided by some, as such usage could be interpreted to imply continued territorial claims or political overlordship of the Republic of Ireland by the United Kingdom.
The name Britain originates from the Common Brittonic term *Pritanī and is one of the oldest known names for Great Britain, an island off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The terms Briton and British, similarly derived, refer to some or all of its inhabitants and, to varying extents, those of the smaller islands in the vicinity. "British Isles" is the only ancient name for these islands to survive in general usage.
Albion is an alternative name for Great Britain. The oldest attestation of the toponym comes from the Greek language. It is sometimes used poetically and generally to refer to the island, but is less common than "Britain" today. The name for Scotland in most of the Celtic languages is related to Albion: Alba in Scottish Gaelic, Albain in Irish, Nalbin in Manx and Alban in Welsh and Cornish. These names were later Latinised as Albania and Anglicised as Albany, which were once alternative names for Scotland.
Nagnata or Magnata is a town noted on the co-ordinate map of the 2nd century AD Alexandrian scholar Claudius Ptolemy in the territory of the Nagnatae (Ναγνᾶται). It is located in northwest Hibernia between the mouths of the rivers Ravius (Ῥαουίος), perhaps the Erne, and Libnius (Λιβνίος), perhaps the Moy. This is the only town noted on the Irish west, southern or northern coast. Surviving manuscripts of Ptolemy's Geography refers to the towns Hibernis (Teamhair'Erann/Tara), Rhaeba (Cruchain/Rathcroghan) and Magnata (Sligo) as "ἐπίσημος" (episēmos), an Ancient Greek word meaning "eminent" or "distinguished". Much of his work was based on the now lost geography of Marinus of Tyre.
The Gangani (Γαγγανοι) were a people of ancient Ireland who are referred to in Ptolemy's 2nd-century Geography as living in the south-west of the island, probably near the mouth of the River Shannon, between the Auteini to the north and the Uellabori to the south. There appears to have been a people of the same name in north-west Wales, as Ptolemy calls the Llŷn Peninsula the "promontory of the Gangani".
The prehistory of Ireland included a protohistorical period, when the literate cultures of Greece and Rome began to take notice of it, and a further proto-literate period of ogham epigraphy, before the early historical period began in the 5th century. Attempts have been made to reconstruct the political developments of this period by reference to early medieval Irish genealogical texts.
The Vacomagi were a people of ancient Scotland, known only from a single mention of them by the geographer Claudius Ptolemy. Their principal places are known from Ptolemy's map c.150 of Albion island of Britannia – from the First Map of Europe.
Hiberno-Roman relations refers to the relationships which existed between Ireland (Hibernia) and the ancient Roman Empire, which lasted from the 1st century BC to the 5th century AD in Western Europe. Ireland was one of the few areas of western Europe not conquered by Rome.
Philocles was King of Sidon and a military commander under the Ptolemaic dynasty in the late 4th and early 3rd century BC, and one of the architects of Ptolemaic imperialism in the coasts of Asia Minor and the Aegean Sea. He served as an admiral in the Ptolemaic navy during the Second Syrian War.
Dia, also Diospolis (Διόσπολις), was a port city of ancient Bithynia on the Pontus Euxinus in Asia Minor. Marcian of Heraclea places it 60 stadia east of the mouth of the Hypius, which river is between the Sangarius River and Heraclea Pontica. The name in Marcian, Diaspolis, may be a mistake for Diospolis, which Ptolemy has. There are some very rare coins with the epigraph Dias (Διας), which Sestini assigns to this place.
![Ptolemy's "first European map", dated c. 1501 - c. 1515 and illuminated by the "Master of Edward IV [fr]", from a Latin manuscript edition of Geography, made for Louis de Gruuthuse in 1485, and now in the Bibliotheque nationale de France
, depicting the British Isles. Ireland is labelled in Latin: Hibernia insula Britannica, lit. 'Hibernia, British island'
. Latin manuscript of Ptolemy's Geography attributed to the "Master of Edward IV" (BnF MS Latin 4804) - 1st European map - the British Isles (ff. 106v-107r).png](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ae/Latin_manuscript_of_Ptolemy%27s_Geography_attributed_to_the_%22Master_of_Edward_IV%22_%28BnF_MS_Latin_4804%29_%E2%80%93_1st_European_map_%E2%80%93_the_British_Isles_%28ff._106v%E2%80%93107r%29.png/220px-thumbnail.png)
