Hiberno-Roman relations
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Between Hibernia and the Roman Empire there was a relationship (mainly commercial and cultural) that lasted five centuries, from Caesar times to the beginning of the fifth century. However, Hibernia (actual Ireland) is the only area of western Europe that was not conquered by the Roman Empire.
Characteristics
Rome never annexed Hibernia to the Roman Empire, but did a huge influence on the island even if there are only a few evidences about.
This influence was done in three characteristic areas: commercial, cultural and religious, military.
- Commercial. The main characteristic of the relationship between Rome and Hibernia was commercial. Indeed scholar Richard Warner [1] in 1995 wrote that after emperor Claudius invasion of southern Britannia, the trade routes between the Mediterranean sea and the Roman Britannia regarded even Hibernia. Geographer Ptolemy in his map of the first century AD pinpointed perfectly the coasts and tribes of Ireland, showing a knowledge that only merchants could have achieved in that century.
Additionally, there are many archeological evidences (mainly jewelry and roman coins) found in areas of central (Tara) and southern Hibernia (Cashel), that reveal this relationship.[2] It is noteworthy that many Roman coins have been found at Newgrange.[3]
According to Thomas Charles-Edwards, who wrote about the Irish Dark Age, between the first and third century there was a depopulating slave trade from Hibernia toward the rich Roman Britannia, that had an economy based on villa farming and needed slaves to perform the heaviest labour in agriculture.[4]
- Cultural and religious. Another relationship is related to the religious influence: the fast conversion to Christianity of all Irish people done by Saint Palladius in the century when the Western Roman Empire disappeared, shows that this religious faith was already present in Hibernia before the fifth century.[5]). Indeed, there are clear evidences that since the second century after Christ there were Christians in the island, mainly in Leinster e Meath: the first reliable historical event in Irish history, recorded in the Chronicle of Prosper of Aquitaine, is the ordination by Pope Celestine I of Palladius as the first bishop to Irish Christians in 431 - which demonstrates that there were already Christians living in Ireland. Prosper says in his Contra Collatorem that by this act Celestine "made the barbarian island Christian", although it is clear the Christianisation of the island was a longer and more gradual process.
Furthermore the cultural influence from Rome can be seen even in the clothes (and glades) of high ranking people inside Celtic tribes of the third and fourth century [6]
- military. The third characteristic is related to the military influence. Indeed it seems possible an explorative expedition during Agricola times, even if there it is a scholar controversy about. In places like Drumanagh and Lambay island have been found some Roman military evidences related to this fact[7].
Even the raids in Roman Britain done by Irish tribes mainly in the fourth and fifth century brought back to Hibernia useful Roman "know-how" of classical civilization. Indeed one of these military-related influences is the Ogham alphabet of the "Old Irish people", that was first invented -most probably- in 4th century Irish settlements in west Wales after contact and intermarriage with Romanized Britons with a knowledge of the Latin alphabet. In fact, several ogham stones in Wales are bilingual, containing both Irish and Brythonic-Latin (an ancestor of contemporary Welsh), testifying to the Irish Celtic contact that led to the existence of some of these stones.[8]
Roman presence in Hibernia?
The theory that Romans landed in Ireland has emerged in the last years. Historian Di Martino wrote in his book "Roman Ireland" that Agricola promoted an exploratory expedition to Hibernia, in a similar way to what did Nero in 61 AD when sent a group of legionaries to explore southern Sudan in order to organize a following military expedition -never done because of his death- to conquest Ethiopia.[9]
Indeed, the Roman historian Tacitus mentions that Agricola, while governor of Roman Britain (AD 78 - 84), considered conquering Ireland, believing it could be held with one legion plus auxiliaries and entertained an exiled Irish prince, thinking to use him as a pretext for a possible conquest of Ireland.[10] This Roman author tells us that around those years Agricola had with him an Irish chieftain (may be Tuathal Techtmar) who later returned to conquer Ireland with an army. Excavations at sites linked to the tale of Tuathal have produced Roman material of the late 1st or early 2nd centuries. It would be consistent for Tuathal to have been that Irish chieftain.
Neither Agricola nor his successors ever conquered Ireland, but in recent years archaeology has challenged the belief that the Romans never set foot on the island. Roman and Romano-British artefacts have been found primarily in Leinster, notably a fortified site on the promontory of Drumanagh, fifteen miles north of Dublin, and burials on the nearby island of Lambay, both close to where Tuathal Techtmar is supposed to have landed, and other sites associated with Túathal such as Tara and Clogher.
However, whether this is evidence of trade, diplomacy or military activity is a matter of controversy. It is possible that the Romans may have given support to Túathal, or someone like him, to regain his throne in the interests of having a friendly neighbour who could restrain Irish raiding.[11]
Furthermore, the 2nd century Roman poet Juvenal, who may have served in Britain under Agricola, wrote that "arms had been taken beyond the shores of Iuverna (Hibernia)",[12] and the coincidence of dates is striking. Although Juvenal is not writing history, it is possible that he is referring to a genuine Roman military expedition to Ireland, according to Philip Freeman [13].
It is also speculated that such an invasion may have been the origin of the presence of the Brigantes in Ireland as noted in Ptolemy's 2nd century Geography. The Brigantes were a rebellious British tribe only recently conquered in Agricola's time. The dispossessed nobility may have been ready recruits for Tuathal's invasion force, or the Romans may have found it a convenient way of getting rid of troublesome subjects, just as Elizabeth I and James VI & I planted rebellious Scots in Ireland in the 16th and 17th century. Other tribal names associated with the south-east, including the Domnainn, related to the British Dumnonii, and the Menapii, also known from Gaul (Roman France), may also date from such an invasion.[14]
Furthermore, historian Hughes believe (even if there it is another huge scholar controversy about) that another Roman military campaign - done by Britannia governor Maximus in 225 - started landing in Leinster (the region of Drumanagh) and led to the establishment of Cashel (from the latin "castrum" or "castellum"), now a key town in Tipperary.[15]
Roman Church influence
Gaelic raids too certainly played a part in spreading at least a limited form of Romanization. In fact, one raid in particular turned out to have one of the most significant historical impacts on the culture of Ireland....One such raid involved the capture of a young man by name of Patrick. At 16 years of age, around 405 AD, Patrick was brought to Ireland as a slave, where he stayed for six years, performing tasks of manual labor. In that time, the young man discovered Christianity, and after escaping to Britain, took up the cause of the church with zeal. After receiving a formal Catholic education and priesthood in Britain, he returned to Ireland as a Bishop in 432 AD, and steadily spread the conversion of Christianity to the population. Patrick, later Saint Patrick the Patron Saint of Ireland, made a profound impact on the social and political environment of Hibernia. In spreading the highly organized and systematic Catholic Church, he spread a measure of Romanization that had never occurred there. With the coming of the Church, and the eventual fall of the Druids, literacy and the written language spread as well. Monasteries and schools were established, and even some members of the resistant Irish nobility were converted during Patrick's lifetime. While the rest of the Western Roman Empire crumbled, at the time of Patrick's death in 461 AD, Ireland was finally just becoming the ideal Romanized 'province'. By the time the Imperial government in Rome had fallen, and Western Europe was entering a 'dark age', Ireland was being enlightened by its new found faith and literacy and entered into its own "Golden Age".[16]
Rome did not "conquer" Hibernia with the legions of the Roman Empire, but with the faith of Missionaries of the Roman Catholicism, as Theodore Mommsen wrote.[17]
Indeed Ireland was culturally Romanized after Saint Patrick and Saint Palladius spread the conversion of Christianity in all Hibernia during the fifth century. One of the first churchs in Hibernia was founded by Saint Palladius in 420 AD, with the name House of the Romans (Teach-na-Roman, actual Tigroney).[18]
The romano-british Saint Patrick promoted the creation of monasteries in Hibernia and the older druid tradition collapsed, in the face of the new religion brought by him[19]. In the monastic culture that followed the Christianisation of Ireland, Latin learning was preserved in Ireland during the Early Middle Ages in contrast to elsewhere in Europe, where the Dark Ages followed the decline of the Roman Empire.[19][20]
References
- ^ Richard Warner "Tuathal Techtmar: a myth or ancient literary evidence for a Roman invasion?
- ^ Map of Hibernia in 100 AD, where can be seen Tara and the "Brigantes" tribe of Roman Britain
- ^ Carson, R.A.G. and O'Kelly, Claire: A catalogue of the Roman coins from Newgrange, Co. Meath and notes on the coins and related finds, pages 35-55. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, volume 77, section C
- ^ Thomas Charles-Edwards. Early Christian Ireland pp.145-154
- ^ Saint Palladius
- ^ Hibernia nobility clothes
- ^ Drumanagh
- ^ The New Companion to the Literature of Wales, by Meic Stephens, page 540; http://ogham.lyberty.com/mackillop.html
- ^ Nero exploratory expedition
- ^ Tacitus Agricola 24
- ^ Vittorio di Martino, Roman Ireland, The Collins Press, 2006
- ^ Juvenal, Satires 2.159-160
- ^ Philip Freeman, Ireland and the Classical World, University of Texas Press, 2001, pp. 62-64
- ^ R. B. Warner, "Tuathal Techtmar: A Myth of Ancient Literary Evidence for a Roman Invasion?", Emania 13, 1995, pp. 23-32
- ^ The British Chronicles, p. 112
- ^ UNRV History: Hibernia
- ^ Mommsen Theodore. The Provinces of the Roman Empire. Chapter five: "Britain"
- ^ Saint Palladius
- ^ a b Cahill, Tim (1996). How the Irish Saved Civilization. Anchor Books. ISBN 0385418493.
- ^ Dowley, Tim; et al., eds. (1977). Eerdman's Handbook to the History of Christianity. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. ISBN 0-8028-3450-7.
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Bibliography
- Cahill, Tim. How the Irish Saved Civilization. Anchor Books. London, 1996. ISBN 0385418493
- Charles-Edwards, Thomas. Early Christian Ireland. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, 2000.
- Cooney, Gabriel. Ireland, the Romans and all that from Archaeology Ireland, Spring 1996.
- Di Martino, Vittorio. Roman Ireland, The Collins Press. London, 2003.
- Hughes, David. The British Chronicles. Heritage Books, 2007 ISBN 0788444905
- Freeman, Philip. Ireland and the Classical World. University of Texas Press. Houston, 2001
- Swift, C. Ogam Stones and the Earliest Irish Christians. Maynooth: Dept. of Old and Middle Irish, St. Patrick's College, 1997. ISBN 0-901519-98-7
