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Hiberno-Roman relations refers to the relationships (mainly commercial and cultural) which existed betweenIreland (Hibernia) and the ancientRoman Empire, which lasted from the 1st century BC to the 5th century AD in Western Europe. Ireland was one of the few areas of westernEurope not conquered byAncient Rome.
Rome never annexed Hibernia (theLatin name for Ireland) into the Roman Empire, but did exert influence on the island, although only a small amount of evidence of this has survived.[citation needed]
This influence was expressed in three characteristic ways: commercial; cultural and religious; and military.
The relationship between Rome and Hibernia was mostly commercial. In 1995, scholar Richard Warner wrote that after emperorClaudius' invasion of southernBritannia, the trade routes between theMediterranean Sea andRoman Britannia encompassed even Hibernia.[1] The geographerPtolemy, in his map of the 1st century AD, pinpointed the coastal settlements and tribes of Ireland, showing a knowledge that (it is suggested) only merchants could have achieved in that century. Additionally, there are many Roman archaeological objects (mainlyjewellery andRoman coins) found in areas of central and southern Ireland (such asTara andCashel), that reveal a relationship. Roman coins have also been found atNewgrange.[2]
According to the theory ofThomas Charles-Edwards, who wrote about theIrish Dark Age, between the 1st and 3rd century there was a depopulatingslave trade from Hibernia toward richRoman Britain, that had an economy based onvilla farming and wantedslaves to perform the heaviest labour in agriculture.[3] As the empire declined, this relationship may have reversed, as the biography ofSaint Patrick suggests, and the Irish ofLate Antiquity may have anticipated the later role of IrishVikings as raiders across the Irish Sea.
The religious influence of the late Roman Empire involved the conversion toChristianity of many Irish people before the arrival ofSaint Patrick in the century when theWestern Roman Empire disappeared.[4] The first reliable historical event in Irish history, recorded in theChronicle ofProsper of Aquitaine, is the ordination byPope Celestine I ofPalladius as the first bishop to Irish Christians in 431 - which demonstrates that there were already Christians living in Ireland, before Palladius or Patrick. Prosper says in hisContra Collatorem that by this act Celestine "made the barbarian island Christian", although it is clear theChristianisation of Ireland was a longer and more gradual process.
Apart from the introduction of a new religion, the cultural influence from Rome can be seen even in the clothes (and glades) of high-ranking people inside Celtic tribes of the 3rd and 4th centuries.[5] TheOghamalphabet andwriting system (which was probably first invented in the 4th century at Irish settlements in westWales), may have been derived from theLatin alphabet after contact and intermarriage withRomanized Britons with a knowledge of written Latin however this is disputed by some scholars.[citation needed] In fact, severalOgham stones inWales arebilingual, containing bothOld Irish and Latin-influencedBrythonic (the ancestor of contemporaryWelsh) inscriptions.[6]
There is some evidence of possible exploratory expeditions during the time ofGnaeus Julius Agricola, although the interpretation of this is a matter of debate amongst historians. In places likeDrumanagh (interpreted by some historians to be the site of a possibleRoman fort or temporary camp) andLambay island, some Roman military-related finds may be evidence for some form of Roman presence.[7] The most commonly advanced interpretation is that any military presence was to provide security for traders, possibly in the form of an annual market where Romano-British and Irish met to trade. Other interpretations, however, suggest these may be merely Roman trading outposts, or native Irish settlements which traded with Roman Britain. Later, during the collapse of Roman authority in the 4th and 5th centuries, Irish tribes raided Britain and may have brought back Roman knowledge ofclassical civilization.[citation needed]
The Roman historianTacitus mentions thatAgricola, while governor ofRoman Britain (AD 78 - 84), considered conquering Ireland, believing it could be held with onelegion plusauxiliaries. He entertained an exiled "regulus", a petty king from Ireland, thinking to use him as a pretext for a possible invasion of Ireland.[8] This chieftain has been identified withTúathal Techtmar, who, in a 9th century poem, is reported to have been driven out of Ireland by a revolt, later returning with an army to conquer Ireland.[9]
The 2nd-century Roman poetJuvenal, who may have served in Britain under Agricola, wrote that "arms had been taken beyond the shores ofIuverna (Hibernia)".[10] This may refer to a genuine Roman military expedition to Ireland.[11]
Roman and Romano-British artefacts datable to the late 1st or early 2nd centuries have been found, primarily inLeinster and notably in a fortified site on the promontory ofDrumanagh, fifteen miles north ofDublin, and burials on the nearby island ofLambay, both close to where Túathal Techtmar might plausibly have landed, and also at other sites associated with Túathal such as Tara andClogher.[12] It is possible that the Romans may have given support to an Irish chieftain to regain his throne, in the interests of having a friendly neighbour who could restrain raiding from Ireland.[13]
Such an invasion may have been the reason why theBrigantes are recorded in Ireland, as noted inPtolemy's 2nd century Geography. The Brigantes were a rebelliousBritish tribe, only recently conquered in Agricola's time. The dispossessed nobility may have been ready recruits for Túathal's invasion force, and the Romans might have found this a convenient way of getting rid of troublesome subjects, just asElizabeth Iplanted English in Ireland andJames VI & I planted Scots in Ireland in the 16th and 17th century. Other tribal names associated with south-eastern Ireland, including theDomnainn, related to the British tribal nameDumnonii, and theMenapii, a name also known fromGaul (Roman France), may also date from such an invasion.[14]
Irish religious belief and practices became Romanised afterSaint Patrick andSaint Palladius began the slow process of spreading Christianity throughout Hibernia in the 5th century. One of the first churches in Hibernia was founded by Saint Palladius in 420 AD, with the nameHouse of the Romans (Teach-na-Roman, actual Tigroney).[4] However, actual contacts with Rome and Italy seem to have been erratic for much of this period, and there were also contacts with Egyptian Christianity.
TheRomano-British Saint Patrick promoted the creation ofmonasteries in Hibernia and the olderdruid tradition collapsed, in the face of the new religion he brought.[15] In the monastic culture that followed the Christianisation of Ireland,Latin learning was preserved in Ireland during theEarly Middle Ages in contrast to some other parts of Europe, where the period popularly referred to as theDark Ages followed theloss of Roman imperial authority over Western Europe.[15][16] However, the concept of a period in which knowledge was lost and regression occurred in post-Roman Europe during the Early Middle Ages is no longer accepted by historians. In those monasteries,Hiberno-Latin was a learned sort ofLatin literature created and spread by Irish monks during the period from the 6th to the 10th centuries.
Territories with limitedRoman Empire occupation and contact | ||
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