ALBION (in

See also:

• PTOLEMY (CLAUDIUS PTOLEMAEUS)

Ptolemy 'A)wviw;

See also:

• LAT

Lat. Albion,

See also:

• PLINY, THE ELDER
• PLINY, THE YOUNGER

Pliny 4.16[301,102)  , the most ancient name of the British Islands, though generally restricted to England . The name is perhaps of Celtic origin, but the Romans took it as connected with albus, white, in reference to the chalk-cliffs of Dover, and A . Holder (Alt-Keltischer Sprachschaiz,1896) unhesitatingly translates it Weissland, " white-land." The early writer (6th cent . B.C.) whose periplus is translated by Avienus (end of 4th cent . A.D.) does not use the name Britannia; he speaks of vitros 'Rpvwv Kai 'AX13i5vwv (" island of the Ierni and the Albiones ") . So Pytheas of Massilia (4th cent . B.C.) speaks of "AAj3wv and 'Rpvrt . From the fact that there was a tribe called the Albiones on the north coast of Spain in Asturia, some scholars have placed Albion in that neighbourhood (see G . F . Unger, Rhein . Mus. xxxviii., 1883, pp . 156-196) .

The name Albion was taken by

medieval writers from Pliny and Ptolemy .