HIBERNIA  , in

ancient geography, one of the names by which Ireland was known to Greek and Roman writers . Other names were lerne, Iuverna, Iberio . All these are adaptations of a stem from which also Erin is descended . The island was well known to the Romans through the reports of traders, so far at least as its coasts . But it never became part of the Roman empire . Agricola (about A.D . 8o) planned its conquest, which he judged an easy task, but the Roman government vetoed the enterprise . During the Roman occupation of Britain, Irish pirates seem to have been an intermittent nuisance, and Irish emigrants may have settled occasionally in Wales; the best attested emigration is that of the Scots into Caledonia . It was only in post-Roman days that Roman civilization, brought perhaps by Christian missionaries like Patrick, entered the island .