# The Real Reason Rome Never Conquered Ireland

An episode of [Human History ASMR](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6793196842), 30 Sep 2026, 1 h 07 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/75116791/the_real_reason_rome_never_conquered_ireland_human_voiced_no_ads.mp3

Journey to the western edge of the Roman world and discover why Ireland remained beyond the permanent reach of Rome. While Roman armies conquered Britain and established a powerful frontier across the island, Ireland was never formally incorporated into the Roman Empire. This episode explores the geography, politics, military realities, and historical circumstances behind that decision. Discover what Roman writers actually knew about Ireland, or Hibernia, and how the Romans viewed the island and its people. Explore the accounts of ancient authors such as Tacitus and Ptolemy, the evidence for Roman contact with Ireland, and what archaeology can reveal about trade, migration, diplomacy, and cultural connections across the Irish Sea. The episode examines whether Rome ever seriously considered invading Ireland. Explore the Roman presence in Britain, the strategic importance of the Irish Sea, the role of client kingdoms, and the possibility of military expeditions or reconnaissance missions. Discover the evidence surrounding Agricola's famous comments about Ireland and why historians continue to debate what Roman involvement may actually have looked like. Geography was only part of the story. Explore Ireland's rugged landscape, dispersed settlements, lack of major urban centers, and the challenges of supplying an army across the sea. Compare these difficulties with the enormous military and financial commitments required to conquer and hold Britain, and consider whether Ireland offered enough strategic or economic value to justify another major Roman campaign. Politics also mattered. Rome was not simply an empire that conquered every territory within reach. Roman rulers constantly had to balance military ambition with rebellions, rival powers, finances, frontier security, and political priorities elsewhere. This episode explores how these pressures may have influenced Rome's decision to maintain relationships and indirect influence rather than pursue outright conquest. Drawing on Roman literary sources, archaeological discoveries, coins, settlement evidence, inscriptions, ancient maps, and modern historical scholarship, this episode separates established facts from theories about possible Roman expeditions into Ireland. Discover what we know, what remains uncertain, and why Ireland ultimately stayed outside the Roman Empire. Narrated with a calm, human voice, this immersive journey is perfect for history enthusiasts, Roman history lovers, Celtic history fans, archaeology listeners, relaxation, or listening before sleep. Explore the fascinating story of the island Rome never conquered.

## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: The Roman Empire at its height, legions patrolled from the
[0:05] Speaker 1: Sahara to the frontiers of Scotland. The Imperial Eagle soars
[0:11] Speaker 1: over countless conquered lands. Yet, one land on the Empire's
[0:18] Speaker 1: very doorstep remained conspicuously unconquered. That land is Ireland, known
[0:28] Speaker 1: to the Romans as Hibernia. So how is it that Rome,
[0:33] Speaker 1: which subjugated far-flung regions of Europe and even crossed the
[0:37] Speaker 1: sea to conquer Britain, never bothered to add Ireland to
[0:41] Speaker 1: its dominion? That is quite a tantalising question, and I
[0:47] Speaker 1: assume you're interested in answering that question, since you are
[0:50] Speaker 1: here with the rest of us. So today we're going
[0:53] Speaker 1: to explore Rome's contacts with Ireland from the first hints
[0:57] Speaker 1: in ancient writings, all the way up to the 4th
[1:00] Speaker 1: century CE. And we'll talk about the reasons why Ireland
[1:05] Speaker 1: was never really brought under Roman rule. Of course, it's
[1:10] Speaker 1: through the perspective of Roman geographers and historians, too. And
[1:15] Speaker 1: we'll examine archaeological clues of trade and contact as well.
[1:19] Speaker 1: It all comes together to analyse the strategic and practical
[1:23] Speaker 1: considerations that go into our reasoning behind our main answers
[1:28] Speaker 1: of why Rome did not quite manage to conquer them.
[1:32] Speaker 1: But the story of Roman-Irish relations is not one of
[1:36] Speaker 1: pitched battles and legions on the march, but rather of
[1:41] Speaker 1: glancing encounters, a shared curiosity, and almost a calculated Roman
[1:48] Speaker 1: indifference to conquest, an indifference that would ultimately shape Ireland's
[1:53] Speaker 1: very unique path in antiquity. I think by the end
[1:58] Speaker 1: we'll see. that the absence of Rome in Ireland was
[2:02] Speaker 1: not just a simple accident of history, but a rather
[2:05] Speaker 1: complex outcome of economics, geography, politics, and I suppose a
[2:12] Speaker 1: little bit of cultural exchange too. But before we begin,
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[3:04] Speaker 1: with all that in mind, welcome's out of the way.
[3:07] Speaker 1: Let's get to the video for today. So how did
[3:12] Speaker 1: it all begin? Did the Romans just stumble upon Ireland
[3:17] Speaker 1: by accident, completely unaware? No, they did not. You see,
[3:24] Speaker 1: by the time of the late Republic and the early Empire,
[3:28] Speaker 1: The island was already known, at least by hearsay, to
[3:33] Speaker 1: these Mediterranean geographers. In fact, the earliest references don't come
[3:39] Speaker 1: from the Romans, but from the Greeks who were even
[3:42] Speaker 1: further away. Pytheas of Massalia, a Greek explorer in the
[3:48] Speaker 1: 4th century BCE, reportedly sailed to the far north and
[3:53] Speaker 1: mentioned an island called Aionae. Though Pythias' own writings are lost,
[4:00] Speaker 1: later classical authors preserved fragments of this account. This Ione
[4:06] Speaker 1: almost certainly referred to Ireland, suggesting that seafarers had some
[4:11] Speaker 1: notion of the island's existence long before Rome's expansion reached
[4:15] Speaker 1: the Atlantic. The name, of course, would echo through Greek
[4:19] Speaker 1: and Roman literature in various forms. Ione, Iuverna, and then Hibernia.
[4:28] Speaker 1: as different writers tried to describe this distant land on
[4:32] Speaker 1: the edges of the known world. Early descriptions of Ireland
[4:37] Speaker 1: were a blend of vague geography and a bit of
[4:40] Speaker 1: lurid folklore. Greek geographer Strabo, writing in the early first
[4:46] Speaker 1: century CE, admitted, concerning this island, I have nothing certain
[4:51] Speaker 1: to tell. Well, at least he's honest. A pretty candid warning,
[4:57] Speaker 1: that much of what followed was second-hand and dubious. Strabo
[5:02] Speaker 1: then relayed some startling claims, according to reports, the inhabitants
[5:06] Speaker 1: of Erne were more savage than the Britons, cannibals even,
[5:13] Speaker 1: who feasted on the flesh of their dead fathers and
[5:17] Speaker 1: engaged in incestuous practices. He immediately cautioned that he had
[5:25] Speaker 1: No trustworthy witnesses for these tales, however, implying that such
[5:30] Speaker 1: accounts were likely exaggerated travellers' tales. In other words, the
[5:38] Speaker 1: source is, just trust me, bro, notoriously reliable. The image
[5:45] Speaker 1: of Ireland in these early sources was thus tinged with
[5:49] Speaker 1: the fantastical, a barbaric land at the very fringe of
[5:54] Speaker 1: the world cold, covered in forest, inhabited by people who
[6:02] Speaker 1: supposedly defied the norms of civilized behavior. But not all
[6:09] Speaker 1: ancient commentators focused on these gory tales, or perhaps we
[6:13] Speaker 1: can put them into the category of myth. Some gave
[6:16] Speaker 1: more practical, if still imperfect, geographic details. Julius Caesar, I'm
[6:23] Speaker 1: sure you've heard of him, the famous Roman general and
[6:27] Speaker 1: part-time chronicler of the Gallic Wars. He never personally set
[6:31] Speaker 1: foot in Ireland, but he did observe it from afar
[6:35] Speaker 1: during his expeditions to Britain in 55-54 BCE. In his
[6:41] Speaker 1: Commentary on the Gallic War, Caesar provides the first Latin
[6:45] Speaker 1: reference to the island as Hibernia. He notes that Hibernia
[6:50] Speaker 1: is half the size of Britain. and correctly situates it
[6:55] Speaker 1: to the west of Britain. This is a brief but
[6:59] Speaker 1: significant description. It shows that by Caesar's time, the Romans
[7:03] Speaker 1: understood Ireland's general location and relative scale. Unlike Strabo, Caesar
[7:10] Speaker 1: doesn't recount any scandalous anecdotes about cannibals. Being a pragmatic
[7:16] Speaker 1: military observer, he was a little bit more interested in geography. Still,
[7:22] Speaker 1: Caesar himself did not attempt to cross the Irish Sea.
[7:27] Speaker 1: His focus was on subduing the Britons and Hibernia. Well,
[7:33] Speaker 1: it remained just a distant, green outline on the horizon.
[7:39] Speaker 1: In the decades after Caesar, however, as Roman influence expanded
[7:43] Speaker 1: in Britain, knowledge of Ireland grew gradually. A Roman poet,
[7:50] Speaker 1: Diodorus Siculus, writing in the first century BCE echoed some
[7:55] Speaker 1: of the sensational reports about Ireland's inhabitants eating human flesh.
[8:01] Speaker 1: Likely drawing on the same pool of traveller's tales that
[8:04] Speaker 1: had influenced Strabo in earlier times. Perhaps so. We don't
[8:10] Speaker 1: know how, well, widespread these stories were. It's definitely hard
[8:17] Speaker 1: to tell when it comes to things like hearsay. Now,
[8:21] Speaker 1: on the other hand, geographers... in the early empire started
[8:26] Speaker 1: to compile more sober accounts, I suppose, at least by comparison.
[8:32] Speaker 1: Around the mid-first century CE, Pomponius Mela, a Roman geographer,
[8:37] Speaker 1: included Ireland, which he called Euverna in his Description of
[8:42] Speaker 1: the World. Mela's depiction is noteworthy for its focus on
[8:47] Speaker 1: the land's fertility, rather than its alleged cannibalism. Which, well,
[8:56] Speaker 1: you think that they would be mentioning the cannibalism if
[8:58] Speaker 1: it was happening that much. You think that every single
[9:02] Speaker 1: mention of Ireland would have it. So, yeah, I'm not
[9:05] Speaker 1: really sure if I believe that. Anyway, he wrote that
[9:11] Speaker 1: Ireland's climate was too wet for growing grain. But, quote,
[9:17] Speaker 1: the grass there grows so luxuriantly that cattle would burst.
[9:23] Speaker 1: if not kept in check from overeating. This vivid agrarian
[9:28] Speaker 1: hyperbole suggests the travellers returning from the Northern Seas impressed
[9:32] Speaker 1: upon the Romans in the image of Ireland as a
[9:35] Speaker 1: very green place. Now, of course, we all know that.
[9:41] Speaker 1: Perhaps it's an early hint of the Emerald Isle reputation.
[9:45] Speaker 1: And yes, Ireland is very, very green. Of course, a
[9:51] Speaker 1: lot greener in the past, where things were covered with forest,
[9:55] Speaker 1: that's for sure. But still, the countryside of Ireland... which
[10:00] Speaker 1: I have unfortunately only seen from pictures and videos, yes,
[10:06] Speaker 1: it does look quite green and lovely. The Emerald Isle, indeed. Well,
[10:12] Speaker 1: Miller's account implies that while Ireland might have been seen
[10:16] Speaker 1: as less civilized than provincial Britain. It was certainly not
[10:21] Speaker 1: a barren wasteland. And on the contrary, it was a
[10:25] Speaker 1: land of rich pastures, albeit damp and misty. Would you
[10:31] Speaker 1: think a land of rich pastures would be the kind
[10:34] Speaker 1: of place that Rome would want to conquer? I mean,
[10:38] Speaker 1: look how hard-fought Egypt was, the breadbasket going across the Mediterranean,
[10:45] Speaker 1: You'd think such rich pastures, they'd be thinking, well, perhaps
[10:49] Speaker 1: Ireland can be the breadbasket of the more northern parts
[10:53] Speaker 1: of the empire. Britannia, Spain, Gaul, that kind of thing.
[11:01] Speaker 1: Logic would dictate that. But such early references such as
[11:06] Speaker 1: this reveal quite a pattern. The Romans knew of Ireland's existence,
[11:10] Speaker 1: that's for sure, and its general character. long before they
[11:15] Speaker 1: even contemplated any direct action in the region. The island
[11:20] Speaker 1: was firmly on the mental map of the educated Roman
[11:23] Speaker 1: by the first century CE. It was positioned sometimes incorrectly
[11:29] Speaker 1: on their maps. Strabo, for instance, thought Ireland lay roughly
[11:33] Speaker 1: parallel north of Britain, whereas in reality it's more to
[11:37] Speaker 1: the west. A geographical misplacement, perhaps, due to limited exploration,
[11:42] Speaker 1: but You gotta judge by the status of the time,
[11:45] Speaker 1: I suppose. Give them a break. But these classical authors
[11:49] Speaker 1: established Ireland as that other large island beyond Britain, a
[11:56] Speaker 1: land perceived as colder and less developed, but undeniably part
[12:01] Speaker 1: of the Atlantic world that Rome was slowly encroaching upon.
[12:08] Speaker 1: Now this entire background is really crucial for understanding the
[12:11] Speaker 1: choices that Rome made in later times. When the Romans
[12:16] Speaker 1: eventually stood victorious, once again quite hard fought in Britain,
[12:21] Speaker 1: and looked further west, they were not peering into the
[12:24] Speaker 1: complete unknown. Ibernia was already whispered about in the ports
[12:31] Speaker 1: and forums of the empire, and perhaps with those different
[12:36] Speaker 1: to perhaps embellished, tales of the cannibalism, the savagery, and
[12:40] Speaker 1: all the rest. Perhaps looking out was quite a nervous feeling.
[12:48] Speaker 1: But although Rome never conquered Ireland, it's a mistake to
[12:53] Speaker 1: think that there was no contact at all. In fact,
[12:56] Speaker 1: as Rome's power grew in Britain in the first and
[12:58] Speaker 1: second centuries, commercial and cultural links across the Irish Sea
[13:04] Speaker 1: seemed to have flourished quite well. And Ireland, yes, it
[13:08] Speaker 1: was an island, but it did not exist in isolation. Rather,
[13:15] Speaker 1: it was a part of a network of seaways that
[13:18] Speaker 1: connected Western Europe. And we got archaeology to prove that.
[13:23] Speaker 1: Finds from that sphere and later historical accounts suggest that traders, sailors,
[13:27] Speaker 1: and possibly diplomatic envoys were crossing between Britain and Ireland
[13:32] Speaker 1: with increasing frequency during the Roman period. One of the
[13:38] Speaker 1: most telling pieces of evidence for the Romano-Irish contact is
[13:42] Speaker 1: found in the work of Claudius Ptolemy, that is a
[13:45] Speaker 1: Greek-Egyptian geographer of the 2nd century CE. Ptolemy's Geography, written
[13:53] Speaker 1: around the mid-100s CE, provides a remarkably detailed description of
[13:58] Speaker 1: Ireland's coastline and the tribes that were there at the time.
[14:03] Speaker 1: He lists the names of numerous peoples, tribal groups, that is,
[14:07] Speaker 1: and towns and settlements in Ireland, and even attempts to
[14:11] Speaker 1: give their coordinates. For example, Ptolemy names tribes like the
[14:16] Speaker 1: Brigantes in the southeast, the Menapi in the south, the
[14:21] Speaker 1: Velabri and Iverni or Erein in the southwest, and many
[14:26] Speaker 1: others along the rivers in the headlands. Now, this level
[14:29] Speaker 1: of detail is quite striking, considering that Ptolemy was writing
[14:33] Speaker 1: not from Ireland itself, but from Alexandria, far from the Atlantic.
[14:40] Speaker 1: So how on earth did he gather such information? Did
[14:43] Speaker 1: he just make it up? Well, not quite. The consensus,
[14:52] Speaker 1: at least for now, is that Ptolemy was drawing on
[14:55] Speaker 1: reports from merchants and sailors who had circumnavigated or at
[15:00] Speaker 1: least traded around the islands of Britain and Ireland. The
[15:06] Speaker 1: inclusion of tribal names that have clear parallels in Britain
[15:10] Speaker 1: or Gaul, such as the Brigantes and the Menapi, hints
[15:13] Speaker 1: at movements of people or close connections. Let's take, for instance,
[15:19] Speaker 1: the Brigantes. They were a well-known tribe in Roman Britain,
[15:23] Speaker 1: and finding a group with the same name in Ireland
[15:26] Speaker 1: suggests either migration or perhaps a cultural link across the sea.
[15:32] Speaker 1: Ptolemy's map of Ibonia is imperfect. but give him a break,
[15:37] Speaker 1: all ancient maps were, so we can't really judge him
[15:40] Speaker 1: by too much of a modern standard. But what it
[15:44] Speaker 1: does do, and does quite well, is demonstrate that by
[15:47] Speaker 1: the second century, Rome certainly had a knowledge of Ireland's geography,
[15:52] Speaker 1: albeit gleaned through commerce. Irish harbours and promontories were known
[16:00] Speaker 1: to those who ventured out of Roman Britain on trading missions,
[16:05] Speaker 1: and trade that is further evidenced by archaeological discoveries in Ireland.
[16:12] Speaker 1: Roman artefacts, especially luxury goods and coins, have been found
[16:17] Speaker 1: in surprisingly quite a few sites across Ireland, concentrated in
[16:22] Speaker 1: the first few centuries CE, of course. For example, Roman
[16:26] Speaker 1: coins from the first and second centuries have turned up
[16:29] Speaker 1: in places like Newgrange, the famous prehistoric a prehistoric tomb, rather,
[16:35] Speaker 1: in County Meath, Tara, of course, a traditional seat of
[16:39] Speaker 1: Irish high kings, and Cashel in Munster. These coins were
[16:45] Speaker 1: likely not currency in the local economy, but may have
[16:48] Speaker 1: arrived as gifts, payments, or even souvenirs via trade or diplomacy. Similarly,
[16:55] Speaker 1: Roman jewellery and glass beads found in Irish contexts indicate
[17:00] Speaker 1: that high-status natives had access to Roman manufacturers. But such
[17:06] Speaker 1: items could have come through direct trade or through intermediary
[17:11] Speaker 1: markets in Roman Britain. But the sheer variety of Roman goods,
[17:16] Speaker 1: ranging from courseware pottery shards to fine wine amphorae and
[17:20] Speaker 1: even enamelled brooches— suggests a pretty regular exchange of material culture.
[17:25] Speaker 1: Ireland likely exported their own things in return, of course,
[17:32] Speaker 1: though the archaeological record is less clear on what those
[17:35] Speaker 1: actually were. We do hear hints in later writings that
[17:40] Speaker 1: slaves were a notable export from Ireland, which is rather unfortunate.
[17:46] Speaker 1: One theory suggests that Irish raiders or middlemen captured slaves
[17:50] Speaker 1: from their own island, or from Britain, and sold them
[17:54] Speaker 1: into a thriving slave market system in Rome and Britain,
[17:58] Speaker 1: or even further afield. Conversely, Ireland might have exported hides,
[18:04] Speaker 1: hunting dogs too. The Irish wolfhounds became quite famed in
[18:09] Speaker 1: Rome by the 4th century, as we shall see, and
[18:12] Speaker 1: perhaps agricultural products or raw materials. Roman writers themselves acknowledged
[18:20] Speaker 1: these peaceful interactions, Tacitus, the great Roman historian, in writing
[18:25] Speaker 1: about his father-in-law's campaigns, more on that soon, noted that
[18:30] Speaker 1: the harbors and approaches of Hibernia are all well known
[18:35] Speaker 1: through the merchants. Now this single line is revealing. By
[18:40] Speaker 1: around 80 CE, when Tacitus says his knowledge was current,
[18:45] Speaker 1: Roman and provincial traders were evidently venturing to Irish shores.
[18:51] Speaker 1: implies that Ireland was not seen as a land of
[18:53] Speaker 1: potential enemies, but rather a place to do business. The
[18:58] Speaker 1: approaches being known mean sailors had charted safe routes and
[19:04] Speaker 1: knew of anchorages, which only happens with repeated voyages, of course.
[19:09] Speaker 1: You don't find that by luck. And indeed, there is
[19:12] Speaker 1: reason to believe that after the Roman conquest of Britain,
[19:16] Speaker 1: begun in 43 CE under Emperor Claudius, by the way,
[19:20] Speaker 1: trade routes in the Irish Sea became quite a lot busier.
[19:24] Speaker 1: The Roman province of Britannia had a voracious economy that
[19:29] Speaker 1: could absorb resources from beyond its formal borders. Irish cattle, wool,
[19:35] Speaker 1: leather and slaves, they might have found their ways into
[19:39] Speaker 1: markets in Chester, Carleon and London, and in return Roman-made
[19:44] Speaker 1: goods trickled into the Gallic chiefs' ring forts and granogues.
[19:50] Speaker 1: But we should not think of this trade as entirely equal,
[19:55] Speaker 1: or even always friendly. Smugglers and pirates likely plied the
[20:00] Speaker 1: same waters. But overall, Ireland and Rome experienced substantial cultural
[20:06] Speaker 1: contact without the legions ever needing to set foot on
[20:10] Speaker 1: Irish soil to establish dominance. The influence of Rome could
[20:14] Speaker 1: thus reach Ireland in more subtle ways. For instance, Roman
[20:19] Speaker 1: coins might be melted down into ornaments by Irish smiths,
[20:23] Speaker 1: Roman glass repurposed into jewellery. There's even linguistic evidence of
[20:28] Speaker 1: borrowing Latin words entered early Irish, suggesting ongoing communication. In fact,
[20:35] Speaker 1: the Latin word Sagittarius, meaning archer, seems to appear as
[20:40] Speaker 1: a loanword on an Ogham-inscribed stone, hinting perhaps Irish warriors
[20:46] Speaker 1: who had entered the Roman archers or conceptions of military roles.
[20:52] Speaker 1: Either way, by the late 4th century, Christianity had started
[20:56] Speaker 1: making its way to Ireland from the Roman world, well
[21:00] Speaker 1: before St. Patrick's Mission, of course, another form of contact
[21:04] Speaker 1: that was religious rather than military, although sometimes the two
[21:10] Speaker 1: go hand in hand. All these interactions paint a picture
[21:14] Speaker 1: of Hibernia not as a completely isolated, lost frontier, but
[21:19] Speaker 1: rather as a neighbour to the Roman Empire, that was
[21:24] Speaker 1: in the Roman sphere economically and culturally, though not politically.
[21:29] Speaker 1: Perhaps a closed door, definitely not a locked one, depending
[21:36] Speaker 1: on the time perhaps left slightly ajar. But the situation
[21:40] Speaker 1: was not unique. You see, Rome often had spheres of
[21:44] Speaker 1: influence that extended beyond its formal frontiers, involving client chieftains,
[21:51] Speaker 1: trade partners and cultural exchange. In the case of Ireland,
[21:55] Speaker 1: such influence never escalated to outright annexation. But why was that?
[22:02] Speaker 1: You'd think that Rome, in their typical form, would just
[22:05] Speaker 1: find an excuse, a casus belli, a war justification. Well,
[22:11] Speaker 1: to understand why, we have to turn to the period
[22:13] Speaker 1: when Rome's gaze did momentarily flicker toward the idea of
[22:17] Speaker 1: conquering the island, and that was the era of Governor
[22:22] Speaker 1: Agricola in Britain. It was during the governorship of Neus
[22:30] Speaker 1: Julius Agricola in Britain, that being 77 to 84 CE,
[22:36] Speaker 1: that the Roman Empire came closest to contemplating the conquest
[22:41] Speaker 1: of Ireland. Not closest to conquesting it, just closest to
[22:46] Speaker 1: thinking about it. Agricola was an energetic general of sorts,
[22:52] Speaker 1: and incidentally the father-in-law of the historian Tacitus, who actually
[22:57] Speaker 1: wrote his biography. Bit of trivia for your ancient Roman
[23:01] Speaker 1: trivia nights down at the pub. Well, after consolidating Roman
[23:05] Speaker 1: rule in much of Britain, and pushing north into Caledonia,
[23:09] Speaker 1: that being Scotland, Agricola naturally surveyed the wider region for
[23:14] Speaker 1: any remaining threats or opportunities. Across the Irish Sea, Hibernia beckoned.
[23:23] Speaker 1: Tacitus provides a fascinating glimpse of Agricola's thoughts at the time.
[23:27] Speaker 1: Here's the direct quote from Tacitus. IRELAND lying between Britain
[23:35] Speaker 1: and Spain, and easily accessible from the coast of Gaul,
[23:40] Speaker 1: could be a valuable asset to bind our empire together. Well,
[23:46] Speaker 1: it somewhat summarises Agricola's strategic view on the whole situation.
[23:51] Speaker 1: Agricola had noted that Ireland's position could facilitate tighter control
[23:55] Speaker 1: over the north-western reaches of the Roman world. In essence,
[23:59] Speaker 1: occupying Ireland might complete Rome's encirclement of Britain, If Hibernia
[24:05] Speaker 1: were conquered, Tacitus observes, there would be no refuge left
[24:11] Speaker 1: for any rebellious Britons. The whole map would be covered
[24:17] Speaker 1: in Roman arms, and any hope of freedom for Rome's
[24:22] Speaker 1: enemies would be distinguished. Well, Agricola even had a pretext
[24:29] Speaker 1: ready for the whole situation. Tacitus tells us that he
[24:33] Speaker 1: welcomed at his court an exiled Irish Regulus, that being
[24:37] Speaker 1: a minor king, who had actually been driven out of
[24:41] Speaker 1: his homeland by internal strife. Agricola treated this Irish prince hospitably,
[24:48] Speaker 1: all the while considering him a potential puppet. The idea
[24:53] Speaker 1: was time-tested. This wasn't the first time this had happened.
[24:56] Speaker 1: Rome could install a friendly ruler and use that as
[25:00] Speaker 1: a justification to intervene militarily. As in, restoring the allies
[25:05] Speaker 1: right to the throne, that kind of thing. Putting things
[25:11] Speaker 1: back in their place, rather than shaking things up. But intriguingly,
[25:17] Speaker 1: later Irish legend speaks of a prince called Tuathal Techtmar,
[25:22] Speaker 1: who was exiled overseas and returned with a foreign army
[25:27] Speaker 1: to claim the kingship of Ireland. Some modern scholars say
[25:32] Speaker 1: have wondered if Twathaldekmar, though described in medieval Irish sources
[25:36] Speaker 1: much later, might dimly reflect this very episode. Perhaps he
[25:43] Speaker 1: was the exile at Agricola's camp, later romanticized in story
[25:49] Speaker 1: as the king who came back with Roman help. Now,
[25:52] Speaker 1: if that is true, if it is true, it does
[25:57] Speaker 1: suggest that at least one Irish noble actively sought Roman
[26:00] Speaker 1: aid to meddle in these Irish power struggles. A tantalising
[26:05] Speaker 1: hint of what might have been an Irish-Roman alliance of convenience.
[26:11] Speaker 1: Now Agricola, according to Tacitus, believed that Ireland would be
[26:16] Speaker 1: an easy conquest. Just walk right in with the eagle,
[26:20] Speaker 1: no problem. In one of Tacitus' most famous lines, he
[26:25] Speaker 1: reports that Agricola often said, quote, One legion, with a
[26:29] Speaker 1: few auxiliaries, would be enough to conquer and hold Hibernia. Hmm.
[26:37] Speaker 1: Goes back to that old hubris, doesn't it? Well, considering
[26:43] Speaker 1: the standard Roman legion was about 5,000 men, plus perhaps
[26:47] Speaker 1: a similar number of auxiliary troops, that is, non-citizen soldiers,
[26:52] Speaker 1: Agricola was estimating that maybe 10,000 troops could subdue the
[26:57] Speaker 1: whole of Ireland, which... in all fairness, was a pretty
[27:01] Speaker 1: modest force by Roman standards. And this comment has sparked
[27:05] Speaker 1: quite a bit of debate. Was Agricola overly optimistic? Or
[27:11] Speaker 1: was Ireland truly that vulnerable at the time? Well, that's
[27:17] Speaker 1: where we need to have a little bit of imagination.
[27:19] Speaker 1: There's a few points we need to address. You see,
[27:22] Speaker 1: the population of the island then was certainly smaller and
[27:26] Speaker 1: less urbanised than Britain's. Ireland had no cities, no large
[27:32] Speaker 1: unified kingdoms, just many small duatha or tribal polities. There
[27:39] Speaker 1: were no massive hill forts on the scale of, say, well,
[27:43] Speaker 1: I don't know, let's say the British forts, like Camelodenum,
[27:48] Speaker 1: like that which they called Opida, by the way. A
[27:52] Speaker 1: concentrated Roman strike might have overwhelmed local resistance quite piecemeal.
[27:58] Speaker 1: And furthermore, the tribes in Ireland likely lack the kind
[28:02] Speaker 1: of organized armies or confederations that posed a challenge in
[28:05] Speaker 1: Gaul or Britain. In that sense, Heracoldus' confidence might not
[28:10] Speaker 1: have been entirely misplaced. But perhaps we need to account
[28:15] Speaker 1: for the possibility of illness, weather, freezing to death, that
[28:21] Speaker 1: kind of thing, getting lost, betrayals. Let's call it spillage,
[28:28] Speaker 1: I suppose. maybe, you know, 10,000, it seems like a
[28:33] Speaker 1: formidable number, but Ireland's quite a large island, now, if
[28:37] Speaker 1: everything was as Agricola had thought it was going to be, yes,
[28:42] Speaker 1: perhaps he was right, but that is in the most
[28:44] Speaker 1: perfect circumstance, if nothing bad happens, no betrayals, like I said,
[28:49] Speaker 1: no weather, no illness, no starvation, supply lines are all maintained, yes, perhaps, Now,
[28:57] Speaker 1: as for Tacitus, he hints that Agricola may have even
[29:00] Speaker 1: made a reconnaissance or exploratory raid on Irish soil, dipping
[29:05] Speaker 1: the toes in. He writes that in 82 CE, Agricola
[29:09] Speaker 1: sent a part of his forces across the sea and, quote,
[29:12] Speaker 1: subdued peoples unknown to us till then. Now, the wording's
[29:18] Speaker 1: a bit cryptic, which means that, of course, scholars are
[29:21] Speaker 1: divided on whether this passage implies a brief Roman incursion
[29:25] Speaker 1: into Ireland. or simply the conquest of remote parts of
[29:31] Speaker 1: western Scotland. Something had conceivable that a Roman detachment landed
[29:36] Speaker 1: on the east coast of Ireland. Perhaps in the air
[29:40] Speaker 1: of modern-day Leinster. As a kind of show of force,
[29:45] Speaker 1: or perhaps just to gather intelligence, it's hard to be sure.
[29:49] Speaker 1: But if we support this possibility, we can see locations
[29:51] Speaker 1: of certain Roman fortlets and camps in southwest Scotland, that
[29:56] Speaker 1: is in the Dumfries and Galloway region. They seemed to align,
[30:00] Speaker 1: facing the Irish Sea, possibly, in theory, positioned to launch
[30:06] Speaker 1: or support an expedition westward. We're not sure if there
[30:10] Speaker 1: were the exact purpose for that, but it seems they
[30:12] Speaker 1: could certainly be used to support such an action. And later,
[30:17] Speaker 1: the Roman poet Juvenal, writing a couple of decades after Agricola,
[30:23] Speaker 1: boasted that, quote, we have advanced our arms beyond the
[30:27] Speaker 1: shores of Juverna, Juvenal included this proud claim in a
[30:33] Speaker 1: satirical context, scolding Rome's moral decline by contrasting it with
[30:37] Speaker 1: military success. But such a statement suggests that Romans of
[30:41] Speaker 1: his day believed, or at least wanted to believe, that
[30:46] Speaker 1: the Roman forces had indeed set foot upon Ireland. It
[30:52] Speaker 1: might refer to Agricola's time, or perhaps to some minor
[30:56] Speaker 1: campaign under a different governor. But at minimum, it shows
[31:01] Speaker 1: the idea of an Irish expedition being in the air.
[31:05] Speaker 1: In essence, Ireland was the conquest that almost happened. Yet,
[31:14] Speaker 1: pretty importantly, the full invasion never materialized, as we know.
[31:18] Speaker 1: Agricola's plans were cut short. In 84 CE, after a
[31:23] Speaker 1: major victory over the Caledonians at Mons Grappius in Scotland—
[31:28] Speaker 1: Agricola was recalled to Rome by Emperor Domitian. The reasons
[31:35] Speaker 1: were likely political. Domitian was jealous of his general success,
[31:39] Speaker 1: or wary of him becoming too popular. With Agricola's departure,
[31:44] Speaker 1: the momentum to invade Ireland all but evaporated, and quite quickly.
[31:51] Speaker 1: No one was really pushing for it. No Roman emperor
[31:55] Speaker 1: gave the order to follow through on Agricola's ideas. Tacitus
[32:01] Speaker 1: finishes up the story, and he dryly notes that, quote,
[32:05] Speaker 1: Ireland was left alone, and he has no more to
[32:10] Speaker 1: say of it. We can almost sense Tacitus's own curiosity
[32:16] Speaker 1: of what might have happened if his father-in-law had been
[32:20] Speaker 1: allowed just one more campaign season. How would that have
[32:26] Speaker 1: changed the world? Well, Roman policy in the decades that
[32:31] Speaker 1: followed turned somewhat defensive and pragmatic in the north. Under
[32:37] Speaker 1: Emperor Hadrian in the 120s, the empire pulled back from
[32:41] Speaker 1: trying to conquer Caledonia and built Hadrian's Wall to secure
[32:45] Speaker 1: what it held. Pushing yet further to take Ireland, it
[32:50] Speaker 1: would have been a quite ambitious gamble. and by then
[32:54] Speaker 1: the appetite for expansion seems to have been waning among
[32:57] Speaker 1: the Roman leadership, losing their taste for it, I suppose.
[33:03] Speaker 1: One legion, which was Agricola's suggested allotment, might have conquered Hibernia.
[33:09] Speaker 1: But keeping it, that's a completely different matter. Conquest was
[33:13] Speaker 1: never about just winning battles. It meant garrisoning new land,
[33:19] Speaker 1: building roads and forts, installing administrators, And that's all costly investment.
[33:27] Speaker 1: The Roman army was already stretched thin, garrisoning the vast
[33:31] Speaker 1: territories it had. Every new province had to earn its keep,
[33:36] Speaker 1: or serve a clear strategic purpose. And it's here that
[33:40] Speaker 1: the calculus for Ireland started to look pretty unfavourable. So
[33:47] Speaker 1: I suppose we better analyse all of those reasons in depth.
[33:51] Speaker 1: Good idea, don't you think? But before we do, it's
[33:56] Speaker 1: really worth noting that Rome did not entirely forget Ireland
[33:59] Speaker 1: after Agricola. We said the word evaporated, right? Well, perhaps
[34:05] Speaker 1: there's a little bit of vapour hanging in the air. Well,
[34:09] Speaker 1: if anything, peaceful contacts may have increased. It's just that conquest,
[34:16] Speaker 1: that kind of went to the wayside. Some conjecture that
[34:21] Speaker 1: Agricola's initiative resulted not in outright annexation, but in a
[34:25] Speaker 1: sort of informal arrangement. Rome might have supported friendly Irish kings,
[34:31] Speaker 1: like that exiled Regulus with arms or money, hoping they
[34:36] Speaker 1: would stabilise their regions and keep trouble away from the
[34:39] Speaker 1: Roman shores. And here's a fascinating hint that comes from
[34:43] Speaker 1: Irish legend. We've already heard of Tuathal Techtmar's story, if
[34:48] Speaker 1: he is indeed linked to Ancacola's time. Well, it ends
[34:52] Speaker 1: with him becoming a powerful high king in Ireland, possibly
[34:57] Speaker 1: with foreign assistance. Well, whether it's myth or memory, it
[35:02] Speaker 1: lines with the notion of Rome playing kingmaker from behind
[35:05] Speaker 1: the scenes. In terms of archaeology, we do find in
[35:10] Speaker 1: the late 1st and early 2nd centuries a cluster of
[35:13] Speaker 1: Roman goods in places associated with power in Ireland. Tara,
[35:17] Speaker 1: for example, yields Roman beads and brooches. And Clogher, another
[35:23] Speaker 1: royal site of Ulster, has turned off Roman material too. Now,
[35:29] Speaker 1: this could indicate gifts or trade that coincided with Roman
[35:34] Speaker 1: interest in the Irish elite. But once again, we have
[35:37] Speaker 1: to engage in a little bit of healthy imagination. No
[35:42] Speaker 1: problem with that. There is one site, however, that stands
[35:46] Speaker 1: out in the speculation about actual Roman military presence. And
[35:51] Speaker 1: that is Drumanagh, a coastal headland about 20 kilometres north
[35:55] Speaker 1: of Dublin. Here, significant quantities of Roman artefacts, you know, fibulae, pottery,
[36:02] Speaker 1: coins from the first century, things like that, they've all
[36:05] Speaker 1: been discovered. Some archaeologists interpret Drumanagh as a potential Roman beachhead.
[36:12] Speaker 1: Perhaps fortified trading station, maybe, or temporary camp, established in
[36:18] Speaker 1: the wake of Acrocola's campaigns. Right nearby, on Lambay Island,
[36:23] Speaker 1: just offshore, a number of Roman burials were found, including
[36:28] Speaker 1: what seemed to be the graves of Roman soldiers, or
[36:32] Speaker 1: perhaps even traders with Roman goods. While definitive proof is
[36:37] Speaker 1: pretty elusive, and Irish archaeology has been cautious too, given
[36:42] Speaker 1: modern sensitivities about any suggestions of Roman in Ireland, Romans
[36:47] Speaker 1: in Ireland rather, these finds at least show a concentrated
[36:51] Speaker 1: zone of interaction. It is conceivable that Rome maintained a
[36:56] Speaker 1: limited foothold, or a controlled trading market on the east coast,
[37:00] Speaker 1: where Britons and Irish could meet under Roman protection to
[37:04] Speaker 1: exchange goods. Such an arrangement would secure commerce without the
[37:09] Speaker 1: full expense of conquest. And yeah, conquest is pretty expensive.
[37:15] Speaker 1: So I suppose during Agrippola's era, And immediately after, to
[37:20] Speaker 1: sum it up, Rome came as close as it ever
[37:24] Speaker 1: would to extending the Pax Romana over Ireland. They reconnoitered
[37:29] Speaker 1: the island, weighted its value, and perhaps even meddled subtly
[37:35] Speaker 1: in its affairs. But ultimately, Rome took a step back
[37:39] Speaker 1: from adding Hibernia to its collection. The reasons for this
[37:45] Speaker 1: restraint become a lot clearer when you can examine the
[37:48] Speaker 1: practical realities and priorities facing Rome. And that's exactly what
[37:54] Speaker 1: we're going to discuss next. It's one of history's intriguing
[38:01] Speaker 1: what-if scenarios, isn't it? An empire that seemed almost invincible
[38:07] Speaker 1: at its height, refraining from conquering a land just a
[38:10] Speaker 1: stone's throw away. Why stop there? Well, it's been long debated.
[38:17] Speaker 1: There's a few reasons. Several likely factors emerge. They've been
[38:22] Speaker 1: talking about this for, well, hundreds of years now. In truth,
[38:27] Speaker 1: it was probably a combination of a few things, so
[38:29] Speaker 1: let's get to them. The most important considerations are as follows.
[38:34] Speaker 1: The first one is limited economic incentive. We've touched upon
[38:39] Speaker 1: that briefly, but remember that every Roman province was expected
[38:42] Speaker 1: to provide some benefit to the empire. whether that was
[38:46] Speaker 1: in the form of taxable wealth, valuable resources, or strategic advantage.
[38:53] Speaker 1: And in the case of Ireland, the Romans likely just
[38:57] Speaker 1: didn't see any immediate windfall to justify the costs of
[39:01] Speaker 1: conquest and occupation. Unlike Britain or Gaul, Ireland had no
[39:07] Speaker 1: known rich silver mines or large surplus of agricultural produce
[39:12] Speaker 1: that Rome desperately needed. The island societies were rural and
[39:18] Speaker 1: lacked the kind of established cities or integrated economies that,
[39:22] Speaker 1: when taken over, could rapidly yield tax revenue. In Britain,
[39:28] Speaker 1: the Romans found large farming territories, mines, tin, lead, even
[39:33] Speaker 1: a bit of gold, and an extensive network of tribes
[39:36] Speaker 1: that could be coerced into a taxation system. Ireland's offerings
[39:41] Speaker 1: were less obvious. Its most touted resource in Roman eyes
[39:47] Speaker 1: might have been its cattle. as Pomponius Melo's comment on
[39:54] Speaker 1: overfed cows humorously remarks, as we mentioned earlier. And indeed,
[40:00] Speaker 1: cattle were the lifeblood of the Irish economy. But managing
[40:04] Speaker 1: and exporting cattle on a large scale from a rainy
[40:08] Speaker 1: island at the end of the earth, that would not
[40:11] Speaker 1: have been very simple. Rome could more easily acquire beef
[40:15] Speaker 1: and leather from Gaul or Spain, so why would they
[40:19] Speaker 1: bother and those regions were well and truly subdued now.
[40:23] Speaker 1: Timber and agricultural land existed in Ireland, but again, Britain
[40:29] Speaker 1: had plenty of both, and was nearer. Thus, the cost-benefit
[40:35] Speaker 1: analysis probably didn't favour an invasion. The Empire was careful
[40:40] Speaker 1: about overextending its finances. Hadrian's pullback in Britain was in
[40:45] Speaker 1: part because holding northern Scotland was just not worth the expense. Ireland,
[40:52] Speaker 1: even if conquered with one legion as Agricola claimed, would
[40:57] Speaker 1: still need roads, forts, garrisons and a colonial administration. Old
[41:03] Speaker 1: costly investments. Testis explicitly notes that one reason not to
[41:10] Speaker 1: fully conquer Britain in the first place was that the
[41:12] Speaker 1: tax income would never offset the costs of the legions
[41:16] Speaker 1: to keep it pacified. And that logic applied to Ireland.
[41:21] Speaker 1: would be even more persuasive if Ireland was expected to
[41:25] Speaker 1: yield even less profit. Now the second reason we have
[41:30] Speaker 1: is geographical detachment and logistical challenges. Ireland's insular position played
[41:41] Speaker 1: quite a role. It separated from Britain by dozens of
[41:46] Speaker 1: miles and often that miles of stormy sea was quite
[41:52] Speaker 1: an issue too. While the Roman navy was capable of
[41:56] Speaker 1: transporting troops, they obviously did so to invade Britain and
[41:59] Speaker 1: could do so to Ireland too. Maintaining a supply line
[42:03] Speaker 1: across the Irish sea, that would have been a constant headache.
[42:09] Speaker 1: Unlike conquest on the continent, where Roman roads could continuously
[42:13] Speaker 1: feed and reinforce an army, an Irish campaign would depend
[42:18] Speaker 1: on ships and favourable weather. And that's notoriously undependable. As
[42:26] Speaker 1: for the Roman ships of the first and second centuries, well,
[42:30] Speaker 1: they were mostly coastal vessels. They could handle the Irish Sea.
[42:36] Speaker 1: But we must remember what happened to Caesar's fleet when
[42:39] Speaker 1: he first attempted to go to Britain. Many of those
[42:43] Speaker 1: transports wrecked in the storms. The further west the Romans went,
[42:49] Speaker 1: the less familiar and more unpredictable the Atlantic waters became. Moreover,
[42:56] Speaker 1: if an army in Ireland ever ran into serious trouble,
[43:00] Speaker 1: relief would have to sail from Britain or even Gaul.
[43:03] Speaker 1: A sudden winter blizzard or a naval mishap could leave
[43:08] Speaker 1: a legion stranded and vulnerable, far away from any help. Logistically,
[43:14] Speaker 1: it was an additional layer of risk, that perhaps only
[43:17] Speaker 1: made sense if the rewards were high, which they were not.
[43:24] Speaker 1: All right, the next one. We have military priorities in
[43:28] Speaker 1: other places. You see, the decision makers back in the
[43:32] Speaker 1: Senate also had to consider the opportunity cost. Every legion
[43:37] Speaker 1: used for a new conquest was a legion not available
[43:40] Speaker 1: to guard the Rhine, the Danube, or the Parthian frontier.
[43:45] Speaker 1: And those were quite chaotic, especially the Rhine. Well, after
[43:52] Speaker 1: the Flavian period, that is, late 1st century CE, the
[43:55] Speaker 1: Roman Empire generally shifted from expansion to consolidation. Emperors like
[44:02] Speaker 1: Trajan did still conquer Dacia in 106 CE, parts of
[44:07] Speaker 1: Mesopotamia temporarily. But these exceptions were, well, they were exceptions
[44:13] Speaker 1: rather than the rule. And there were chosen targets that
[44:16] Speaker 1: promised glory and resources. They already knew what they were
[44:19] Speaker 1: getting into. By comparison, Ireland seemed to be the unattractive sideshow.
[44:28] Speaker 1: No offence. It's not me saying it. Don't shoot the messenger. Well,
[44:33] Speaker 1: during the second century, Rome faced growing pressures. Border skirmishes
[44:38] Speaker 1: in Germany. Major wars in the East and internal political crises.
[44:44] Speaker 1: Things were not looking good. Devoting military energy to Ireland,
[44:50] Speaker 1: which posed no threat at all, was not a priority.
[44:56] Speaker 1: And yeah, one might say that Ireland was fortunate from
[44:59] Speaker 1: a timing perspective, you see. Had there been a bold, young,
[45:03] Speaker 1: conqueror emperor in the early first century, like another Julius Caesar,
[45:08] Speaker 1: looking for a quick win, he might have tried his
[45:12] Speaker 1: shot at Hibernia, It would have given him a decent triumph,
[45:16] Speaker 1: back at home at least. And you wouldn't be so
[45:19] Speaker 1: bad to be known as the one who conquered Ireland,
[45:24] Speaker 1: I suppose. But by the time Britain was secured, the emperors, Nerva, Hadrian, Antoninus, Pius, etc., well,
[45:33] Speaker 1: they were a lot different from Caesar. They were more
[45:36] Speaker 1: concerned with keeping what they had, rather than adding new
[45:41] Speaker 1: territories of arguable value. And then here's an important one.
[45:50] Speaker 1: We have the absence of a just cause. No provocation.
[45:54] Speaker 1: You see, Roman invasions were justified, quite often at least,
[45:59] Speaker 1: in propaganda, by some offence or threat emanating from the
[46:04] Speaker 1: target region. Caesar invaded Britain, claiming that the Britons had
[46:10] Speaker 1: aided the Gauls and were harbouring fugitives. Claudius invaded because
[46:15] Speaker 1: a British tribal king requested aid, and because Roman prestige
[46:19] Speaker 1: supposedly demanded action. Well, in the case of Ireland, Rome
[46:24] Speaker 1: didn't really have a strong pretext, or a pretext at all.
[46:29] Speaker 1: The Irish tribes had not raided Gaul, they were too
[46:32] Speaker 1: far away for that, and during the first and second centuries,
[46:36] Speaker 1: they were not yet recorded as a significant menace to
[46:40] Speaker 1: Roman Britain. They were just harmless. living their own lives,
[46:46] Speaker 1: with their cows and long grass and all the rest.
[46:50] Speaker 1: The other things the Romans said they had. Well, without
[46:53] Speaker 1: being provoked, an invasion of Ireland would look purely aggressive,
[46:59] Speaker 1: and could be quite a bit of a hard sell
[47:01] Speaker 1: to the Roman Senate or to the public, as worth
[47:04] Speaker 1: the blood and treasure. Agricola's plan to use an exiled
[47:09] Speaker 1: Irish prince was an attempt to manufacture such a pretext,
[47:14] Speaker 1: But once he was gone, no similar opportunity or excuse arose.
[47:19] Speaker 1: Now the Irish, for their part, did not unite to
[47:22] Speaker 1: attack Rome, nor did they say massacre Roman merchants en masse.
[47:28] Speaker 1: Anything of that sort would have been certainly inviting Roman retaliation,
[47:31] Speaker 1: a worthy casus belli for them. So in essence, Ireland
[47:36] Speaker 1: gave Rome no compelling reason to, quote, bring civilization by
[47:41] Speaker 1: the sword, as they would put it. The Romans always
[47:45] Speaker 1: like to frame their conquests just like that. Well, lastly, well,
[47:52] Speaker 1: not quite lastly, almost lastly, we have satisfactory alternatives to conquest.
[47:58] Speaker 1: You see, instead of annexation, Rome could achieve its aims
[48:02] Speaker 1: through indirect means. As we've discussed, trade bought desired goods
[48:07] Speaker 1: to and from Ireland without having the need to fight
[48:10] Speaker 1: anyone or occupy anything. diplomacy could keep Irish chieftains friendly.
[48:16] Speaker 1: It's quite possible Roman governors in Britain maintained relations with
[48:21] Speaker 1: certain Irish kings, offering gifts in exchange for peace or cooperation.
[48:27] Speaker 1: And there is an interesting hint in Roman literature that
[48:32] Speaker 1: Irish chiefs may have sought out Roman favour. You see,
[48:37] Speaker 1: we find it in the poet Strabo again, in one passage.
[48:41] Speaker 1: He mentions that some British kings after Caesar's time voluntarily
[48:45] Speaker 1: sent embassies to Rome and even dedicated offerings at the capital,
[48:49] Speaker 1: effectively aligning themselves with Rome without a fight. It's not
[48:53] Speaker 1: hard to imagine an Irish chief doing the same. By
[48:57] Speaker 1: letting Ireland remain outside the empire but loosely connected, Rome
[49:02] Speaker 1: saved itself the trouble of governing it. This was a
[49:06] Speaker 1: model used on other frontiers too. The empire surrounded itself
[49:10] Speaker 1: with a buffer of client peoples who were independent but
[49:14] Speaker 1: under Roman influence. For much of the first three centuries,
[49:18] Speaker 1: Ireland might be seen as falling into that category, beyond
[49:23] Speaker 1: the formal frontier, but enmeshed within the Empire's economic and
[49:27] Speaker 1: cultural web. As long as Ireland posed no organised military threat,
[49:33] Speaker 1: the status quo was acceptable to Rome. Now, finally, our
[49:38] Speaker 1: six-point question. We have the challenges of terrain, and of course,
[49:43] Speaker 1: guerrilla warfare. Not that kind of guerrilla, the other one.
[49:49] Speaker 1: While Agricol downplayed the military difficulty of Ireland, other Roman
[49:54] Speaker 1: commanders might have been more cautious. Ireland's terrain of thick forests, bogs,
[50:00] Speaker 1: and hills may have been daunting for legions used to
[50:06] Speaker 1: rather open field engagements. The Romans had faced something a
[50:10] Speaker 1: bit similar in the parts of Britain and Germania, where
[50:14] Speaker 1: tribes could melt away into trackless woods and wear down
[50:18] Speaker 1: an occupying force. To conquer Ireland, the Roman army would
[50:23] Speaker 1: likely have to subdue numerous small tribes scattered over a
[50:27] Speaker 1: wide area, possibly fighting an ongoing series of skirmishes rather
[50:31] Speaker 1: than one decisive battle. They might have even worried about
[50:36] Speaker 1: another Caledonia scenario, a drawn-out pacification campaign with an uncertain end,
[50:42] Speaker 1: just after wrapping up one in Scotland. In short, the
[50:47] Speaker 1: risk of becoming bogged down literally and figuratively in an
[50:50] Speaker 1: Irish quagmire might have made prudent generals think twice. So
[50:56] Speaker 1: all these reasons we've mentioned taken together, well, it's very
[51:00] Speaker 1: hard to argue against just leaving Ireland to its own devices.
[51:06] Speaker 1: They form a compelling case why the Romans ultimately chose
[51:09] Speaker 1: not to conquer Ireland. It was not so much that
[51:12] Speaker 1: they tried and failed, but rather that they calculated that
[51:17] Speaker 1: it was not worth trying. I'm sure if they really
[51:21] Speaker 1: tried hard, they certainly could conquer it just like everywhere else. Unfortunately,
[51:26] Speaker 1: this is not one of those videos where it's they
[51:29] Speaker 1: didn't conquer it because of some great heroic ambush on
[51:33] Speaker 1: the other side. It's just kind of left with a
[51:37] Speaker 1: shrug of the shoulders as the Romans turn round and
[51:40] Speaker 1: walk in the opposite direction. The Roman Empire was certainly powerful,
[51:46] Speaker 1: but it was definitely shrewd in allocating its might, especially
[51:50] Speaker 1: after the disasters of, I don't know, Garay and Teutoborg,
[51:56] Speaker 1: things like that. Well, Hibernia was left as a neighbour
[52:01] Speaker 1: and a trading partner, sometimes a nuisance, sometimes an asset,
[52:08] Speaker 1: but never an imperial province. So by the 3rd and
[52:15] Speaker 1: 4th century CE, this power dynamic between Rome and Ireland
[52:19] Speaker 1: had begun to shift quite subtly. The empire entered a
[52:23] Speaker 1: period of defensive posture, beset by troubles within and invasions
[52:29] Speaker 1: on many fronts. Ireland, untouched by Roman legions, remained a
[52:35] Speaker 1: reservoir of Celtic culture and warrior bands. But in the
[52:39] Speaker 1: twilight of Roman rule in Britain, Irish raiders, called Scotty
[52:44] Speaker 1: by the late Romans, increasingly harassed Roman provinces. What had
[52:50] Speaker 1: been a one-sided fear, the Romans once worried about rebels
[52:55] Speaker 1: fleeing to Ireland, became a two-sided affair. You see, as
[53:00] Speaker 1: Irish coastal bands took advantage of Rome's preoccupation to plunder Britain,
[53:07] Speaker 1: Roman sources from the late 4th century mention these incursions explicitly.
[53:12] Speaker 1: The historian Ammianus Marcellinus, describing the great barbarian conspiracy of
[53:17] Speaker 1: the year 367, lists the Scots, i.e. the Irish, I know,
[53:23] Speaker 1: a little bit confusing, and Atacote, people associated with Ireland,
[53:29] Speaker 1: alongside Picts and Saxons as groups ravaging Britain's frontiers. These
[53:36] Speaker 1: Irish raiders would strike the western coast of Britain, Wales, Cornwall,
[53:41] Speaker 1: and the province of Britannia Secunda, that is, northern Britain,
[53:45] Speaker 1: carrying off loot and captives with them. It was during
[53:50] Speaker 1: one such raid, according to later tradition, that a young
[53:53] Speaker 1: Roman-British lad named Patrick was kidnapped from western Britain, and
[53:59] Speaker 1: taken to Ireland as a slave, an event that would
[54:03] Speaker 1: eventually have profound consequences for Ireland's religious future. I'm sure
[54:08] Speaker 1: you can see what I'm getting at there. Well, the
[54:12] Speaker 1: Romans did respond to these raids, however. In 368, the
[54:17] Speaker 1: general Theodosius, the father of the future emperor, by the way,
[54:22] Speaker 1: launched a counter-offensive to restore order in Britain. He defeated
[54:27] Speaker 1: Picts and Scots alike, and likely secured deals with some
[54:33] Speaker 1: of these foederati, the barbarian allies, to stand down. There
[54:39] Speaker 1: are hints, too, that Roman authorities even recruited Irish fighters
[54:43] Speaker 1: into their service. The Notitia Dignatum, a document listing Roman
[54:50] Speaker 1: military units in the early 5th century, includes units named
[54:54] Speaker 1: after the Atacoti, implying that at least some of the
[55:01] Speaker 1: members of this Irish or Hebriderian tribe were incorporated into
[55:05] Speaker 1: the Roman army, at least as auxiliaries. One church father too, St. Jerome,
[55:12] Speaker 1: writing not long after, even remarks with evident disgust that
[55:19] Speaker 1: he had seen Atacote in Gaul, who reportedly indulged in cannibalism.
[55:26] Speaker 1: Once again echoing those, age-old claims of savage practices among
[55:30] Speaker 1: the Irish. Jerome's comment, while likely propagandistic, confirms that men
[55:36] Speaker 1: from these Irish tribes were present in the Roman world,
[55:41] Speaker 1: presumably as soldiers, perhaps as captives. It is one of
[55:46] Speaker 1: the historical ironies that, as Rome weakens the flow of
[55:50] Speaker 1: influence somewhat reversed, rather than Rome conquering Ireland, elements of
[55:56] Speaker 1: Irish society began to penetrate the remnants of Roman Britain.
[56:02] Speaker 1: At least by the end of the 4th century, Irish
[56:04] Speaker 1: settlers called the Scoti had established themselves in parts of
[56:10] Speaker 1: Western Britain. They colonised areas of what is now Wales
[56:14] Speaker 1: and Cornwall, and most significantly they did settle in Western Scotland,
[56:19] Speaker 1: founding the kingdom of Dalriada, that bridged north-eastern Ireland and
[56:24] Speaker 1: Argyll in Scotland. The Roman historian Orosius, writing in the
[56:30] Speaker 1: early 5th century, as around 417 CE, just after the
[56:35] Speaker 1: Roman legions left Britain for good, by the way, notes
[56:38] Speaker 1: that Ireland's people had by then taken over ports of Britain.
[56:43] Speaker 1: In particular, he records that the Irish had even seized
[56:46] Speaker 1: the Isle of Man, and were dwelling along the western
[56:50] Speaker 1: coast of Britain, It was the beginning of a Gaelic
[56:53] Speaker 1: cultural expansion, as opposed to a Roman one. In the
[56:58] Speaker 1: vacuum left by Rome, Irish warlords and settlers moved further east.
[57:05] Speaker 1: But despite being never occupied, Ireland did not remain aloof
[57:09] Speaker 1: from Rome's legacy. On the contrary, it benefited in unique
[57:14] Speaker 1: ways from its status. In the early 5th century, the
[57:17] Speaker 1: Christianisation of Ireland began via the Roman Church. The mission
[57:22] Speaker 1: of Palladius, sent as a bishop in 431, and the
[57:26] Speaker 1: subsequent mission of St. Patrick, traditionally dated around 432-460, brought
[57:33] Speaker 1: the new religion and Latin literacy to Ireland. Remarkably, Ireland
[57:39] Speaker 1: converted to Christianity without ever having been a Roman province,
[57:44] Speaker 1: an almost singular case in Europe. Almost singular. Irish monks
[57:50] Speaker 1: and scribes embraced Latin learning with zeal. In the post-Roman aftermath,
[57:56] Speaker 1: Ireland's monasteries would become havens of classical education, preserving texts,
[58:02] Speaker 1: and even remissionising parts of barbarian Europe, using that term
[58:08] Speaker 1: a little bit loosely. Thus, in a twist of fate,
[58:12] Speaker 1: Ireland's lack of Roman conquest may have helped it become
[58:16] Speaker 1: a torchbearer of aspects of Roman civilisation, like literacy and Christianity,
[58:23] Speaker 1: after Rome's Western Empire had fallen. Free from Roman rule,
[58:30] Speaker 1: Ireland was also spared some of the brutal upheavals that
[58:33] Speaker 1: afflicted continental provinces. Of course, it had its own internal conflicts,
[58:37] Speaker 1: but it wasn't overrun by Huns or Goths. You've got
[58:42] Speaker 1: to count your blessings, I suppose. By standing just outside
[58:46] Speaker 1: the imperial fold, Ireland was in a position to absorb
[58:50] Speaker 1: Roman influence gradually, and later projected outward on its own terms.
[58:57] Speaker 1: It's worth highlighting one little anecdote that illustrates the peaceful
[59:01] Speaker 1: ties even in late antiquity. The case of the Irish wolfhounds.
[59:07] Speaker 1: These giant dogs were prized in the Roman world for
[59:09] Speaker 1: their strength. and hunting prowess. In 391 CE, a Roman
[59:14] Speaker 1: nobleman named Symmachus wrote a letter from Rome thanking his
[59:18] Speaker 1: brother for sending him seven Irish hounds that had arrived
[59:22] Speaker 1: by a Roman official in Britain. Symmachus marvelled that the
[59:27] Speaker 1: spectacle of these dogs in the Colosseum all but eclipsed
[59:31] Speaker 1: the arena's show of lions and leopards. The Romans were
[59:35] Speaker 1: utterly fascinated by them. This little story is a bit random,
[59:41] Speaker 1: I know, but it shows how even as soldiers skirmished
[59:44] Speaker 1: at the fringes, the channels of exchange in luxuries and
[59:49] Speaker 1: curiosities remained open. The unique gifts of Ireland, in this
[59:55] Speaker 1: case literally a gift of dogs, could astonish even the
[59:58] Speaker 1: citizens of Rome. just when they thought they'd seen it all.
[1:00:06] Speaker 1: And so that's it. In the end, the decision not
[1:00:09] Speaker 1: to conquer Ireland was itself an exercise of imperial wisdom.
[1:00:16] Speaker 1: Rome expanded only where it was profitable or necessary, not
[1:00:20] Speaker 1: simply just for the sake of getting the achievement, colouring
[1:00:24] Speaker 1: in every blank space on the map. By leaving Ireland alone,
[1:00:28] Speaker 1: the empire avoided stretching its resources for minimal gain. And
[1:00:32] Speaker 1: so Ireland became one of the few corners of Western
[1:00:35] Speaker 1: Europe to never bow to the equal standard. It's pretty unique.
[1:00:41] Speaker 1: And that unique status meant that Ireland preserved its Iron
[1:00:45] Speaker 1: Age Celtic ways much longer than its neighbours. Yet it
[1:00:49] Speaker 1: was never entirely isolated from the currents of the Roman world.
[1:00:55] Speaker 1: It's interesting. And I think by stopping our narrative in
[1:00:59] Speaker 1: the fourth century, we leave Ireland on the eve of
[1:01:02] Speaker 1: great changes. In the coming centuries, freed from the shadow
[1:01:06] Speaker 1: of the Roman legions, Ireland would undergo its conversion to
[1:01:10] Speaker 1: Christianity and experience a new kind of cultural blossoming, even
[1:01:16] Speaker 1: as the rest of Europe plunged into post-imperial turmoil. None
[1:01:22] Speaker 1: of that would have been possible otherwise. in quite the
[1:01:24] Speaker 1: same way if Roman legions had marched through the Irish glens. Thus,
[1:01:31] Speaker 1: Ireland's very unconqueredness became part of its destiny. The Romans
[1:01:37] Speaker 1: never came as conquerors in the first place, at least
[1:01:40] Speaker 1: not to Ireland, and in that absence grew a distinct
[1:01:43] Speaker 1: civilization that would later send monks and missionaries back to
[1:01:47] Speaker 1: a fractured Europe. Sometimes history turns on what did not happen.
[1:01:56] Speaker 1: An invasion not launched. A kingdom left alone. Well, that's
[1:02:05] Speaker 1: it from me today. I hope you enjoyed that. People
[1:02:08] Speaker 1: ask for Irish history quite a lot, you know. Which
[1:02:12] Speaker 1: is good. Don't get me wrong, it's good. Anyway, I'm
[1:02:16] Speaker 1: going to thank the top dear patrons and supporters. No
[1:02:18] Speaker 1: ads because of them. Ooh, very nice, isn't it? Kimberly, Christine, Sally, Amber, Susan, Cameron, Carrie, Charlene, Lynn, Therese, Katiana, Nicholas, Ulf, Edneer, Alexander, Charles, Christine, Dr. Neuronerd, Erin, Jane, Jim, Jeffrey, Jessica, Madeline, Melissa,
[1:02:37] Speaker 1: Orthodox Review, Scott, Shell, Wendy, Josie, Sarah, Ryan, Thor, Cameron, Stefan, Kevin, HMSHH, Crystal, Thalbury, Anthony, Lucy, Brandon, Gugububonic, Nicholas, Craig, Neftis, Alexander, Gokhan, Dorsey, Venita, Claire, Courtesy, Carol, Robert, Mary, Bridget, Nefertari, Yvette,
[1:03:01] Speaker 1: Miss Mochi, Eleven, Alison, Free American, Jennifer, and Brittany. All right.
[1:03:12] Speaker 1: That's it from me. Thank you very much for listening.
[1:03:16] Speaker 1: Once again, it's been a pleasure. Good night, everyone. I
[1:03:19] Speaker 1: will see you in the next video.

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