[5] On the other hand it may be questioned whether the army itself did anything to diffuse Christianity within the Empire. In the west certainly its chief significance in the history of religion was what it did to spread the solar, Mithraic worship. Cp. Harnack, op. cit. 268, 388.
[6] Rufinus, Hist. ecc. i. 9.
[7] Armenia was already Christian at the beginning of the fourth century in the days of Maximin.—Eusebius, Hist. ecc. ix. 8. 2.
[8] Socrates, Hist. ecc. vii. 30.
[9] The island of Man is indeed another exception. The Scottic colonisation of north-western Britain (Argyle, etc.) was comparatively late, but before the middle of the fifth century (see below, [chap. ix. p. 192]).
[10] Professor Rhŷs thinks that it was to Ireland, more than to Britain, that the Gallic Druids went to learn their art, and that Caesar (in B. G. vi. 13) was badly informed; and he has recently stated this view in Studies in Early Irish History (Proceedings of British Academy, vol. i.), p. 35. It is remarkable that, apart from Caesar’s assertion, the only evidence for Druidism in southern Britain pertains to the island of Anglesey (Tacitus, Ann. xiv. 29), and Professor Rhŷs holds that in the first century A.D. Anglesey (Mona) was not yet Brythonic. Druidism in the Isle of Man is attested by a stone inscribed Dovaidona maqi Droata “(the burial-place) of Dovaido, son of (the) Druid.” See Professor Rhŷs in the Academy for August 15, 1890.
[11] Tacitus, Agricola, c. 24, medio inter Britanniam atque Hispaniam sita. Cp. Caesar, B.G. v. 13. The notice in Orosius (Hist. i. 2, § 72) of the lighthouse at Brigantia in north-western Spain as built ad speculam Britanniae is noteworthy. Compare the remarks of Professor Rhŷs, op. cit. p. 47.
[12] Tacitus, ib. aditus portusque per commercia et negotiatores cogniti.
[13] Tacitus, ib. The policy recommended by Agricola, who considered one legion sufficient to hold the island, was based partly on the ground of political expedience. The conquest of Ireland, he thought, would have a similar wholesome effect on Britain to that which the conquest of Britain had on Gaul, by removing the spectacle of liberty (si Romance ubique arma et uelut e conspectu libertas tolleretur).
[14] The baronies of Upper and Lower Deece, in Co. Meath.