The early writer (6th century BC), whose periplus was translated by Avienus at the end of the 4th century (see Massaliote Periplus),
does not use the name Britannia; instead he speaks of nesos 'Iernon kai 'Albionon: the islands of the Ierni and the Albiones. [Albion (GB) and Eire (Ireland)] Likewise, Pytheas of Massilia (ca. 320 BC) speaks of Albion and Ierne. [B]But Pytheas' grasp of the νῆσος Πρεττανική nêsos Prettaniké (Britanic island) is somewhat blurry, and appears to include anything he considers a western island, including Thule.
[So he thought it included Iceland perhaps]
The name was used by Isadorus Charactacenis and subsequently by many classical writers. By the 1st century AD, the name refers unequivocally to Great Britain. The Pseudo-Aristotelian text De mundo (393b) has:
Ἐν τούτῳ γε μὴν νῆσοι μέγισται τυγχάνουσιν οὖσαι δύο, Βρεττανικαὶ λεγόμεναι, Ἀλβίων καὶ Ἰέρνη
"the largest islands they reached were two, called the Britannic [isles], Albion and Iernē."
Pliny the Elder, in his Natural History (4.16.102) likewise has:
"It was itself named Albion, while all the islands about which we shall soon briefly speak were called the Britanniae.[4] "
In his Geographia, Ptolemy, writing in the 2nd Century AD, uses the name "Albion" instead of the Roman name Brittania; possibly following the commentaries of Marinus of Tyre.[5]
In 930, the English King Æthelstan used the title: rex et primicerius totius Albionis regni[6] ("King and chief of the whole realm of Albion"). His nephew King Edgar styled himself Totius Albionis imperator augustus (August emperor of all Albion) in 970.[7]
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