[1] Strabo, who calls the island Ierne, repeats the accusation, adding that they consider it honourable to eat their dead fathers, and openly have sex with their mothers and sisters (although he is sceptical about his sources).
Tacitus says that his father-in-law Gnaeus Julius Agricola, while governor of Britain (AD 78–85), considered conquering Ireland, believing it could be held with one legion plus auxiliaries, and entertained an exiled Irish petty king with the intention of making him the pretext for conquest.
[5] Parallels have been drawn with the Irish legend of Túathal Techtmar, who is said to have been exiled to Britain as a child and returned with an army to claim the kingship of Tara in the 1st century.
[5] The 2nd-century poet Juvenal, in his second Satire, contrasting the victories of the Roman army with the low morals of the people at home in Rome, says that, as well as conquering Britain and the Orkney islands, "we have advanced arms beyond the shores of Iuverna".
The Geography contains the most detailed account of Ireland in classical literature, giving the latitude and longitude of six promontories, fifteen river mouths, ten settlements and nine islands, and naming sixteen population groups.
[8] Roman sources mention raids on Britain by Saxons of north-west Germany, by Picts from Scotland and by two groups of people usually associated with Ireland, the Scotti and the Atacotti.