Roman Wales was an area of south western
Cambria is a name for Wales, being the Latinised form of the Welsh name for the country, Cymru. The term was not in use during the Roman (when Wales had not come into existence as a distinct entity) or the early medieval period.
Tacitus describes the Silures as a strong and warlike tribe, stubborn, with swarthy faces and curly hair.
An image first used in classical antiquity, the Latin Britannia was the name variously applied to the British Isles, Great Britain, and the Roman province of Britain during the Roman Empire.
The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia (Scotland).
In Roman times, there was no such country as Scotland. What we now know as Scotland was called 'Caledonia', and the people were known as the 'Caledonians'. Caledonia was made up of groups of people or tribes. Some got on peacefully with the Romans, but others fought back.
'Pretani', from which it came from, was a Celtic word that most likely meant 'the painted people'. 'Albion' was another name recorded in the classical sources for the island we know as Britain. 'Albion' probably predates 'Pretannia'.
Hispania, in Roman times, region comprising the Iberian Peninsula, now occupied by Portugal and Spain.
The name “Germania” was given by ancient Romans, who borrowed it from the Gauls, but its genesis is not exactly known. This area was mainly inhabited by Germanic tribes, that were never completely subordinated to the Roman Empire.
The Roman fort established by the River Taff, which gave its name to the city—Caerdydd, earlier Caerdyf, from caer (fort) and Taf—was built over an extensive settlement that had been established by the Silures in the 50s AD.
The Welsh themselves called themselves Cymry, "compatriots", and named their country Cymru, which is thought to have meant "Land of the Compatriots" in Old Welsh; this has reference to their awareness that they were the original countrymen of Wales, and indeed Britain by virtue of their ancestors the Brythoniaid ( ...
During the 18th century, people who spoke Celtic languages were seen as Celts. The ancient inhabitants of Wales, were therefore increasingly known as Celts.
When the sagas mention Wales, it is called Bretland in Old Norse.
The conquest
The Roman advance was hindered by the resistance of the Silures under the leadership of Caratacus (the Caradog of Welsh tradition), a prince of the Catuvellauni of Essex who had been driven from his tribal lands by the Romans.
Hibernia is the Classical Latin name for the island of Ireland. The name Hibernia was taken from Greek geographical accounts. During his exploration of northwest Europe (c. 320 BC), Pytheas of Massilia called the island Ierne (written Ἰέρνη).
Italia (in both the Latin and Italian languages), also referred to as Roman Italy, was the homeland of the ancient Romans.
At its peak Prussia included half of modern Poland and all but southern Germany.
In Latin, the name Germania means "lands where people called Germani live". Modern scholars do not agree on the etymology of the name Germani. Celtic, Germanic, Illyrian and Latin etymologies have been suggested. The main source on the origin of the names Germania and Germani is the book Germania (98 AD) by Tacitus.
Legacy of the name
As with the Roman names of many European countries, Lusitania was and is often used as an alternative name for Portugal, especially in formal or literary and poetic contexts.
Although the Romans were said to give the city the name of Matrice, the word is actually a pre-Muslim word meaning water. Others say the Moors named the city in the 8th century.
The name Portucale evolved into Portugale during the 7th and 8th centuries, and by the 9th century, that term was used extensively to refer to the region between the rivers Douro and Minho. By the 11th and 12th centuries, Portugale, Portugallia, Portvgallo or Portvgalliae was already referred to as Portugal.
Albion is the original name of England which the land was known as by the Romans, probably from the Latin albus meaning white, and referring to the chalk cliffs along the south-east coast of England.
Britain was the name made popular by the Romans when they came to the British islands. England used to be known as Engla land, meaning the land of the Angles, people from continental Germany, who began to invade Britain in the late 5th century, along with the Saxons and Jute.
These describe Celts in France and in the North Sea, where the British Isles are. He calls Ireland Insula Sacra (Holy Island) and its inhabitants gens hiernorum, thought to be a Latinisation of the Greek word for Ireland, Ierne.