Alʹbion

England, so named from the ancient inhabitants called Albioʹnēs. The usual etymology of albus (white), said to have been given by Julius Cæsar in allusion to the “white cliffs,” is quite untenable, as an old Greek treatise, the De Mundo, formerly ascribed to Aristotle, mentions the islands of Albion and Iērnē three hundred years before the invasion of Cæsar. Probably “Albion” or Albany was the Celtio name of all Great Britain, subsequently restricted to Scotland, and then to the Highlands of Scotland. Certainly the inhabitants of the whole island are implied in the word Albionēs in Festus Avienus’s account of the voyage of Hamilcar in the fifth century B.C. (See Albin.)