- Brepium,
- A promontorie of Achaia.
- Breetna,
- Called nowe Brintum, the citie Brindes in Italy.
- Bretoleum,
- A towne of Portugall now called Britium.
- Breuci,
- A people of Hungarie, by the ryuer Sause.
- Breuni,
- People of the Alpes.
- Briareus,
- A gyant, which was of an excéeding greatnesse, and had an hundred armes. He was also called Aegeon.
- Brias, adis,
- A citie of the country Pisidia, in Asia.
- Brigantes,
- Were auncient people in the North part of Englande.
- Brigantium,
- A citie in Galitia, called Compostella.
- Brigetium,
- A citie of Spaine, nowe called Oniodo.
- Brigiani,
- People of the Alpes.
- Brilessus,
- An hill in the country of Athens.
- Briletum,
- A mountaine in Athens.
- Brisabritae,
- People of Asia.
- Briseis, eidis,
- A faire damosell that was giuen to Achilles, and taken from hym by Agamemnon: wherevpon grewe great trouble in the Greekes boste, at the siege of Troy.
- Brisseus, a, um,
- Of Brisa the surname of Bacchus.
- Britannia,
- The most noble yle of the worlde, wherein be conteyned England and Scotland. It lyeth from Ger∣many, west: from Fraunce and Spaine, west north∣west. The forme thereof is like a triangle, and (as some haue written) like the blade of a gleyue. The length is extended into the North to the furthermost part of Scotlande, called Calidonia, which Plinius, Solinus, and Martianus, doe agrée to be .800. myles. The bredth of it (after Martianus) is .300. Italyan myles. The narrowest distaunce betwéene thys Ile and Caleyes sandes (called of Plinie Gessoriacum in Gallia) is 50. Italyan myles. It is nowe gessed to be 30. englyshe myles. Of the first naming of this Ile, is yet no certaine determination, for asmuch as there re∣mayneth no auncyent hystorie, making thereof remem∣braunce, the olde Britons bookes (such as were) being all destroyed by the Saxons: who endeuoured them∣selues to extinct vtterly the honorable renowne wyth the name of Brytons, like as the Gothes delt with the Romaines. Also the part of Titus Liuius, where the conquest of Brytaine is remembred, with the histo∣ries of Iulius Rusticus, and dyuers other noble wry∣ters, that wrote specially of this countrey, are vtterly perished. Such as remaine, as the Comentaries of Iulius Caesar, Cornelius Tacitus, Diodorus Sicu∣lus, and they that wrote of Cosmographie, haue omit∣ted the orignall begynning of the name. The hystorye of Eyldas the Bryton cannot be founde, who was after the Saxons, had inuaded thys Realme: and therefore mought lacke such bookes as shoulde best instruct hym, As for Beda séemeth to haue séene nothing wrytten of that matter. For where he sayth, that this Ile tooke the name Britannia, of the inhabytants of Brytaine in Fraunce, it is nothing lyke to be true. For that coun∣try was (not long before the time of Beda) named Armorica & Armoricus tractus, when this Ile was cal∣led of most auncient wryters Britannia, and (as Soli∣nus writeth) séemed to be an other worlde, for as much as the west part of Gallia, was thought to be the vtter∣most part of this worlde. Also Iulius Caesar wryteth that the places of thys Ile, were vnknowne to French men sauing to a fewe marchauntes: and yet they knew no farther, then the sea coast towarde Fraunce. More∣ouer the same Brytons affyrme, that it was left among them in remembraunce, that the innermost part of the countrey, was inhabited of them, which had their first beginning in the same Ile. This well considered, with the authoritie of the wryter, both an excellent Prince and also a great learned man, and was himselfe in thys Ile, it is not to be doubted, but that he most diligently searched for the true knowledge of the auncientie ther∣of. And if he mought haue founden, that the inhaby∣taunts had come of the stocke of Eneas, of whose pro∣genie he himselfe came, he woulde haue reioyced much, for the prowesse and valiant courage, which he com∣mended in them. Moreouer, that the name came of Brutus (whome our wryters ymagined to discende of Eneas the Troyan) is no more lykely, than that thys Ile was called Albion of Dioclesians daughter, or of white rockes. All the olde Latin hystorians agrée, that the sonne of Syluius, the seconde in succession from Eneas, and of them named the sonne of Ascanius, was Eneas, called also Siluius, wherevnto the Greekes doe also accorde: but they name Syluius to be brother to Ascanius, and borne after the death of Eneas, and was therefore called Posthumus. But neyther the Romaynes nor the Gréekes doe write of any man cal∣led Brutus, before Iulius Brutus, which expelled Tarquinius out of Rome. Which name was also gy∣uen to him (by the sonnes of Tarquine) in derision, be∣cause they tooke him to bée foolishe and dull witted. Moreouer there is so much diuersitie betéewne Bri∣tannia, and Brutus, that it séemeth against reason, that the one should procéede of the other. For if Brutus had béene the giuer of the first name to this Ile, he woulde haue called it Brutia, or Brutica, rather then Britannia, which hath no maner proportion or analogie with Bru∣tus. But nowe will I (as I haue done in the worde Albion) declare a resonable cause of coniecture, why this Ile was named Britannia. About .30. yeares since, it happened in Wilshire, at Iuy Church, about twoo miles from Sarisbury, as men digged to make a foun∣dation, they found an hollowe stone couered with an o∣ther stone, wherein they founde a booke, hauing in it little aboue .xx. leaues (as they sayde) of verye thicke v••lume, wherein was something wrytten. But when it was shewed to priestes and Chanons, which were there, they coulde not reade it. Wherefore after they had tossed it from one to another (by the meanes whereof it was torne) they did neglect and cast it aside. Long after, a piece thereof happened to come to my handes: which notwithstanding it was all to rent and defaced, I shewed to mayster Richarde Pace, then chiefe Secretarie to the kynges most royall Maiestie, whereof he excéedingly reioyced. But bycause it was partely rent, partly defaced and blourred with wette which had fallen on it, he could not find any one sentence perfite. Notwithstanding, after long beholding, hée shewed mée, it séemed that the sayde booke conteyned some auncient monument of this Ile, and that he per∣ceyued thys worde Prytania, to bée put for Britannia. But at that tyme he sayde no more to me. Afterwarde▪ I giuing much studie and diligence to the reading of hystoryes, considering whereof thys worde Britannia first came, finding that all the Iles in this part of the Occean, were called Britanniae, after my first coniecture of Albion, remembring the said writing, and by chaunce finding in Suidas, that Prytania in Gréeke, with a cir∣cumflexed aspiration, doth signifie mettalles, fayres, and markets, also reuenues belonging to the common treasure: I then conceyued this opinion, that the Gréekes flourishing in wisedome, prowesse, and expe∣rience of sayling, beyng entered into the Occean sea, founde in the Iles great plentye of tynne, leade, yron, brasse, and in dyuers places golde and siluer in great