Why Was Ireland Sometimes Called Hibernia?

Hibernia was the latin/Roman name for Ireland. They called the northern part of the island Scotia after the trice the Scotti who lived there. the Scotti were later to give their name to Scotland.
The name Hibernia may derive from the Latin Hibernius meaning wintery. this is an apt name given the climate of Ireland for much of the year.
It is also said that the name may derive from Ivernia and a derivation of this was given to the island by Pytheas of Massilia who lived in the C4BC and was a Greek merchant.
Ireland or Hibernia was probably an unattractive place to the Romans and Greeks who thought it was a wild, cold place full of savages with frightening social customs! This possibly saved Ireland from much attention from Rome.
It is interesting that early Irish literature has no mention of the Romans - despite close links with Britain , Roman influence was very slight in Ireland.

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