Did any ancient Greeks visit Britain?

Pytheas wrote an account of his voyage, On the Ocean, which became something of a sensation. It has since been lost, though, so what we know about Pytheas comes from other ancient Greek or Roman scholars, many of whom believed he made it all up – his claims of solidified or frozen seas was deemed too outlandish.

Yet it has been suggested that Pytheas actually made it to the Shetland Islands, Denmark and the Baltic – possibly even Iceland, too.

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This content first appeared in the June 2021 issue of BBC History Revealed