Columbia (name) taken directly from Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels while" a few others were classical or neoclassical in style. Such were Ierne for Ireland, Iberia for Spain, Noveborac for New York (from Eboracum, the Roman name for York) and Columbia for America—at the time used in the sense of "European colonies in the New World". The name was perhaps first coined by Samuel Johnson, thought to have been the author of an introductory essay (in which Columbia already appears) which explained the conceit of substituting Lilliputian for English names; Johnson also wrote down the "Debates" from 1740 to 1743. The name continued
Eboracum of the period have been excavated. For the Romans, Eboracum, was the major military base in the north of Britain and, following the 3rd century division of the province of Britannia, the capital of northern Britain, Britannia Inferior. By 237 Eboracum had been made a colonia, the highest legal status a Roman city could attain, one of only four in Britain and the others were founded for retired soldiers. This mark of Imperial favour was probably a recognition of Eboracum as the largest town in the north and the capital of Britannia Inferior. At around the same time Eboracum became