Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/64

 44 THE DECLINE AND FALL Restora- tion of Britain by Theodosiua [Dux Britan nlanun] A.!). 366 370 shores of Kent. Every production of art and nature, every object of convenience or luxury, which they were incapable of creating by labour or procuring by trade, was accumulated in the rich and fruitful province of Britain.^^^ A philosopher may deplore the eternal discord of the human race, but he will confess that the desire of spoil is a more rational provocation than the vanity of conquest. From the age of Constantine to that of the Plantagenets, this rapacious spirit continued to in- stigate the poor and hardy Caledonians : but the same people, whose generous humanity seems to inspire the songs of Ossian, was disgraced by a savage ignorance of tlie virtues of peace and of the laws of war. Their southern neighbours have felt, and perhaps exaggerated, the cruel depredations of the Scots and Picts : ^^^ and a valiant tribe of Caledonia, the Attacotti,^^^ the enemies, and afterwards the soldiers, of Valentinian, are accused, by an eye-witness, of delighting in the taste of human flesh. When they hunted the woods for prey, it is said that they attacked the shepherd rather than his flock ; and that they curiously selected the most delicate and brawny parts, both of males and females, which they prepared for their horrid repasts. i-*^ If, in the neighbourhood of the commercial and literary town of Glasgow, a race of cannibals has really existed, we may contemplate, in the period of the Scottish history, the opposite extremes of savage and civilized life. Such reflections tend to enlarge the circle of our ideas : and to encourage the pleasing hope that New Zealand may produce, in some future age, the Hume of the Southern Hemisphere. Every messenger who escaped across the British channel con- veyed the most melancholy and alarming tidings to the ears of Valentinian ; and the emperor was soon informed that the two 11' The Caledonians praised and coveted the gold, the steeds, the lights, &c., of the stranger. See Dr. Blair's Dissertation on Ossian, vol. ii. p. 343 ; and Mr. Mac- pherson's Introduction, p. 242-286. 118 Lord Lyttleton has circumstantially related (History of Henry II. voL i. p. 182), and Sir David Dalrymple has slightly mentioned (.4nnals of Scotland, vol. i. p. 69), a barbarous inroad of the Scots, at a time (..D. 1137) when law, religion, and society must have softened their primitive manners. 119 Attacotti bellicosa hominum natio. Ammian. xxvii. 8. Cambden (Intro- duct, p. clii. ) has restored their tiiie name in the text of Jerom. The bands of Attacotli, which Jerom had seen in Gaul, were afterwards stationed in Italy and lllyricum (Notitia, S. viii. xxxix. xl). 1^0 Cum ipse adolescentulus in Gallii viderim Attacottos (or Scotos) gentem Britannicam humanis vesci carnibus ; et cum per silvas procorum greges, et armentorura pecudumque reperiant, pastorum nates ei feminarum patillas solere abscindere ; et has solas ciborum delicias arbitrari. Such is the evidence of Jerom (torn. ii. p. 7s), whose veracity I find no reason to question.