Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/493

Rh 471 SCOTLAND PART I. HISTORY. 1. Roman Period. The first certain lines of the histofy of Scotland were written by the Romans. Their account of its partial conquest and occupation for more than three hundred years gives the earliest facts to which Agrico- fixed dates can be assigned. The invasion commenced la's cam- by Julius Caesar reached in Agricola's last campaign paigns. ii m i|; S never afterwards exceeded. It was in the last year of Vespasian's life that Julius Agricola, the ablest general bred in his camp, came to command the army in Britain. Landing in midsummer 78, he at once commenced a cam- paign against Wales. In his second campaign he passed the Sol way and, defeating the tribes of Galloway, introduced rudiments of Roman civilization in the district where Ninian taught the rudiments of Christianity three centuries later. This was the first conquest within modern Scotland. Two main roads, of which traces can still be seen, mark his advance : the western, from Carlisle through Dumfries and Lanark, extends across the Clyde to Camelon on the Carron ; and the eastern, from Bremenium (High Rie- chester) in Northumberland, passes through Roxburgh and Lothian to the Forth at Cramond. Next year Agri- cola subdued unknown tribes, reached the estuary of the Tay, and occupied camps at various points of central Scotland, in the future shires of Stirling and Perth. Traces of them are still visible at Bochastle near Callander, Dalginross near Comrie, Fendoch on the Almond, Inver- almond at the junction of the Almond with the Tay near Perth, Ardargie on the north of the Ochils, and the great camp at Ardoch south of Crieff. The fourth year of his command was devoted to the construction of a line of forts between the Forth and the Clyde. This barrier, strength- ened by a wall in the reign of Antoninus Pius, guarded the conquests already made against the Caledonians the general Latin name of the northern tribes of the forests and mountains, the Highlanders of later times and, in connexion with camps already occupied in the lowlands of Perthshire, formed the base for further operations. In the fifth year Agricola crossed the Clyde, and, without making any permanent conquest on the western mainland, viewed from Cantyre the coast of Ireland. Statements by one of its chiefs as to the character and factions of that country, whose ports were already known to Roman mer- chants, led to the opinion communicated to Tacitus by Agricola, that with a single legion and a few auxiliaries he could reduce it to subjection. The number of legions in the Roman army of Britain was fixed at five, besides auxiliaries and cavalry, a total of perhaps 50,000 men. The resistance of northern Britain explains why the easier conquest was not undertaken. A year was required to explore the estuaries of the Forth and the Tay with the fleet. The absence of camps indicates that no attempt was made to conquer the peninsula of Fife, perhaps a separate kingdom ; and Agricola prepared to advance against the Caledonians. Two years' fighting, although Tacitus chronicles only an assault on the advanced camp of the IXth legion (at Lintrose (?) near Coupar Angus), passed before the final engagement known in history as the battle of the Grampians (84). It was probably fought in the hilly country of the Stormont near Blairgowrie, the Celts descend- ing from strongholds in the lowest spurs of the Grampians and attacking the Romans, whose camp lay near the junc- tion of the Isla and the Tay. It decided that the Roman conquest was to stop at the Tay. Galgacus, the Caledonian leader, was, according to the Roman historian, defeated ; but in the following winter Agricola retreated to the camps between the Forth and the Clyde, while the fleet 78-120. was sent round Britain. Starting probably from the Forth and rounding the northern capes, it returned after establishing the fact, already suspected, and of so much consequence in future history, that Britain was an island, planting during its progress the Roman standard on the Orkneys, which had for several centuries been known by report, and sighting Shetland, the Thule of earlier navi- gators. Agricola, with one legion probably the IXth, which had suffered most was now recalled by Domitian. The absence of any notice of Britain for twenty years implies the cessation of further advances, a change of policy due to the reverses in the Dacian War and the financial condition of the empire. The indefatigable Hadrian came to Britain (120) with Ha- the Vlth legion, named Victrix, which replaced the IXth. drian ' s He began, and his favourite general Aulus Plautorius wal1 ' Nepos completed,, between the mouth of the Tyne near Newcastle and the Solway near Carlisle, the great wall of stone (see HADRIAN, WALL OF), about 80 miles in length, 16 feet high, and 8 feet thick, protected on the north by a trench 34 feet wide and 9 deep, with two parallel earthen ramparts and a trench on the south, proving the line required defence on both sides. Massive fragments of the wall, its stations, castles, and protecting camps, with the foundation of a bridge over the North Tyne, may be still seen. It was garrisoned by the Vlth legion, and by the Xlth and XXth, which remained throughout the whole Roman occupation. The conquests of Agricola in what is modern Scotland were for a time abandoned. Hadrian's wall was the symbol of the strength of Rome, and also of the valour of the northern Britons. There must have been a stubborn resistance to induce the conquerors of the world to set a limit to their province, though the roads through the wall showed they did not intend this limit to be permanent. The first step had been taken. The country between the Tyne and Solway and the Forth and Clyde, including the southern Lowlands of Scotland, was now within the scope of Roman history, if not yet of Roman civilization. The country north of the last two rivers remained barbarous and unknown under its Celtic chiefs. Hadrian had thus resumed the task of Agricola, in one of the rapid campaigns by which he consolidated the empire through visits to its most distant parts ; but it is doubtful whether he passed beyond the wall, which continued to separate the Romans from the barbarians. In the reign of his successor, Antoninus Pius, Lollius Urbicus recovered the country from the wall of Hadrian to the forts of Agricola, and built an earthen rampart about half the length of the southern wall, 20 feet high and 24 thick, protected on the north by a trench 40 feet wide and 20 deep. It was known later as Grim's or Graham's dyke. Remains may yet be seen between Carriden near Borrowstounness on the Forth and West Kilpatrick on the Clyde, with forts either then or sub- sequently erected at intermediate stations, connected by a military road on the south of the wall. About this period Ptolemy composed the first geography of the Ptolemy's world, illustrated by maps probably constructed somewhat later geography. of Ireland and Britain, still called Albion. 1 South of modern Scotland the plan and description of the distances are generally accurate, but north of the Solway (Itunse jEstuarium) and the Wear (? Vedra) the island is figured as lying west and east instead 1 His information must have come from Roman officers, who, we know, studied this branch of the military art, as maps have been found paiuted on the porticos of their villas.