Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/494

Rh 472 SCOTLAND [HISTORY. 161-364. of north and south. Learned ingenuity corrects this error and, by other modifications and the use of a few points deemed certain, applies the names of Ptolemy to places on the map of modern Scotland. But the certain points are almost confined to the Clyde (Glotta .3stuarium), the Forth (Boderia^Estuarium), the Tay (Tava jEstuarium), and perhaps the Wear (Vedra) and the Nith (Novius), the Caledonian Wood (Caledonia Silva), and the Orkneys (Orcades). Even if the other identifications were clear, it would not add much to our knowledge of ancient Scotland. The names of Ptolemy are names on his map and in books only. No tribe (except the Caledonii), no town, no river (except the Forth and Clyde and Tay), no island (except the Orkneys), was, so far as we know, called before or since by the names which there appear. No in- scription or coin confirms them. No mountains in this land of mountains are to be found on the plan of the geographer. Etymo- logical conjecture, after allowance for mispronunciation and errors of transcribers, fails to reconcile the names of Ptolemy with the oldest names of Celtic origin still retained by the rivers and hills. Yet the attempt represents the highest knowledge embodied in writing to which the Romans attained of this distant and disputed part of the empire, for the Itineraries, except the forged one attri- buted to Richard of Cirencester, stop at Hadrian's wall. His treatise remained until the revival of learning the only written geographical description of the country from which the learned could picture northern Britain. With all its imperfections and mistakes, it conveyed in rough outline the figure of a country to the west of the European continent, to the north of the Roman province of Britain, to the east of Ireland, surrounded by the German Ocean, the Northern Ocean, and the Irish Channel, with bold promontories and many rivers (several tidal), peopled by various tribes, its towns chiefly on the rivers or the coast, and in its centre the vast forest to which the Caledonians gave or from which they received their name, itself the northern part of the largest British island, with groups of smaller isles lying off its northern and western shores. This region was unknown to Ctesar and imperfectly known to Tacitus, the only writer of the first Tacitus's century to whom we can resort. Yet the description of the account Britons by the greatest historical genius of Rome, based on the of inha- account of one of its greatest generals, attempts a discrimination bitants. between the Celtic tribes first and those afterwards conquered, which may perhaps be applied to the inhabitants of the north as contrasted with those of the south of Britain. "Whether the inhabitants of Britain were indigenous or foreigners, being barbarian, they did not take the trouble to inquire. The different character of their bodily appearance in different parts of the island gave rise to arguments. The red hair and big limbs of the natives of Caledonia point to a German origin. The coloured faces of the Silures, their hair generally plaited, and Spain being opposite give credit to the opinion that the ancient Iberi had migrated and occupied these settlements. Those nearest the Gauls were like them, whether on account of the enduring force of descent or the position of the sky determining in lands adjoin- ing the character of the races. On a general view it is credible that the Gauls occupied the neighbouring island. You may detect the same sacred rites and superstitions. There is not much difference in their language. There is the same daring in demand- ing, the same fear in declining danger. The Britons exhibit greater fierceness, as a long peace has not yet softened them. For we have heard that the Gauls also were distinguished in war, until sloth came with ease and valour was lost with freedom. This too has been the case with the Britons formerly conquered. The rest remain what the Gauls were. Their strength is in their foot ; some tribes, however, fight also from chariots. The noble drives ; his followers are in front. Formerly they obeyed kings. Now they are distracted by parties and factions amongst their chiefs, and the want of common counsel is most useful to us. An agree- ment between two or three states to resist a common danger is rare ; so while they fight singly the whole are defeated." In the account of the battle of the Grampian Mount and the speech of Galgacns there is little that is local or individual. What the Celtic chief said in an unknown tongue can scarcely have been literally interpreted to the Romans. The historian trained in oratory embodies in Latin eloquence the universal sentiments of freedom. It may be thought, however, that the soil and air of Scotland favour independence of action and thought, and that the words, whether of Tacitus or of Galgacus, contain an unconscious prophecy of passages in its future annals and traits in the char- acter of its people not yet obliterated. In the first century of the Christian era Scotland was the scene of events which belong to universal history. Hadrian The necessity of the walls of Hadrian and Antonine to protect the Roman province soon appeared. It is doubt- Severus. j u j j 1W j on g Qr Curing vvna t intervals the country between them remained subject. Few coins of emperors later than Antonine have been found to the north of Hadrian's wall. In the reign of Aurelius, the philosophic emperor, war was not encouraged ; but Calphurnius Agricola had to be sent (161) as legate and proprietor to Britain to prevent incur- sions of the northern tribes. In that of Commodus a more formidable invasion passed the wall, but Ulpius Marcellus drove back the Britons and repaired it, gaining for Commodus the title of Britannicus. While Septiniius Severus was removing rivals from his path, his legate, Virius Lupus, purchased peace (201) from the Meata?, a tribe of central Scotland now first named, who along with the Caledonii supersede the older designations of Tacitus and Ptolemy for the population in the vicinity and to the north of Antonine's wall, until in the latter half of the 4th century the Picts and Scots appear. Seven years later (208) Severus, with his sons Caracalla and Geta, came, Severn like Edward I. in his last campaign, worn out in body in but not in spirit, to Britain. 1 After repairing the " breaches in Hadrian's wall he not only reconquered the country between it and the wall of Antonine, which he restored, but, passing beyond the steps of Agricola, carried the Roman eagles to the most northern points they reached. The traces of Roman roads from Falkirk to Stirling, through Strathearn to Perth, thence through Forfar, Mearns, and Aberdeen to the Moray Firth, and of Roman camps at Wardykes (Keithock), Raedykes (Stonehaven), Norman Dykes (on the Dee), and Raedykes on the Ythan belong to this period and represent an attempt to subdue or overawe the whole island. The historian Dion does not conceal the failure of the enter- prise, which he ascribes to the illness that terminated in the death of Severus at York (211). He adds a little to our knowledge of the Caledonians by describing the painting of their bodies with forms of animals, their scanty clothing and iron ornaments, their arms a sword, small shield, and spear, without helmets or breastplates their chariots, and their mode of warfare by rapid attack and as rapid retreat to the forest and the marsh. Being without towns, they lived on the produce of herds and the chase, not on fish, though they had plenty. Their mode of government he calls democratic, doubtless from the absence of any conspicuous king rather than of chiefs. From the death of Severus to the accession of Constan- Const tius Chlorus, a period of nearly a century, the history of tills ^ northern Britain is unknown. In the first (305) of the two years of his reign Constantius defeated the tribes between the walls called by Eumenius the Panegyrist "the Caledonians and other Picts," a name now first heard, and by this association identified with the Caledo- nians. Next year Constantius died at York ; and for more than fifty years a veil is again drawn over northern Britain. It was during this period that Constantine was converted to Christianity, which his father Constantius had favoured during the persecutions of Diocletian. So rapid was the progress of the church in the British province that only ten years after the martyrdom of St Alban Celtic bishops of York, London, and Caerleon probably the place of that name on the Usk were present at the council of Aries. In 360 the Scots are for the first time named, by Ammianus Marcellinus, who records their descent along with the Picts upon the Roman pro- vince in terms which imply that they had before passed the southern wall. Four years later the Picts, Saxons, Scots, and Attacotts are said by the same writer to have caused the Britons perpetual anxiety ; but Theodosius, father of the emperor of the same name, repulsed them 1 Papinian, the great jurist, then administered justice at York. Whether the Roman law so introduced survived in any part of modem England is a problem not yet solved ; it certainly did not beyond the wall. The Roman substratum of Scottish law was of later origin, derived chiefly from the canon law of the church.