Chapter I

ADVANCE OF THE ROMANS TO THE FIRTHS OF FORTH AND CLYDE.

[Sidenote: Early notices of the British Isles.]

As early as the sixth century before the Christian era, and while their knowledge of Northern Europe was still very imperfect, the Greeks had already become aware of the existence of the British Isles. This comparatively early knowledge of Britain was derived from the trade in tin, for which there existed at that period an extensive demand in the East. It was imported by sea by the Phœnicians, and by their colony, the Carthaginians, who extended their voyages beyond the Pillars of Hercules; and was subsequently prosecuted as a land trade by their commercial rivals, the Greek colonists of Marseilles.

A Greek poet, writing under the name of Orpheus, but whose real date may be fixed at the sixth century, mentions these remote islands under the name of the Iernian Isles;[19] but in the subsequent century they were known to Herodotus as the Cassiterides, or Tin Islands,[20] a name derived from the chief article of the trade through which all report of their existence was as yet derived.

In the fourth century they are alluded to by Aristotle as two very large islands beyond the Pillars of Hercules; and, while the name of Britannia was now from henceforth applied, especially by the Greek writers, to the group of islands, of whose number and size but vague notions were still entertained, the two principal islands appear for the first time under the distinctive appellations of Albion and Ierne.[21]

Polybius, in the second century before Christ, likewise alludes to the Britannic Islands beyond the Pillars of Hercules, and to the working of the mines by the inhabitants.[22]

Besides these direct allusions to the British Isles, we have preserved to us by subsequent writers an account of these islands from each of the two sources of information—the Phœnician voyages and the land trade of the Phocæans of Marseilles—in the narratives of the expeditions of Himilco and Pytheas.

Himilco was a Carthaginian who was engaged in the Phœnician maritime trade in the sixth century, and the traditionary account of his voyage is preserved by a comparatively late writer, Festus Rufus Avienus. In his poetical Description of the World, written from the account of Himilco, he mentions the plains of the Britons and the distant Thule, and talks of the sacred isle peopled by the nation of the Hiberni and the adjacent island of the Albiones.[23]

Pytheas was a Massilian. His account of his journey is preserved by the geographer Strabo, and appears to have been received with great distrust. He stated that he had sailed round Spain and the half of Britain; ascertained that the latter was an island; made a voyage of six days to the island of Thule, and then returned. From him Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, and Pliny derived their information as to the size of the islands, and his statement made known for the first time the names of three promontories—Cantium or Kent, Belerium or Land’s End, and Orcas, or that opposite the Orkneys.[24]

But although the existence of the British Isles was thus known at an early period to the classic writers under specific names, and some slender information acquired through the medium of the early tin trade as to their position and magnitude, it was not till the progress of the Roman arms and their lust of conquest had brought their legions into actual contact with the native population, that any information as to the inhabitants of these islands was obtained.

[Sidenote: B.C. 55.
Invasion of Julius Cæsar.]

The invasion of Britain by Julius Cæsar in the year 55 before the Christian era, although it added no new territory to the already overgrown empire of the Romans, and was probably undertaken more with the view of adding to the military renown of the great commander, for the first time made the Romans acquainted with some of the tribes inhabiting that, to them, distant and almost inaccessible isle, and added distinctness and definiteness to their previously vague conception of its characteristics. Its existence was now not merely a geographical speculation, but a political fact in the estimation of those by whom the destinies of the world were then swayed—an element that might possibly enter into their political combinations.

The conquests of Julius Cæsar in Britain, limited in extent and short-lived in duration, were not followed up. The policy of the subsequent emperors involved the neglect of Britain as an object of conquest; and, while it now assumed a more definite position in the writings of Greek and Roman geographers, they have left us nothing but the names of a few southern tribes and localities which do not concern the object before us, and a statement regarding the general population which is of more significance.

Cæsar sums up his account by telling us that the interior of Britain was inhabited by those who were considered to be indigenous, and the maritime part by those who had passed over from Belgium, the memory of whose emigration was preserved by their new insular possessions bearing the same name with the continental states from which they sprang. He describes the country as very populous, the people as pastoral, but using iron and brass, and the inhabitants of the interior as less civilised than those on the coasts. The former he paints as clothed in skins, and as not resorting to the cultivation of the soil for food, but as dependent upon their cattle and the flesh of animals slain in hunting for subsistence. He ascribes to all those customs which seem to have been peculiar to the Britons. They stained their bodies with woad, which gave them a green colour, from which the Britons were termed ‘Virides’ and ‘Cærulei.’ They had wives in common. They used chariots in war, and Cæsar bears testimony to the bravery with which they defended their woods and rude fortresses, as well as encountered the disciplined Roman troops in the field. He mentions the island Hibernia as less than Britannia by one-half, and about as far from it as the latter is from Gaul, and an island termed ‘Mona’ in the middle of the channel between the two larger islands.[25]

Strabo and Diodorus Siculus have preserved any additional accounts of the inhabitants which the Romans received during the succeeding reigns of Augustus and Tiberius. They describe the Britons as taller than the Gauls, with hair less yellow, and slighter in their persons; and Strabo distinguishes between that portion of them whose manners resembled those of the Gauls and those who were more simple and barbarous, and were unacquainted with agriculture—manifestly the inhabitants of the interior whom Cæsar considered to be indigenous. He describes the peculiarity of their warfare, their use of chariots, and their towns as enclosures made in the forests, with ramparts of hewn trees. He mentions the inhabitants of ‘Ierne’ as more barbarous, regarding whom reports of cannibalism and the promiscuous intercourse of the sexes were current.[26] Diodorus gives a more favourable picture of the inhabitants who were considered to be the aborigines of the island, and attributes to them the simple virtues of the pure and early state of society fabled by the poets. He alludes to their use of chariots and their simple huts, and adds to Strabo’s account that they stored the ears of corn under ground. He represents them as simple, frugal, and peaceful in their mode of life. Those near the promontory of Belerion or Land’s End he describes as more civilised, owing to their intercourse with strangers.[27]

Thus all agree in distinguishing between the simple and rude inhabitants of the interior, who were considered to be indigenous, and the more civilised people of the eastern and southern shores who were believed to have passed over from Gaul.

[Sidenote: A.D. 43.
Formation of province in reign of Claudius.]

It was not till the reign of Claudius that any effectual attempt was renewed to subject the British tribes to the Roman yoke; but the second conquest under that emperor speedily assumed a more permanent character than the first under Julius Cæsar, and the conquered territory was formed into a province of the Roman empire. During this intervening period of nearly a century, we know nothing of the internal history of the population of Britain; but the indications which have reached us of a marked and easily-recognised distinction between two great classes of the inhabitants, and of the progressive immigration of one of them from Belgium, and the analogy of history, lead to the inference that during this period—ample for such a purpose—the stronger and more civilised race must have spread over a larger space of the territory, and the ruder inhabitants of the interior been gradually confined to the wilder regions of the north and west. The name of Britannia having gradually superseded the older appellation of Albion, and the latter, if it is synonymous with Alba or Alban, becoming confined to the wilder regions of the north, lead to the same inference.

As soon as the conquests of the Romans in Britain assumed the form of a province of the empire, all that they possessed in the island was termed ‘Britannia Romana,’ all that was still hostile to them, ‘Britannia Barbara.’ The conquered tribes became the inhabitants of a Roman province, subject to her laws, and sharing in some of her privileges. The tribes beyond the limits of the province were to them ‘Barbari.’ An attention to the application of these terms affords the usual indication of the extent of the Roman province at different times, and, if the history of the more favoured southern portion of the island must find its earliest annals in the Roman provinces of Britain, it is to the ‘Barbari’ we must turn in order to follow the fortunes of the ruder independence of the northern tribes. It will be necessary, therefore, for our purpose, that we should trace the gradual extension of the boundary of the Roman province and the advance of the line of demarcation between what was provincial and what was termed barbarian, till we find the independent tribes of Britain confined within the limits of that portion of the island separated from the rest by the Firths of Forth and Clyde.

It was in the year of our Lord 43, and in the reign of the Emperor Claudius, that the real conquest of Britain commenced under Aulus Plautius, and in seven years after the beginning of the war a part of the island had been reduced by that general and by his successor into the form of a province, and annexed to the Roman empire,—a result to which the valour and military talent of Vespasian, then serving under these generals, and afterwards Emperor, appears mainly to have contributed. In the year 50, under Ostorius, and perhaps his successor, the Roman province appears to have already extended to the Severn on the west, and to the Humber on the north.[28]

Beyond its limits, on the west, were the warlike tribes of the Silures and the Ordovices, against whom the province was defended by a line of forts drawn from the river Sabrina or Severn, to a river, which cannot be identified with certainty, termed by Tacitus the Antona.[29] On the north lay the numerous and widely-extended tribes of the Brigantes, extending across the entire island from the Eastern to the Western Sea, and reaching from the Humber, which separated them from the province on the south, as far north, there seems little reason to doubt, as the Firth of Forth.[30] Beyond the nation of the Brigantes on the north, the Romans as yet knew nothing save that Britain was believed to be an island, and that certain islands termed Orcades[31] lay to the north of it; but the names even of the more northern tribes had not yet reached them.

[Sidenote: A.D. 50. War with the Brigantes.]

It is to the war with the Brigantes that we must mainly turn, in order to trace the progress of the Roman arms, and the extension of the frontier of the Roman province beyond the Humber. The Romans appear to have come in contact with the Brigantes for the first time in the course of the war carried on by Publius Ostorius, appointed governor of Britain in the year 50. That general had arrived in the island towards the end of summer; and the Barbarians, or those of the Britons still hostile to the Romans, believing he would not undertake a winter campaign, took advantage of his arrival at so late a period of the year to make incursions into the territory subject to Rome. Among these invading tribes were probably the Brigantes; but the general, by a rapid and energetic movement, put the enemy to flight, and it was on this occasion that the province was protected against the western tribes by a chain of forts. Having defeated the powerful nation of the Iceni, who endeavoured to obstruct his purpose by an attack from a different quarter, and who were destined at a subsequent period to place the Roman dominion in Britain in the utmost jeopardy, Ostorius reduced the tribes within the limits of the subjugated territory to entire obedience, and now turned his attention to more aggressive measures against those beyond its boundary.

His first attack was directed against the hostile tribes of the west, and he had penetrated into their mountain territory nearly as far as the sea, when he was obliged to turn his steps towards the north by the threatening aspect of the powerful nation of the Brigantes, whom, however, on this occasion he soon reduced to subjection. Those he found in arms were cut to pieces, and the rest of the nation submitted.

On again turning his steps towards the west, he found the nations of the Silures and Ordovices assembled under the command of the celebrated native chief Caractacus, and a great battle took place, in which the discipline of the Roman troops prevailed over the acknowledged bravery of the natives, even although the latter occupied a well-chosen position of unusual strength. The army of Caractacus was defeated, his wife and daughter taken prisoners, while he himself fled for protection to Cartismandua, queen of the Brigantes, but that queen, being then at peace with the Romans, delivered him up to them.

On the death of Ostorius, which took place in the same year, Aulus Didius was sent to Britain as the next commander, and under him a more prolonged war with the Brigantes commenced, which throws some light on their internal condition. After the defeat and death of Caractacus, the most distinguished native leader was Venusius, a Brigantian, who belonged to a sept of that nation termed by Tacitus the ‘Jugantes.’[32] He had married Cartismandua, the queen of the whole nation, and, while this marriage subsisted, had remained equally faithful to the Romans. Dissensions, however, arose between them. Venusius was driven from his throne, and his brother, with the rest of his kindred, seized by the queen, who raised Villocatus, his armour-bearer, to her throne and bed. This quarrel led to a civil war between the adherents of Venusius and those of the queen, and this great nation became divided into two factions.[33] That part of the nation which adhered to Venusius, and which there is reason to believe consisted of the more northern tribes, was from that time in active hostility to the Romans. They had attacked Cartismandua, who was only enabled to maintain her position by obtaining the assistance of the Roman army. The short but significant expressions of Tacitus show that the war was not an easy one for the Romans, and that they could do little more than maintain their own ground and the position of their ally.

We hear no more of this war till after that great insurrection of the Roman provincials under Boadicea or Bondiuca, queen of the Iceni, which shook the Roman power in Britain to its foundation, and had nearly resulted in their entire expulsion from the island. A struggle such as the language of the historians shows this to have been must necessarily have been a vital one on both sides; and hence, when the Roman arms eventually prevailed, the result produced a firm consolidation of their power in that part of the island which formed the Roman province. The immediate subject before us—the extension of the Roman power towards the north, and the gradual advance of the northern frontier of the province—renders it unnecessary for us to dwell with any minuteness upon their contests with the native tribes in other quarters. It is sufficient to notice that Veranius succeeded Aulus Didius, but died within the year, and that under Suetonius Paulinus, one of the most distinguished of the Roman commanders in Britain, and the governor by whom the great insurrection of the Iceni was finally quelled, the western tribes were finally brought under the dominion of the Romans.

[Sidenote: A.D. 69. War with the Brigantes renewed.]

We find the Brigantes again in hostility to the Romans during the government of Vettius Bolanus, which commenced in the year 69. Venusius appears to have maintained an independent position and a hostile attitude towards the Romans throughout, and a lengthened civil war had continued to prevail between his adherents and that part of the nation which remained subject to Cartismandua, and in this war the Romans once more took part under Vettius Bolanus. Venusius was at the head of a powerful army, and the subjects of the queen flocked daily to his standard. Cartismandua was reduced to the last extremity, and invoked the protection of the Romans, who sent troops to her assistance. The war was prosecuted with varied success; many battles were fought; but Venusius succeeded in obtaining the throne of the whole nation.[34] Under Petilius Cerealis, the successor of Vettius Bolanus, who was sent by the Emperor Vespasian to reduce the Brigantes, the war was brought to a conclusion. With the assistance of a powerful army, which struck terror into the natives, he attacked the whole nation of the Brigantes; and, after a struggle, in which various battles were fought and much slaughter took place, he subjected the greater part of the extensive territory in the possession of that powerful nation to the Romans. This conquest was maintained by his successor Julius Frontinus.[35]

It was during this war with the Brigantes, in which the Roman troops had probably frequently approached the more northern portion of their territories, that the Romans became aware of the name of the people who occupied the country beyond them, and acquired some information connected with these more northern and hitherto unknown districts. They now learned the existence of a people to the north of the Brigantes, whom they termed ‘Caledonii Britanni,’ or Caledonian Britons.[36] The Western Sea which bounded them they termed the ‘Caledonius Oceanus.’[37] The war under Vettius Bolanus had, it was supposed, reached the Caledonian plains.[38] On the conclusion of the war the Roman province approached the vicinity of the ‘Sylva Caledonia,’ or Caledonian Forest.[39] They now knew of the ‘Promontorium Caledoniæ,’ or Promontory of Caledonia, by which they must have meant the peninsula of Kintyre. From thence could be seen the islands of the Hebudes, five in number;[40] and they had heard reports of a singular state of society among their inhabitants. It was reported that they knew nothing of the cultivation of the ground, but lived upon fish and milk, which latter implies the possession of herds of cattle. They had, it was said, one king, who was not allowed to possess property, lest it should lead him to avarice and injustice, or a wife, lest a legitimate family should provoke ambition.[41] In short, they learned that there existed among this new people a state of society similar to that which Cæsar reported to have found among the indigenous inhabitants of the interior of Britain. The Orkneys they already knew by report.

The name of Thule was familiar to them as an island whose situation and attributes were entirely the creation of imagination. The geographers knew of it as a remote island in the Northern Ocean, the type of whatever was most northern in the known western world, as the expression Hyperborean had been to the Greeks. The poets applied it as a poetical appellation for that part of Britain which remained inaccessible to the Roman arms, the seat of the recently known Caledonian Britons, and which, from the deep indentation into the country of the Firths of Forth and Clyde, and the narrow neck of land between them, presented the appearance as if it were, to use the words of Tacitus, another island. The peculiar customs of the ruder Britons are attributed to these inhabitants of the poetic Thule. They are termed ‘Cærulei’ or Green, from the woad with which they stained their bodies; and they are said to have fought in chariots.[42]

[Sidenote: A.D. 78. Arrival of Julius Agricola as governor.]

Such was the state of Britain, and such the knowledge the Romans now possessed of its northern districts and tribes, when, in the middle of the summer of the year 78, Julius Agricola arrived to take the government of Britain. The frontiers of the Roman province had been extended over the western tribes of Wales, and advanced beyond the Humber to the north, till they embraced the greater part of the territories of the Brigantes, and its northern limit certainly touched upon the Solway Firth in the north-west, while it did not probably fall much short of the Firth of Forth on the north-east. The present southern boundary of Scotland seems to have represented the northern limit of the Roman province at this time, and Agricola was thus the first to carry the Roman arms within the limits of that part of Britain which afterwards constituted the kingdom of Scotland.

Agricola had every circumstance in his favour in commencing his government which could tend to a distinguished result, and the consciousness of this probably led him to desire to add the wild and barren regions of the north to the acquisitions of Rome—a design which could not be justified on any considerations of sound policy, and for which, in encountering natives apparently of a different race, there was little excuse. He had already served under three of the governors of Britain, two of these, Petilius Cerealis and Suetonius Paulinus, among the most distinguished. He was familiar with all the characteristics and peculiarities of a war with the British tribes. He had acquired no small renown for military talent and success, and had given evidence of those enlarged conceptions of policy and views of government which could not but greatly affect the state and progress of the province under his charge.

The appointment of a new governor seems generally to have been a signal to the persevering hostility of the British tribes to strike a blow for their independence, till practical experience of the qualities of their antagonist showed them whether success was likely to attend a prosecution of the war; and accordingly the first year of a new government appears always to have been marked by the insurrection of one or more of the subjugated tribes. On the arrival of Agricola he found the western nation of the Ordovices in open insurrection. The summer was far advanced, and the Roman troops stationed at different quarters expected a cessation of arms during the rest of the year; but, adopting the policy of Suetonius, Agricola at once drew the troops together, and attacking the enemy, the Ordovices were defeated in battle and entirely crushed for the time. Agricola, still having the example of Suetonius before him, followed up his advantage and accomplished what the latter had attempted, the subjugation of the island of Mona or Anglesea.

Peace being restored, Agricola now directed his attention to a better administration of the province, and to the introduction of those measures most likely to lead to the consolidation of the Roman power and the quiet submission of the inhabitants of the province. Justice and moderation were the characteristics of his government. An equal administration of the laws, and the removal of those burdens and exactions which pressed most heavily upon the natives, could not but in time have the desired effect.

[Sidenote: A.D. 79. Second Campaign of Agricola; over-runs districts on
the Solway.]

As soon as the summer of the next year arrived, Agricola proceeded to carry into execution his deliberately-formed plan for the subjugation of the northern tribes who had hitherto maintained their independence, and, indeed, had not as yet come into hostile collision with the Roman power in Britain. He appears to have directed his course towards the Solway Firth, and slowly and steadily penetrated into the wild country which stretches along its northern shore, and brought the tribes which possessed it under subjection.[43] These tribes seem to have formed part of the great nation of the Brigantes, a portion of whose territories had remained unsubdued by his predecessor Petilius Cerealis. He surrounded the subjugated tribes with forts and garrisons, and the remains of the numerous Roman camps and stations, which are still to be seen in this district, comprising the counties of Dumfries, Kirkcudbright, and Wigtown, attest the extent to which he had penetrated through that country and garrisoned it with Roman troops. Between the hills which bound Galloway and Dumfriesshire on the north and the Solway Firth on the south, the remains of Roman works are to be found in abundance from the Annan to the Cree, and surround the mouth of every river which pours its waters into that estuary.[44] The great and extensive nation of the Brigantes was now entirely included within the limits of the Roman province; and Agricola saw before him a barren and hilly region which divided it from the northern tribes, still comparatively unknown except by name to the Romans, and with whom their arms had not yet come in contact.

The following winter was devoted to reducing the turbulent character of the nations recently added to the province to the quiet submission of provincial subjects. The policy adopted was the effectual one of introducing a taste for the habits and pleasures of civilised life. He encouraged them to build temples, courts of justice, and houses of a better description. He took measures for the education of the young. The natives soon began to study the Roman language and to adopt their dress, and by degrees acquired a taste for the luxurious and voluptuous life of the Romans, of which the numerous remains of Roman baths which have been discovered within the limits of the Brigantian territory afford no slight indication.[45]

[Sidenote: A.D. 80. Third summer; ravages to the Tay.]

The third year introduced Agricola to regions hitherto untrodden by Roman foot. He penetrated with his army through the hilly region which separates the waters pouring their floods into the Solway from those which flow towards the Clyde. He entered a country occupied by ‘new nations,’[46] and ravaged their territories as far as the estuary of the ‘Tavaus’ or Tay. His course appears, so far as we can judge by the remains of the Roman camps, to have been from Annandale to the strath of the river Clyde, through Lanarkshire and Stirlingshire, whence he passed into the vale of Stratherne by the great entrance into the northern districts during the early period of Scottish history—the ford of the Forth at Stirling, and the pass through the range of the Ochills formed by the glen of the river Allan, and reached as far as where the river Tay flows into the estuary of the same name.[47]

The country thus rapidly acquired was secured by forts, which, says the historian, were so admirably placed, that none were either taken or surrendered; and these we can no doubt still recognise in the remains of those strong Roman fortified posts which we find placed opposite the entrance of the principal passes in the Grampians—the stationary camps of Bochastle at the Pass of Leny, Dealgan Ross at Comrie, Fendoch at the pass of the Almond, the camp at the junction of the Almond and the Tay, and the fort at Ardargie. These obviously surround the very territory which Agricola had just overrun, and are well calculated to protect it against the invasions of the natives from the recesses of the mountains, into which the Roman arms could not follow them; while the great camp at Ardoch marks the position of the entire Roman army. In consequence of these posts being thus maintained, the Roman troops retained possession of the newly-acquired territory during the winter.

[Sidenote: A.D. 81.
Fourth summer; fortifies the isthmus between Forth and
Clyde.]

Agricola, with his usual policy, took measures still further to secure the country he had already gained before he attempted to push his conquests farther; and the position of the Firths of Forth and Clyde, and the comparatively narrow neck of land between these, presented itself to him as so remarkable a natural boundary, that he fixed upon it as the frontier of the future province. The fourth summer was therefore spent in securing this barrier, which he fortified by a chain of posts from the eastern to the western firth.[48] From the shores of the Forth in the neighbourhood of Borrowstounness to Old Kilpatrick on the Clyde, these forts extended westward at intervals of from two to three miles. In front of them stretches what must have been a morass, and on the heights on the opposite side of the valley are a similar range of native hill-forts.

Having thus secured the country he had already overrun, Agricola now prepared for the subjugation of the tribes which lay still farther to the north. The formidable character of this undertaking, even to the experienced Roman general, may be estimated by the cautious and deliberate manner in which he prepared for a great struggle; and in the position in which he then found himself, the conception of such a plan must have required no ordinary power of firm determination. Before him, the more northern regions were protected by a great natural barrier formed by two important arms of the sea, which in any farther advance he must leave behind him. Between these two estuaries he had drawn a line of forts as the formal boundary, for the time, of the province. Beyond them, at the distance of not many miles, were the forts he had placed the year before the last, in which a few of the troops maintained themselves in the precarious possession of a district he acknowledged to be still hostile. On one side the rough line of the Fifeshire coast stretched on the north side of Bodotria, or the Firth of Forth, into the German Ocean. On the other a mountainous region was seen tending towards the Caledonian or Western Ocean; and the northern horizon presented to his view the great range of the so-called Grampians, extending from the vicinity of the Roman stations in one formidable array of mountains towards the north-east as far as the eye could reach. Of the extent of the country beyond them; of the numbers and warlike character of the tribes its recesses concealed; of whether the island still stretched far to the north, or whether he was at no great distance from its northern promontories; of whether its breadth was confined to what he had already experienced, or whether unknown regions, peopled by tribes more warlike than those he had already encountered, stretched far into the Eastern and Western Seas, he as yet knew nothing.

[Sidenote: A.D. 82.
Fifth summer; visits Argyll and Kintyre.]

His first object, therefore, was to form some estimate of the real character of the undertaking before him. With this view, and in order to ascertain the character of the western side of the country before him, he in the fifth summer crossed the Firth of Clyde with a small body of troops in one vessel, and penetrated through the hostile districts of Cowall and Kintyre till he saw the Western Ocean, with the coast running due north, presenting in the interior one mass of inaccessible mountains, the five islands of the Hebudes, and the blue shores of Ireland dimly rising above the western horizon.[49] The character of the country on the west being thus ascertained, he determined to make his attack by forcing his way through the country on the east, and, fearing a combination of the more northern tribes, he combined the fleet with the army in his operations.

[Sidenote: A.D. 83-86.
Three years’ war north of the Forth.]

Having crossed the former in the beginning of the sixth summer to explore the harbours on the coast of Fife, he appears to have had his army conveyed across the Bodotria, or Firth of Forth, into the rough peninsula of Fife on the north side of it, and to have gradually, but thoroughly, acquired possession of the country between the Firths of Forth and Tay, while his fleet encircled the coast of Fife, and penetrated into the latter estuary. The appearance of the Roman fleet in the Firth of Tay, making their way, as it were, into the recesses of the country, naturally caused great alarm among the natives; and in order to compel Agricola to abandon his attack on this quarter, they took up arms and assailed the forts which had been placed by him in the country west of the Tay in the third year of his campaigns.

That this movement was well devised appears from the proposal of many in Agricola’s army to abandon the country they had just subdued, and fall back upon the line of forts between the Firths of Forth and Clyde. Agricola was at this time probably near the entrance of the river Tay into its estuary, and the large temporary camp on the east bank of the Tay opposite Perth, termed Grassy Walls, may have been his position. Instead of adopting this course, he resolved, trusting to the security of the forts against any attack, to meet the manœuvre of the natives by prosecuting his attack upon the country extending from the east coast north of the Tay to the range of the so-called Grampians; and in order to prevent his army from being surrounded in a difficult country by overwhelming numbers, he marched forward in three divisions.

His course, judging from the view his biographer Tacitus gives of his tactics, must have been nearly in a parallel line with the river Tay—his march being on the east side of it, and the enemy rapidly returning from the west to oppose him. The position of the army in its forward march in three divisions is very apparent in the remains of the Roman camps in this district of the country. There is a group of three in a situation remarkably applicable to his design and his position. The camp at Cupar-Angus, which is farthest to the north of the three, probably contained the main division of the army. Within little more than two miles to the south-east is the camp at Lintrose, termed Campmuir, to cover the country to the east; and as the enemy, he immediately apprehended, were not in that quarter, in it he placed the ninth legion, which was the weakest. At an equal distance on the south-west, and overlooking the river Tay, was another camp, of which a strong post still remains, and which obviously guarded the passage of the river.

The enemy, having learnt this disposition of the Roman army, resolved to make a night attack upon its weakest division, and appear to have crossed the river, passed the main body in the night, and suddenly fallen upon the ninth legion. The camp at Lintrose has only one gate on the side towards the larger camp at Cupar-Angus. On the opposite side the rampart is broken in the centre by the remains of a morass. The enemy forced their way through the gate, having taken the Romans by surprise, and an engagement commenced in the very camp itself, when Agricola, having received information of their march, followed closely upon their track with the swiftest of the horse and foot from the main division of the army, overtook them about daybreak, and attacked them in the rear. The natives were now between two enemies, and a furious engagement ensued, till they forced their way through the morass, and took refuge in the woods and marshes.[50]

The Romans were now as much elated by this successful contact with the enemy as they had before been alarmed, and demanded to be led into the heart of Caledonia. The natives attributed their defeat to the fortunate chance for the Romans of their being hemmed in between two forces, and prepared for a more vigorous struggle the following year. A general confederacy of the northern tribes was formed, and ratified by solemn assemblies and sacrifices, and the two contending parties separated for the winter, prepared for a vital contest when they resumed operations next year. This campaign had lasted for two seasons, and Agricola probably returned to the camp at Grassy Walls for winter quarters.[51]

The third season was destined to determine whether the Romans were to obtain possession of the whole island, or whether the physical difficulties of the mountain regions of the north, and the superior bravery of its inhabitants, were at last to oppose an obstacle to the further advance of the Roman dominion. Agricola commenced the operations of this year by sending his fleet, as soon as summer arrived, down the coast to the north, to operate a diversion by creating alarm and ravaging the country within reach of the ships. He then marched forward with his army nearly on the track of the preceding year, and crossed the river Isla till he reached a hill, called by Tacitus ‘Mons Granpius,’[52] on which the assembled forces of the natives were already encamped under the command of a native chief, Calgacus, whose name is indelibly associated with the great battle which followed.

[Sidenote: A.D. 86.
Battle of ‘Mons Granpius.’]

On the peninsula formed by the junction of the Isla with the Tay are the remains of a strong and massive vallum, called Cleaven Dyke, extending from the one river to the other, with a small Roman fort at one end, and enclosing a large triangular space capable of containing Agricola’s whole troops, guarded by the rampart in front and by a river on each side. Before the rampart a plain of some size extends to the foot of the Blair Hill, or the mount of battle, the lowest of a succession of elevations which rise from the plain till they attain the full height of the great mountain range of the so-called Grampians; and on the heights above the plain are the remains of a large native encampment, called Buzzard Dykes, capable of containing upwards of 30,000 men.

Certainly no position in Scotland presents features which correspond so remarkably with Tacitus’s description as this, and we may suppose the Roman army to have occupied the peninsula protected by the rampart of the Cleaven Dyke in front, and Calgacus’s native forces to have encamped at Buzzard Dykes. These two great armies would thus remain opposed to each other at the distance of about three miles, the one containing the whole strength of the native tribes still unsubdued, collected from every quarter, and amounting to upwards of 30,000 men in arms, while the youth of the country, and even men in years, were still pouring in, and resolved to stake the fortunes of their wild and barren country upon the issue of one great battle; the other, the Roman army of veteran troops, flushed with past conquests, and confident in the well-proved military talent of their general;—the one on the verge of their mountain country, and defending its recesses, as it were, their last refuge; the other at the termination of the extensive regions they had already won from the Britons, and burning with desire to penetrate still farther, even to the end of the island. Between them lay the Muir of Blair, extending from the rampart at Meikleour to the Hill of Blair. On the east both armies were prevented from extending in that direction, or from outflanking each other, by the river Isla. On the west a succession of morasses, moors, and small lochs extends towards the hills, and in this direction the battle eventually carried itself.[53]

Such was the position of the two armies when the echoes of the wild yells and shouts of the natives, and the glitter of their arms, as their divisions were seen in motion and hurrying to the front, announced to Agricola that they were forming the line of battle. The Roman commander immediately drew out his troops on the plain. In the centre he placed the auxiliary infantry, amounting to about 8000 men, and 3000 horse formed the wings. Behind the main line, and in front of the great vallum or rampart, he stationed the legions, consisting of the veteran Roman soldiers. His object was to fight the battle with the auxiliary troops, among whom were even Britons, and to support them, if necessary, with the Roman troops as a body of reserve.

The native army was ranged upon the rising grounds, and their line as far extended as possible. The first line was stationed on the plains, while the others were ranged in separate lines on the acclivity of the hill behind them. On the plain the chariots and horsemen of the native army rushed about in all directions.

Agricola, fearing from the extended line of the enemy that he might be attacked both in front and flank at the same time, ordered the ranks to form in wider range, at the risk even of weakening his line, and, placing himself in front with his colours, this memorable action commenced by the interchange of missiles at a distance. In order to bring the action to closer quarters, Agricola ordered three Batavian and two Tungrian cohorts to charge the enemy sword in hand. In close combat they proved to be superior to the natives, whose small targets and large unwieldy swords were no match for the vigorous onslaught of the auxiliaries; and having driven back their first line, they were forcing their way up the ascent, when the whole line of the Roman army advanced and charged with such impetuosity as to carry all before them. The natives endeavoured to turn the fate of the battle by their chariots, and dashed with them upon the Roman cavalry, who were driven back and thrown into confusion; but the chariots, becoming mixed with the cavalry, were in their turn thrown into confusion, and were thus rendered ineffectual, as well as by the roughness of the ground.

The reserve of the natives now descended, and endeavoured to outflank the Roman army and attack them in the rear, when Agricola ordered four squadrons of reserve cavalry to advance to the charge. The native troops were repulsed, and being attacked in the rear by the cavalry from the wings, were completely routed, and this concluded the battle. The defeat became general; the natives drew off in a body to the woods and marshes on the west side of the plain. They attempted to check the pursuit by making a last effort and again forming, but Agricola sent some cohorts to the assistance of the pursuers; and, surrounding the ground, while part of the cavalry scoured the more open woods, and part dismounting entered the closer thickets, the native line again broke, and the flight became general, till night put an end to the pursuit.

Such was the great battle at ‘Mons Granpius,’ and such the events of the day as they may be gathered from the concise narrative of a Roman writing of a battle in which the victorious general was his father-in-law. The slaughter on the part of the natives was great, though probably as much overstated, when put at one-third of their whole army, as that of the Romans is under-estimated; and the significant silence of the historian as to the death or capture of Calgacus, or any other of sufficient note to be mentioned, and the admission that the great body of the native army at first drew off in good order, show that it was not the crushing blow which might otherwise be inferred.

On the succeeding day there was no appearance of the enemy; silence all around, desolate hills and the distant smoke of burning dwellings alone met the eye of the victor; but, notwithstanding his success, he evidently felt that, with so difficult a country before him, and a native army probably re-assembling in the recesses of a mountain region, which, if gained, it would manifestly be impossible to retain, and knowing too somewhat better what the great barrier of the so-called Grampians was, both to the invading and the native army, he was in no condition to follow up his advantage. The attempt to subjugate the northern districts was substantially abandoned, and Agricola appears to have crossed the Tay and led his army into the country which he had overrun in the third year, and whose inhabitants are now termed ‘Horesti.’ Having taken hostages from them to prevent their joining the hostile army, he returned to his winter quarters south of the Firths of Forth and Clyde with his troops, while he directed his fleet to proceed along the coast to the north till they had encircled the island.

This voyage the fleet accomplished, coasting round Britain till they reached the Trutulensian harbour in the south, and then returned to their station in the Firth of Forth, giving certain proof of its insular character, and some indication of the extent and nature of the still unsubjugated country. In the course of their voyage they passed and took possession of the ‘Orcades’ or Orkneys in name of the Roman Empire, and they saw the peak of a distant island to the north, which they concluded might be the hitherto mysterious and unvisited Thule. They described as peculiarly remarkable that great feature of Scotland, the long lochs or arms of the sea penetrating into the interior of the country, and winding among its mountains and rocks.

Thus terminated what proved to be Agricola’s last campaign in Britain. Whether he resolved to renew the contest for the possession of the barren region of the north, or had practically abandoned the attempt, we know not, as the jealousy of the Emperor Domitian recalled him, ostensibly for a better command, as soon as this great battle was known in Rome. There is no doubt that he seriously contemplated the subjugation of Ireland and its annexation to the Roman Empire. Had he remained to fulfil this intention, the colour of the future history of these islands might have been materially altered. As it was, the fruit of his successes was lost, and the northern tribes retained their independence. The result of his campaigns was that no permanent impression was made on the country beyond the Tay, the limit of his third year’s progress.

Such is the conception which we think may be fairly formed of Agricola’s campaigns in Scotland, from a careful and attentive consideration of the condensed narrative by Tacitus, taken in combination with an accurate examination of the physical features of the country. They form too important a feature at the very threshold of the history of the country, and have been too much perverted by a careless consideration of the only record we have of them, and the intrusion of extraneous or spurious matter, to be passed over in less detail.

Agricola’s successor, Lucullus, was put to death on a trifling excuse by the tyrant Domitian, and the entire country which had formed the scene of these campaigns since the first appears to have fallen off from Rome and resumed its independent state, the Roman province being again limited to the boundary it possessed on the north when Agricola assumed the government.

One result, however, was to add greatly to the knowledge the Romans possessed of the island and its inhabitants, and to give them a practical acquaintance with the tribes inhabiting Caledonia, and hitherto known to them only by report, as the ‘Caledonii Britanni.’ The expression of Tacitus in his narrative sufficiently indicates that they were to be distinguished from the other Britons as a different race, at least in some sense or degree as the ‘new nations,’ with whom Agricola first came in contact in his third campaign. This and similar expressions are applied to the tribes he encountered during that and the subsequent years of his government; and the arguments of the historian as to whether the inhabitants of the island were indigenous or an immigrant population show that, while the Romans observed considerable difference in the physical appearance of the different races, they were not aware of any great distinction in their language. Tacitus considers the question of origin as it affects the inhabitants viewed as one nation. He says that the red hair and large limbs of the inhabitants of Caledonia might infer a German descent; the swarthy features and crisp hair of the Silures, as well as their situation, which in the erroneous notion of the position of Britain was supposed to be opposite Spain, an origin from that country; but the other Britons, in all respects, resembled the inhabitants of Gaul. His remarks have generally been viewed as if he considered that the Britons consisted of three distinct races, and that there were traditionary accounts of their respective origins, but this is entirely to misapprehend the bearing of his statements. They are arbitrary inferences merely, drawn by himself from the difference in the physical appearance of different parts of the nation whose origin he is treating of as a whole; and the general conclusion he comes to is, that notwithstanding these appearances, the whole country received its population from Gaul, differing in this respect from the earlier account of Cæsar, who pronounces the inhabitants of the interior to be indigenous. As one ground for this general conclusion, Tacitus adds that their language did not greatly differ from that of Gaul, which implies that there could have been no very marked or striking difference of language among themselves. He says that the Britons possessed the same audacity in provoking danger, and irresolution in facing it when present. The former quality in a greater degree, while the latter imputation in the main, is disproved, so far as the northern tribes are concerned, by the narrative of the historian himself which follows this statement in his Life of Agricola. He observes one of the peculiar customs of the Britons among the Caledonians—the fighting in chariots, which was now apparently confined to the ruder tribes of the north; but it is remarkable that he alludes neither to the practice of their staining their bodies with woad, nor to the supposed community of women among them. He shows that, in the wedge-like shape attributed to Britain by previous writers, Caledonia was excluded as still unknown to them. In the language put by the historian into the mouth of the Caledonian leader Calgacus, he implies in the strongest manner that the tribes embraced in the designation he usually gives them of inhabitants of Caledonia, were the most northerly of the British nations; that no other people dwelt beyond them; that they had neither cultivated lands, mines, nor harbours; and that he knew of no state of society among them resembling the promiscuous intercourse of women, as he mentions their children and kinsfolk, their wives and sisters, in language only consistent with the domestic relation in greater purity. He also implies that their normal condition was that of small communities or ‘civitates,’ who were independent of each other, and only united in one common action by a formal confederacy among themselves.

The fruit of Agricola’s campaigns being thus so speedily lost to the Romans, and the Caledonian tribes having, so far as subjugated by him, resumed their independence immediately after his recall, matters appear to have remained in the same state, in other respects, till the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. On his accession in the year 117, the Britons would seem to have threatened an insurrection; but of what really took place during the interval of thirty-six years between the recall of Agricola and the commencement of his reign we know nothing.

[Sidenote: A.D. 120.
Arrival of the Emperor Hadrian, and first Roman wall between
Tyne and Solway.]

In the year 120 Hadrian visited Britain in person, when he appears to have put down any attempt at insurrection; and, having adopted, or rather originated, the policy of defending the frontiers of the Roman empire by great ramparts, he fixed the limits of the province in Britain at a line drawn from the Solway Firth on the west to the mouth of the river Tyne on the east, and constructed a great barrier designed to protect it equally against the incursions of the Barbarians or independent tribes to the north of it, and the revolt of those included within the province. It consists of ‘three parts—a stone wall strengthened by a ditch on its northern side; an earthen wall or vallum to the south of the stone wall; and stations, castles, watch-towers, and roads, for the accommodation of the soldiery who manned the wall, and for the transmission of military stores. These lie, for the most part, between the stone wall and earthen rampart.’ The stone wall extends from Wallsend on the Tyne to Bowness on the Solway, a distance of seventy-three and a half English miles. The earth wall falls short of this distance by about three miles at each end, not extending beyond Newcastle on the east, and terminating at Dykesfield on the west. The result of the most recent examination of the wall is that the whole is undoubtedly the work of Hadrian.[54]

Hadrian thus made no attempt to retain any part of the country conquered by Agricola in his last campaigns, but withdrew the frontier in one part even from where it had extended prior to Agricola’s government, in order to obtain a more advantageous line for his favourite mode of defence.

-----

Footnote 19:

Orphei _Argonaut._ v. 1171, ἢν νήσοισιν Ἰέρνισιν ἆσσον ἵκωμαι.

Footnote 20:

Herodot. iii. 115.

Footnote 21:

Aristot. _De Mundo_, iii.

Footnote 22:

Polyb. iii. 87.

Footnote 23:

Ast hinc duobus in Sacram, sic insulam
Dixere prisci, solibus cursus rati est.
Haec inter undas multa cespitem jacet,
Eamque late gens Hibernorum colit.
Propinqua rursus insula Albionum patet.
FESTUS AVIEN. _Ora Maritima_, 86.

Footnote 24:

Strabo, _Geog._ Lib. ii.

Footnote 25:

Cæs. _De Bello Gall._ v. 12-14.

Footnote 26:

Strab. _Geog._ Lib. iv.

Footnote 27:

Diod. Sic. v. 21.

Footnote 28:

Consularium primus Aulus Plautius præpositus ac subinde Ostorius
Scapula uterque bello egregius: redactaque paulatim in formam
provinciæ proxima pars Britanniæ.—TACIT. _in Vit. Ag._ 14.

Footnote 29:

The Antona has been supposed to be the Avon, and an emendation of the
text to Aufona has been proposed. This has been pronounced to be a
happy conjecture, but the author does not think so. Avon is derived
from no word that could possibly assume the form of Aufona; and it is
difficult to understand what a line of forts from the Avon to the
Severn was to accomplish. The Nen, which has also been suggested,
confines the province too much. It was more probably the Don, which
falls into the Humber. The Don and the Severn were connected by the
Fosseway and the forts along its line. That the province had reached
the frontier of the Brigantes in the reign of Claudius, may be
inferred from the lines of Lucius Annæus Seneca:—

Ille Britannos Ultra noti
Litora ponti Et cæruleos,
Scuta Brigantas Dare Romuleis,
Colla catenis Jussit, etc.

Footnote 30:

See chap. ii. note ^{63}.

Footnote 31:

Pomponius Mela (A.D. 45) mentions them—‘Triginta sunt Orcades,
angustis inter se ductæ spatiis: septem Hæmodæ, contra Germaniam
vectae’ (_De s. orb._ iii. 6). Eutropius has ‘quasdam insulas etiam
ultra Britanniam in Oceano positas Romano imperio addidit (Claudius)
quae appellantur Orcades’ (_Hist. Rom._ lib. iv. c. 13). It is
difficult to reconcile this statement with that of Tacitus, that
Agricola first made the Orcades known. That any conquest took place in
either case is unlikely, and they were probably annexed to the Roman
Empire in the sense in which an island in the Pacific, when first
observed, is declared to belong to Britain, and named Victoria. The
existence and position of the Orkneys may have become known under
Claudius, and first actually seen under Agricola.

Footnote 32:

The anonymous geographer of Ravenna gives a list of the towns of
Britain when the Romans left the island. Though plainly not stated in
any regular order, they are still manifestly grouped according to
situation, and those north and south of the walls can be clearly
distinguished. Among those north of the wall, between the Solway and
the Tyne, is the town called by him Venusio, and the identity of the
name shows its connection with Venusius.

Footnote 33:

Tacit. _Annal._ lib. xii. c. 40. The expression ‘regnum ejus invadunt’
shows that Cartismandua’s kingdom was now distinguished from that in
the interest of Venusius. ‘Acre prælium fecere cujus initio ambiguo
finis lætior fuit.’

Footnote 34:

Tacit. _Hist._ lib. iii. c. 45. Tacitus, in his Life of Agricola,
implies that Vettius did nothing, and was not equal to his position;
but in his sketch of the previous governors it is manifest that he
endeavours to enhance the fame of his hero by lessening the merits of
his predecessors. The account of the war is taken from his History,
where, although he does not name Vettius, it is plain that the events
there narrated happened during his government, and this accords with
the lines of Statius (see Note ^{38}), which, making due allowance for
a panegyrist, certainly imply a war, the result of which had reflected
credit upon him. The allusion to the Rex Britannus, from whom he took
the ‘thorax,’ is curious. Venusius is probably meant.

Footnote 35:

This narrative of the wars of the Romans with the provincials and the
Brigantes is condensed from Tacitus’s account in the Annals, the
History, and the Life of Agricola.

Footnote 36:

Lucan (A.D. 65) is the first who mentions them—

Aut vaga quum Tethys, Rutupinaque litora fervent,
Unda Caledonios fallit turbata Britannos.—(vi. 67.)

Martial (A.D. 96) says—

Quincte Caledonios Ovidi visure Britannos
Et viridem Tethyn Oceanumque patrem.—(x. 44.)

Footnote 37:

Valerius Flaccus (A.D. 70) says—

Caledonius postquam tua carbasa vexit
Oceanus.—(_Argon._ 1. 7.).

Footnote 38:

Statius (A.D. 96) has the following line in his panegyric upon Vettius
Bolanus—

Quanta Calydonios attollet gloria campos.
(v. 2. 140.)

Footnote 39:

Triginta prope jam annis notitiam ejus Romanis armis non ultra
vicinitatem Sylvæ Caledoniæ propagantibus.—(Plin. iv. 30.)

Footnote 40:

A Caledoniæ promontorio Thulen petentibus bidui navigatione perfecto
excipiunt Hebudes insulæ quinque numero.—(Solinus, _Polyhistor._ c.
22.)

Footnote 41:

_Ibid._

Footnote 42:

Silius Italicus (A.D. 68) says—

Hinc pater ignotam donabit vincere Thulen,
Inque Caledonios primus trahet agmina lucos (_Pun._ iii. 597);

and implies that the inhabitants of Thule had encountered the Romans
when he says, in another place—

Cærulus haud aliter, quum dimicat incola Thules,
Agmina falcifero circumvenit arta covinno.

Statius says of Vettius Bolanus—

Quantusque nigrantem
Fluctibus occiduis fessoque Hyperione Thulen
Intrarit mandata gerens....

Compare this with the line previously quoted.

Footnote 43:

The expression of Tacitus, ‘æstuaria ac silvas ipse prætentare,’ shows
that this was the scene of his campaign. It is only with reference to
the west coast, south of the Clyde, that such an expression is
applicable, and the Solway could hardly have been excluded from it. It
will be afterwards shown that the Selgovæ who occupied its northern
shore were a Brigantian tribe.

Footnote 44:

The position of the Roman camps and forts illustrates in a remarkable
manner the expression ‘præsidiis castellisque circumdatæ.’ It must be
kept in view, in following Tacitus’ narrative, that from the
peculiarity of his style every word is pregnant with meaning, and has
a precision which has been much overlooked.

Footnote 45:

Paullatimque discessum ad delenimenta vitiorum, porticus et balnea et
conviviorum elegantiam.—TACIT. _in Vit. Ag._, c. 21.

Footnote 46:

Novas gentes aperuit.

Footnote 47:

That in this campaign the Roman arms reached the Firth of Tay is
distinctly asserted by Tacitus, and his clear statement cannot be
explained away. Agricola could only reach it by two routes,—either
entirely by land through Stirlingshire and Perthshire, or across the
Firth of Forth through Fife. The former is most probable, as Tacitus
usually mentions crossing estuaries where it takes place; and the
latter route is moreover plainly excluded, as the nations on the north
shore of the Firth of Forth were still new to him in the sixth
campaign.

Footnote 48:

‘Quod tum præsidiis firmabatur.’ These were obviously different from
and farther south than the forts mentioned in the previous campaign.
The expression ‘summotis velut in aliam insulam hostibus’ is the
significant one used in fixing the barrier between the provincial
Britons and the Barbarians (see chap. ii. note ^{70}), and implies
that Agricola’s intention was to add the conquered country south of
the firths to the province. ‘Summotis’ does not here or elsewhere mean
the actual driving out of the natives, but that those within the line
of separation had ceased to be ‘hostes.’

Footnote 49:

The operations of this year have much perplexed historians. The
obvious inference from the passage is that Argyllshire was the region
he visited, and the author has entered thus minutely into the
consideration of what Agricola had to accomplish, and his evident
policy, to show that this was the natural step he would take. It has
generally been supposed that he turned back upon his steps, and that
Galloway was the country ‘opposite to Ireland’ that he visited; but,
as we have seen, its inhabitants could not have been said to be ‘ad id
tempus ignoti,’ and the language of the early geographers rather
characterises Kintyre and the Hebrides as what impressed them most as
overhanging Ireland. Chalmers, in order to avoid the plain inference
from the passage, is driven to suppose that the Tavaus of the third
campaign was the Solway, and that Agricola had advanced no farther,
but this is quite inadmissible. The only alternative, that he crossed
the river Clyde from north to south and entered Ayrshire, is equally
inconsistent with Tacitus’s brief but precise language. Early writers
speak of the Clyde as fordable as far down as Dumbarton, and his
natural course would be to return by the same route as he came.
Tacitus clearly states that he crossed ‘navi in proxima,’ which shows
that it was the estuary, and not the river. The Roman fleet was then
probably in the Firth of Forth, and the expression seems to imply that
he took the first native vessel he could get. There is on an elevated
moor in Cowall, between the Holy Loch and Dunoon, the remains of a
small square fort which has all the appearance of a Roman exploratory
station. It commands an extensive view, in one range, of the entire
Firth to its mouth, the river Clyde for many miles of its straight
course, and Loch Long penetrating in another direction into what was
known to the Romans as the Caledonian Forest, and, if it is a Roman
work, adds strength to the natural reading of the passage, and the
expression, ‘copiis instruxit,’ is singularly applicable.

Footnote 50:

Chalmers has narrated the Roman campaigns with a strange affectation
of military language. He makes the Roman troops debouch, defile, and
deploy through the hills and in the glens in the most wonderful
manner, so as to have rendered the cutting off of the whole army at
any point of their progress no very difficult task to the natives. He
involves the troops in this march, when the army was divided into
three, among the remains of small camps in the hilly region of the
west of Fife in a manner to render the real account of the transaction
very unintelligible. General Roy, with correcter military knowledge,
but without attending to the narrative with sufficient minuteness, is
not more fortunate. He supposes that Agricola’s position was at the
camp at Ardoch, and that, when he divided his army into three, he
remained there with the main division, and sent the ninth legion to
Comrie, and the other division to Strageath, at both of which places
there are the remains of Roman camps; but, independently of the
expression ‘incessit,’ which implies a march forward, conceive an able
general sending the weakest legion into the heart of the Grampians, at
a distance of nine miles from the main body, through an almost
impassable country. So far from preventing the army from being
surrounded, it sent its weakest division into the midst of the enemy.
In what sense, too, could Agricola be said to have followed on the
enemy’s track, and how could he, between night and daybreak, have
received news of the attack, and have traversed what must have been,
without roads, a long day’s march? It is obvious, on a careful
attention to Tacitus’s expressions, that the three divisions could
have been at no great distance from each other, and the main division
nearest the enemy. There is a plan of the camp at Lintrose in General
Roy’s _Military Antiquities_, Plate XIV., which will show how
singularly it corresponds with the narrative.

Footnote 51:

Tacitus commences the campaign in which the ninth legion was attacked
by stating that it was in the sixth year of Agricola’s administration;
and in his speech before the battle at Mons Granpius he says it was
then the eighth year, and that the attack on the ninth legion had
taken place the preceding year. This apparent discrepancy has been
usually solved by supposing the word eighth a mistake for seventh, but
it is more probable that the previous campaign had lasted two years.
Tacitus, after the fifth year, ceases to mark the separate campaigns
with the same precision, and, perhaps, was not unwilling to gloss over
the little real progress that had been made during the last three
years. The expression, ‘Ad manus et arma conversi Caledoniam
incolentes populi,’ probably marks the commencement of the second year
of the campaign.

Footnote 52:

In a recent edition of the Life of Agricola, from two Vatican MSS., by
Carolus Wex, published in 1852, he substitutes Tanaus, Mons Graupius,
and Boresti, for the Taus, Mons Grampius, and Horesti of the ordinary
editions as the correct reading of these MSS., and Mr. Burton has at
once adopted the two former readings. The author, however, questions
their accuracy. It is hardly possible to distinguish _u_ from _n_ in
such MSS., and they are constantly interchanged. That Tauaus is the
correct reading of the first, is plain from the form of the name in
Ptolemy, Ταούα or Tava, and the real form of the second he cannot
doubt was Granpius. The combination of a _u_ or _v_ with a labial is
rarely met in Celtic words. That of the dental with the labial is very
common, as in Banba, an old name for Ireland; Conpur, where the same
combination occurs. As to the third there is fortunately an
inscription on a Roman altar at Neuwied, brought from the Roman
station of Nieder Biebr on the Rhine, where some British cohorts in
the Roman army were stationed in the third century, in the following
terms:—

Idus Octob. Giinio
Hor. N. Brittonum
A. Ib. kiomarius op. fi
Us. posit tum quinta
nensis pos. nt. v. h. m.

which Mr. Roach Smith thus renders:—Idus Octobris Genio Horestorum
numeri Brittonum. A. Ibkiomarus Obfius posuit titulum quintanensis
posuerunt votum hoc monumentum (_Collectanea_, ii. part v. p. 133),
which seems to leave no doubt as to Horesti being the correct form,
and does not inspire one with much confidence in Wex’s new readings,
sanctioned as they are by Mr. Burton.

Footnote 53:

There has been no point in the history of the Roman occupation of
Scotland which has been more contested, or made the subject of more
conflicting theories, than the position of this great battle. Gordon
thought it was at Dealgan Ross, near Comrie. Chalmers, with, less
difficulty, from the size of the camp, at Ardoch; others in Fife, and
latterly a favourite theory has placed it at Urie in Kincardineshire.
Mr. Burton abandons the attempt as hopeless.

The conclusion the author has come to is, that a careful examination
of the narrative, compared with the physical features of the country,
rightly apprehended, points to the site he has selected, and that it
presents features which remarkably correspond with the description of
the battle. This position was originally suggested in the _Statistical
Account of the Parish of Bendochy_, published in 1797 (O. S. A. v. 19,
p. 367), but has not received the attention it deserves.

The combined action of the fleet—præmissa classe—as well as the
history of the previous campaigns, exclude any position west of the
Tay; and if Dealgan Ross is evidently not the place, from the limited
size of the camp, Ardoch is equally objectionable, from there being no
hill near which answers the description of ‘Mons Granpius.’ The
expression ‘transisse æstuaria’ in the plural, in Agricola’s speech,
places it north of the Firth of Tay. The position at Urie involves the
improbability that he marched for several days parallel to the range
of the so-called Grampians, if his route was by Strathmore, and there
are no camps to indicate a march nearer the coast before the battle
was fought. The remains of this ‘vallum’ or rampart between the Isla
and the Tay are still among the most remarkable Roman works in
Scotland, and are known by the name of the Cleaven Dyke. It seems to
have been the work of the same general who constructed the great camp
at Ardoch, for, in connection with the latter, was a small work of an
octagonal shape, with many ramparts, and the only other specimen the
author has observed of a similar work is at the east end of the
Cleaven Dyke.

Footnote 54:

See for an elaborate description of this wall Mr. Collingwood Bruce’s
exhaustive work, _The Roman Wall, a Description of the Mural Barrier
of the North of England_, third edition, 1867. The main authority for
Hadrian’s work in Britain is Ælius Spartianus (181), who says, ‘Ergo
conversis regio more militibus, Britanniam petiit: in qua multa
correxit, murumque per octaginta millia passuum primus duxit, qui
Barbaros Romanosque divideret.’—(_De Hadr._ 11.)