$5 



scribe their Annals in one book, which was called the Psalter oi* 

 Metrical Book of Tara ;* and in 260, after having, like Charles the 

 5th, retired for several years from public life, he perished by a sudden 

 visitation, which was attributed to the immediate vengeance of 

 offended deities.-f- In A. D. 265, Oscar, the son of Ossian, was 

 born,+ and in A. D, 273, fell Fingal, the father of his people, "Fingal 

 of the mildest look ! " At the commencement of the fourth century, 

 it would appear from Orosius, as cited by Vallancey, (but the writer 

 of this Essay could not find the passage in Orosius,) "that the Scy- 

 thians expulsed from Gallicia in Spain, by Constantine the Great, 

 took shelter in Ireland, whet^e they found the country already under 

 the dominion of their countrymen the Scytha. or Scots ;"^ while Rich- 

 ard of Cirencester insinuates that Ireland at the same time offered to 

 become tributary to that Roman Emperor. || It is worthy of remark, 

 that Constantine Chlorus, who reigned from 304 to 307, is by some 

 alleged to have reduced Ireland to the Roman sway, but those** who 

 make the assertion, admit that notwithstanding such reduction the 

 island continued to enjoy its ancient customs. Wintown, in his 

 " Cronykil,"f f would have it that the Romans even so early as A.D. 

 69, had visited the island. There is no doubt, however, of the fallacy 

 of these assertions, the imperial eagles never were displayed in 

 Ireland. 



In the beginning of the fourth century occurred that celebrated 

 colonization of Scotland from Ireland, which has been long a "vexata 



* 1 O'Conor Catal. Stow. p. 99. f Post, per. 1. sect. 3. 



X Annal. Tigem. in O'Conor's Rer. Hib. Script, p. 51. 

 S Collect, de Reb. Hib. v. 5. p. 361. 



II "A. M. 4307, Constantinus qui Magnus postea dicitur, * * * « in Britanniis 

 creatus Imperator; cui se sponte tributariam offert Hibemia."— De sit. Britannise ad ann. 

 •* See the curious map of Ireland in Geudeville. Atlas Historiqufc 

 •ft B. .5.C. 4. V. 191, &c. - 



