63 



Ten years after this colonization, the northern ravagers perpetratied 

 some piracies in Ireland, as may be collected from the passages in 

 Saxo Grammaticus, referrible to this period as to "Ringo exercising 

 piracy in Ireland ;"* and the expedition of Thorias and BerOj-f (two 

 Danish chieftains,) to plunder the same country. 



In A. D. 33 1 , the palace of Eamania, of which mention will be made 

 hereafter, J was destroyed by fire,§ Soon afterwards the Scots of North 

 Britain, strengthened by fresh auxiliaries from Ireland, and by alli- 

 ances with the Picts and Caledonians, commenced those devastations 

 *of Britain, which continued until the calling in of the Saxons. But 

 such chivalrous invasions and piracies have been the vices of the 

 greatest nations at a particular stage of society. The Iliad and the 

 Odyssey are the immortal records of them, and what the Greeks and 

 Romans systematically inflicted, should not appear so barbarous in 

 the Scots. 



Although it has been shewn before from Eumenius, that the 

 depredations of the latter people in England must have commenced at 

 a very early age, yet, the first of these formidable campaigns of plun- 

 der, that brought the Britons and British Romans to the verge of 

 destruction and annihilation, appears most inferentially referrible 

 to the year 343 ; for Constans visited his British dominions in the 

 beginning of this year, in order to chastise the Picts and Scots for 

 their attempts upon the Roman provinces. The particulars of this 



• " Ringone interim apud Hiberniam piraticum exercente." — Hist. Dan. lib. 8. fo. 148. 



f " Ea tempestate Thorias ac Bero, promptissimi Rusla; milites, apud Hiberniam piraticum 

 munus edebant."— Hist. Dan. lib. 8. fo. 149. "We are obliged to remark that Doctor O'Conor 

 misquotes tbis passage also, (Rer. Hib. Script, vol. 1. Prol. p. 2. p. cv.) and evidently to favour 

 his system of there being no Danes in Ireland previous to the ninth centuiy. 



X Post, per. 2. sect. 6. § Aunal. Tigern. ad ann. 



