A. D. 83. 189 



and there Agricola determined utterly to extirpate it. He crofTed the 

 Forth, and marched along the coaft of Fife, his fleet attending and 

 fupporting him all the way ; a meafure which the event fhewed to be 

 abfolutely neceflary ; for the Caledonians watched him clofely, attacked 

 his forts, and almofl: drove him to the refolution of repafTmg the Forth. 

 The ninth legion, recruited, after being nearly exterminated iDy Eoadicia, 

 M^as again almofl totally cut to pieces by the Caledonians, who were, 

 however, afterwards repelled by the reft of the Roman army. 



84 — The Caledonians, next fpring, raifed an army, confifting, by 

 Agncola's account, of above thirty thoufand men, under the command 

 of the brave Galgacus, who, we are told, were utterly defeated at the 

 Grampian mountain, and the Roman allies (for the legions were not 

 engaged) loft only three hundred and forty men. The confequence of 

 this vidory was, that Agricola abandoned the ground for which he 

 fought, and retreated into the country of the Horefti, a tribe on the 

 fouth fide of the Tay, who had fubmitted to him ; fo that it very much 

 refembled the vidory pretended to have been gained by the Phocseaiis, 

 over the united fleets of the Carthaginians and Tyrrhenians, after which 

 Corfica, the objecfl of their contention, was totally abandoned by the 

 pretended conquerors. (See above, p. 47.) 



Agricola, having received hoftagesfrom the nations who had fubmit- 

 ted to him, ordered his fleet to fail round the whole country, though 

 the fummer was far Ipent : and fuch a voyage of difcovery and danger, 

 would need the whole of a fummer, even if conduded by the ableft 

 I'eamen. Thefe navigators alleged, that they firft difcovered the Ork- 

 neys, and that they firft; made it certain that Britain was an ifland ; dif- 

 coveries, which were made by Pytheas many centuries before, and no- 

 ticed by many authors after him, of whom I fliall mention only Csefar 

 and Pliny, whofe writings ought at this time to have been well known 

 in Rome*. [T'aciti Vjtn ^'^gricolcr,'] 



■ Tacitus alfo informs us, that at this time the harbours of Ireland, which, 

 he fays, lies half way between Britain and Spain, were better known to 



* Every unprejudiced, or unroman:zed, reader, fliall we believe, that above 30,000 warriors could 

 wbo penifes the Life of Agricola by Tacitus with be raifed in Caledonia only ? for all the fouth part 

 due attention, inuft perceive, that it is not fo much of modern Scotland, as far as the Tay, was fub- 

 hiilory, as poetical pancgytic (' tiler honor! ^Igri- jedl to the Romans : and it is very probable, that 

 * cms face ri met dejl'inatus'). It may be proved, the weitern tribes of Caledonia were not concern- 

 that the Roman army was not outnumbered by ed in this war. 



tin; Caledonian, even if it did confiil of 30,000 It is worthy of obfervation, that Agjricola, 

 men, which however is utterly improbable- Kinjj who makes fo great a figure iu the works of mo- 

 David I, when poileired of all Scotland and Cum- dern writers, is not fo much as mentioned by any 

 berland, could not raife 27,000 men, though he writer of general Roman hiftory now extant, ex- 

 had Englid), Normans, and Germans, befides his cept once, very (lightly, by Dion Callius. Nor 

 own fubjv'tis, in his army. King Robert I, when does his name appear in ten familiar letters from 

 liis crown and life depended on the event of a the younger Pliny to Tacitus, though the fubjedts 

 fingle battle, could not, with the exertion of feven of fonie of them feem to give a fair opportunity o£ 

 months, colled 31,000 fighting men. How then introducing it. 



