By the Rev. J. L. Ross. 



231 



Emperor Constans a.d. 306, found it necessary to come over to 

 Britain, we are informed, to repel the Caledonians and other Picts. 

 The terms, Caledones aliique Picti, were employed by Eumenius in 

 a Panegyrick ^.d. 297 and 398 ; and in the end of the fourth cen- 

 tury Ammianus Marcellinus mentions the Caledonians and Picti 

 as the same people : — " Eo tempore Picti in duas gentes divisi Di- 

 caledones and Vecturiones." 1 At that time the Picts were divided 

 into two nations, the Dicaledonians and Vecturiones. 



The hill in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh called Arthur's 

 seat, evidently shows that this was the principal settlement 

 or metropolis of the Aboriginal British race, among whom 

 Arthur the British Prince is traditionally celebrated. Many places 

 in the Southern and Western districts of Scotland retain names of 

 Welsh derivation, or the original language, not of the Scots or 

 Celts, but of the Caledonians or Picts. Detachments of the British 

 Picts obtained possession of Cumberland and Wales, subsequently. 



After a long possession of the Southern and Western districts of 

 Scotland, the Picts suddenly disappeared as a nation from history, 

 but we are informed that they had long been engaged in a struggle 

 with the Northern inhabitants or Scots. These Scots are believed 

 to have been connected with the Phoenicians, and to have colonized 

 the Western Isles or Hebrides, and the Highlands of Scotland from 

 Ireland, which was the principal seat of the Phoenicians or Gaels. 

 The following account from Fordun, details the last struggle and 

 annihilation of the kingdom in Scotland of the Caledonian or Pictish 

 race, the descendants of the Cymbri. 



"The Picts" (says Sir W. Betham, p. 413) "made good their 

 settlement in Armorica about the same time they subdued Cumber- 

 land, Wales, and Cornwall, and have ever since been there, a dis- 

 tinct people keeping up their language and customs, which closely 

 resemble that of the inhabitants of Wales. . . . After detach- 

 ments of the Picts had made good their conquest of Wales, Corn- 

 wall, and Armorica (or Britanny), those who remained in Pictland 

 were engaged in constant wars with the Gael of the Western 

 mountains of North Britain, which country they had, a very short 



1 Ammian. Marcell. Lib. xxvii. c. 7. 



