CITY OF LONDONDERRY. 
fortress of Aileach, and the rath or earthen one of Temur, as the existing remains in both 
places sufficiently testify. , . ,, ,. , ,. .,, . 
A fact of greater importance, established by this poem, is that its erection was not attributed 
to that dubious race, the Milesians, whose reality has been impugned by Innes, 1 mkerton, 
and Thomas Moore; but to the Tuatha De Dananns, a Scythic or Gothic people, whose historic- 
existence is acknowledged by all those writers to stand on a more solid basis : and it is a re- 
markable circumstance shewn in Mr. Petrie’s Prize Essay on Ancient Irish Military Pemains, 
(1834,) that all the Cyclopean monuments, whether military or sepulchral, are ascribed by 
the Irish historians either to these Dananns, or their kindred race the Firbolg, or Jielgae. ihe 
uniformity pervading all these Danann and Belgic monuments in Ireland, has been proved 
in that essay, as well as their perfect similarity, not only with the stone remains of the I lets 
in Scotland, and the Belgee and Damnonii of Wiltshire, Devonshire, and Cornwall; but also 
with those monuments in Belgium, Greece, Italy, and the islands of the Mediterranean, known 
among antiquaries by the term Cyclopean. , ,, . , , ., 
“ To say who the Cyclopeans originally were,” Mr. Petrie observes, “is beyond the 
scope of the present inquiry. It is one which the most learned men have found difficult to 
answer, and which it would be presumptuous in the writer to attempt to determine, there is, 
however, such a singular agreement between the accounts given by classical writers, or the 
builders of those remarkable remains in Greece, and those preserved by our native chroniclers 
of the builders of the uncemented stone works in Ireland, England, and Scotland, as should 
not be passed unnoticed.” 
“ Pliny,” observes Mr. Dodwell (vol. ii. p. 218), “says that according to Aristotle, towers 
were invented by the Cyclopeans, and according to Theophrastus, by the Tirynthii. Ihe 
Scholiast of Statius pretends that every thing that was remarkable for its great size, was 
said to have been formed by the Cyclopeans. The great difficulty, however, is to ascertain 
who the Cyclopeans were, whence they originated, and at what time they flourished. 1 shall 
refrain from entering into a long discussion upon this subject, in hopes that it will be tuily 
investigated by the learned promoter of this system, (M. Petit Radel,) whose work, w ic 
is earnestly expected, will, no doubt, throw new light upon this recondite and long neglected 
part of primitive history; it suffices, at present, to observe, that Strabo had as confused ideas 
about the Cyclopeans 18 centuries ago, as we have at present; he says that they were seven 
in number, and come from Lycia. The scholiast of Euripides, however, maintains that 
they were a Thracian nation, so named from one of their kings, and that they were the best 
artists (ts**7t*<) of the age in constructing military fortifications, and to have diffused their 
architectural knowledge through Greece, and many parts of Italy, Sicily, and Spam lhese 
countries were colonized by the Pelasgi of Greece, who learned the art of military construction 
from the Thracian nation: but it is more probable that the Cyclopeans mere the Pelasgians, 
who settled at a very remote period in the Peloponnesus, for it is generally allowed that they 
were strangers and not autochthonesian.” 
Ihre was convinced that the Pelasgi were Scythse, and Pinkerton has (apparently) proved 
it “ Historic Truth”— that the Pelasgi , or Hellenes , or Greeks , mere bcythians of 
Thrace. (Dis. on the Scythians, Part I. cap. iv.) ,. . ,, 
The FirboD, under which name is included the Damnonii and Galenn, according to the 
hooks of Lecan, Ballymote, and all the other ancient Irish authorities, were of the Greeks of 
Scythia, and came hither from Thrace. The Piets and Belgic Britams were of the same race, 
and also came from Thrace. .. , , „ 
The Tuatha De Dananns were also Scythians of Greece, but are said to have come from 
Bceotia, thence to the north of Europe, to Scotland, and lastly to Ireland, (Book of Lecan, 
folio) This colony, as well as the Firbolg, are represented as superior in their knowledge 
of the arts of civilized life to the Gael (Celtae) or Milesians, their supposed successors. Whe- 
ther the accounts of these races be wholly Bardic forgeries, or whether they may not have 
in their chief facts, a traditional origin in truth, however subsequently blended with table, I 
shall leave the reader to determine for himself, but I cannot help observing, that they seem 
wonderfully borne out by the similitude between the Cyclopean monuments of Greece, Italy, 
and the islands of the Mediterranean, and those which I have now described . 
I have already spoken of the curious agreement between the monumental remains of the 
Damnonii in Devonshire and Cornwall, and those of the Damnonii or Firbolg m Ireland. 
The eastern, or Phoenician, origin of the former is strongly insisted on by the learned anti¬ 
quary Mr. King, in his Monumenta Antiqua, in support of which, . mos ?; strlk “g 
evidence appears to be that drawn from a comparison of the form of the Median city o Ec- 
batana, as related by Herodotus, with that of the ancient British castle of Launceston in 
Cornwall: the similarity pointed out is indeed striking, yet it is not so remarkable as tha 
which will be found between the eastern city and our Firbolgian fort of Dun-Aengus, inas¬ 
much as that the Cornish castle is of inferior magnitude, and is built with lime cement, a ir - 
cumstance which points out its comparatively modern date. 
