SCOTLAND. 
the country of the Horestii, and terminated the campaign. 
The Caledonians immediately advanced, and demolished all 
the lorts in the territories which the Romans had abandoned. 
Agricola, in the interim, ordered the commander of the 
Roman navy to sail round Britain, on a voyage of discovery, 
and with the design of intimidation. This voyage was hap- 
S accomplished, by the return of the fleet to the Forth, 
>re the comriiencement of winter. With these remarkable 
exploits the campaigns of Agricola terminated; for, having 
excited the jealousy of the emperor Domitian, by the splen¬ 
dour of his achievements, he was soon afterwards recalled to 
Rome. 
From this period to A.D. 120, the Roman authors are 
entirely silent respecting the affairs of Britain; but from an 
incidental expression in Tacitus, some later writers have 
supposed, that, during that interval, the Caledonians suc¬ 
ceeded in recovering the country conquered by Agricola, as 
far as the Solway on the west, and Tynemouth on the east. 
This opinion seems to receive some confirmation from the 
fact, that when the emperor Adrian visited our island in the 
year last lhentioned, he caused a rampart to be constructed 
between these two estuaries. The emperor, on his departure, 
left Julius Severus as his lieutenant in Britain, who does not 
appear to have attempted any military exploit. Antoninus, 
who assumed the purple on the death of Adrian, named 
Lollius Urbicus to the chief government of the island; 
an officer who equally possessed talents for peace, and a genius 
for war. Having tranquillized some insurrectionary move¬ 
ments in the south, he carried his arms from the Forth to 
the Varar, and settled stations in the intermediate country; 
throwing the whole of that extensive district into the form 
of a Roman province. Under his directions was constructed 
the rampart of Antoninus (now called Grirhes’ dyke), 
which extends from Caer-riden on the Forth, to Alcluid on 
the Clyde, a distance of thirty-six miles, six hundred and 
twenty paces. Several military roads, and numerous stations 
and encampments, were likewise formed in all the provinces, 
both of North and South Britain. Lollius was succeeded 
in his government by Calphurnius Agricola, during whose 
time the Romans abandoned all the country north of Grimes’ 
dyke. This retreat inspired the unconquered tribes with 
fresh vigour. Breaking through the barriers of Antoninus, 
they pillaged a large tract within that boundary, and put 
numbers of the Romans to the sword; but Ulfius Marcelius 
soon drove them back again into their own territories. They 
renewed their inroads again in the year 200, with better 
success, and for some years afterwards seem to have made 
such progress, as to induce the emperor Severus to assume the 
government of Britain in person. On his arrival at the head 
of a larger army than had ever before visited this island, the 
Caledonian tribes sued for peace, but Severus rejected their 
proposals, The particulars of his expedition into Caledonia 
are very imperfectly narrated. It is clear, however, that he 
penetrated as far to the northward as the frith of Cromarty, 
though, as Dion assures us, with the loss of no less than 
50,000 men. Before he set out, he constructed a wall from 
the Solway to the Tyne, parallel with the rampart of Adrian, 
in order to facilitate his retreat. 
On the return of Severus to York, he left his son Cara- 
calla in the government of North Britain; whose conduct is 
said to have incited the Caledonians to acts of aggression. 
Irritated at this, the aged emperor issued orders to renew 
the war, and to spare neither age nor sex; but his death, 
and the contest for the empire between his sons, seem to have 
prevented their execution. At all events, it is certain that 
Caracalla made peace with the Caledonians, and gave up 
to them all the country northward of the Forth and Clyde. 
From this period, for nearly a century, we hear nothing 
respecting the Caledonians, who may therefore be presumed 
to have made no serious attempts to molest the Anglo- 
Romans. At length, however, about the year 306, we are 
informed that the emperor Constans found it necessary to 
come into Britain to repel “ the Caledonians and other Piets.” 
This, Chalmers affirms, is the first time the Piets are mentioned 
831 
in history, and contends that the Caledonians were on this 
occasion called Piets, “ owing to their peculiar seclusion from 
the Roman provincials on the south of the walls.” Pinker¬ 
ton, on the other hand, maintains, that they were a Scythian 
colony, who had possessed themselves of the eastern coast of 
Scotland before the Christian era; but his opinion is not 
supported by evidence or probability. 
Constantius having driven back the Caledonians, and other 
Piets, within their own' territories, retired to York, where he 
died July 25, A. D. 306. Almost forty years elapsed before 
they were again able to infest the territories of the Anglo- 
Romans, though the empire was harrassed by civil wars. 
In 343, however, they made some inroads, but were 
soon repelled, and the provincials again enjoyed peace for 
seventeen years. At the close of that period, when Constan¬ 
tine and Julian were contending for the imperial sway, the 
Scots and Piets made a formidable attack upon the pro¬ 
vinces. Lupicinus, an able officer, was sent to oppose them, 
but does not seem to have effected the object of his mission. 
This is the first time the Scots are mentioned in the pages 
of Roman story. Ammianus, in vihose work they are no¬ 
ticed, joins them with the Piets, as if they formed one army, 
though they had no connection whatever by neigbourhood, 
lineage, or interests: they were, in fact, an erratic people of 
Ireland, who were much accustomed to naval predatory 
excursions against the Roman provincials during the fourth 
and fifth centuries, but they had no territories in North 
Britain till about the year 503, as will be more particularly 
noticed in the sequel. The next attack upon the Roman 
provinces by the Piets and Scots happened in the year 364, 
and seems to have been more general and destructive than 
any former incursion by either of these people. For three 
years they continued gradually advancing towards the south, 
spreading death and desolation wherever they came. At 
length Theodosius, the most distinguished general of his age, 
was sent into Britain by the emperor Valentinian, to put a 
stop to their ravages and to restore tranquillity. In two 
campaigns he drove the Scots from the island, and the Piets 
beyond the wall of Antonine, which he repaired, and 
strengthened with additional forts, and constituted the terri¬ 
tories within it info a province, lay the name of Valentia. 
Such, indeed, was the energy of his operations, and the wis¬ 
dom of his precautionary measures for the maintenance of 
peace, that the Scots and Piets did not dare to renew their 
aggressions till the year 398, and even then they were easily 
repelled. The Roman empire, however, was now rapidly 
on the decline. In 407, the revolt of the troops in Britain 
transferred the government to Gratian, and after his death 
to Constantine, who conveyed the army with him into Gaul. 
The British provincials, thus left in a manner to themselves, 
assumed a sort of independence, which was sanctioned by the 
emperor Honorius, who, conscious of his inability to pro¬ 
tect this distant part of the empire, directed the British cities 
to rule and defend themselves. “ But,” to quote the words 
of Chalmers, “ their inexperience soon occasioned them to 
feel their own weakness. And in A. D. 422, though the 
walls were then garrrisoned by Roman troops, the provincials 
again applied for additional protection against the desultory 
attacks of a predatory people, who could be more easily 
repelled than tranquillized. A legion is said to have been 
sent, who chastised the invaders, and, for the last time, re¬ 
paired the fortifications that had long overawed the Pictish 
tribes. From this epoch the provincials enjoyed twenty 
years’ repose. The year 446, when iEtius was consul for the 
third time, is the memorable epoch, when the British pro¬ 
vincials acknowledged themselves to be Roman citizens, by 
their supplication to that able supporter of a degenerate state 
for fresh assistance; but he was unable to gratify their de¬ 
sire, owing to the pressure of the barbarians upon Gaul. The 
provincials were again told, in a more desponding tone, that, 
they must rely on their own efforts for their future govern¬ 
ment and effectual defence. 
After this final abdication of the Romans, North Britain 
was occupied by two races of men, the Piets, and the 
Anglo- 
