Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

duce a more accurate separation of property, and the habits of a sedentary life; but the love of arms and rapine was still the ruling passion of the Picts; and their warriors, who stripped themselves for a day of battle, were distinguished, in the eyes of the Romans, by the strange fashion of painting their naked bodies with gaudy colours and fantastic figures. The western part of Caledonia irregularly rises into wild and barren hills, which scarcely repay the toil of the husbandman, and are most profitably used for the pasture of cattle. The highlanders were condemned to the occupations of shepherds and hunters; and as they seldom were fixed to any permanent habitation, they acquired the expressive name of Scors, which, in the Celtic tongue, is said to be equivalent to that of wanderers, or vagrants. The inhabitants of a barren land were urged to seek a fresh supply of food in the waters. The deep lakes and bays which intersect their country are plentifully stored with fish; and they gradually ventured to cast their nets in the waves of the ocean. The vicinity of the Hebrides, so profusely scattered along the western coast of Scotland, tempted their curiosity and improved their skill; and they acquired, by slow degrees, the art, or rather the habit, of managing their boats in a tempestuous sea, and of steering their nocturnal course by the light of the well-known stars. The two bold headlands of Caledonia almost touch the shores of a spacious island, which obtained, from its luxuriant vegetation, the epithet of Green; and has preserved, with a slight alteration, the name of Erin, or Ierne, or Ireland. It is probable that in some remote period of antiquity the fertile plains of Ulster received a colony of hungry Scots; and that the strangers of the North, who had dared to encounter the arms of the legions, spread their conquests over the savage and unwarlike natives of a solitary island. It is certain that, in the declining age of the Roman empire, Caledonia, Ireland, and the Isle of Man were inhabited by the Scots, and that the kindred tribes, who were often associated in military enterprise, were deeply affected by the various accidents of their mutual fortunes. They long cherished the lively tradition of their common name and origin: and the missionaries of the Isle of Saints, who diffused the light of Christianity over North Britain, established the vain opinion that their Irish countrymen were the natural, as well as spiritual, fathers of the Scottish race. The loose and obscure tradition has been preserved by the venerable Bede, who scattered some rays of light over the darkness of the eighth century. On this slight foundation an huge superstructure of fable was gradually reared by the bards and the monks; two orders of men who equally abused the privilege of fiction. The Scottish nation, with mistaken pride, adopted their Irish genealogy: and the annals of a long line

268

INVASION OF BRITAIN

CHAP. XXV.

of imaginary kings have been adorned by the fancy of Boethius and the classic elegance of Buchanan.111

Their invasion of Britain,

Six years after the death of Constantine the destructive inroads of the Scots and Picts required the presence of his youngest son, who reigned in the Western empire. Constans visited A.D. 343-366. his British dominions: but we may form some estimate of 11 The Irish descent of the Scots has been revived, in the last moments of its decay, and strenuously supported, by the Rev. Mr. Whitaker (Hist. of Manchester, vol. i. p. 430, 431; and Genuine History of the Britons asserted, &c., p. 154-293). Yet he acknowledges, 1. That the Scots of Ammianus Marcellinus (A.D. 340) were already settled in Caledonia, and that the Roman authors do not afford any hints of their emigration from another country. 2. That all the accounts of such emigrations, which have been asserted or received, by Irish bards, Scotch historians, or English antiquaries (Buchanan, Camden, Usher, Stillingfleet, &c.), are totally fabulous. 3. That three of the Irish tribes, which are mentioned by Ptolemy (A.D. 150), were of Caledonian extraction. 4. That a younger branch of Caledonian princes, of the house of Fingal, acquired and possessed the monarchy of Ireland. After these concessions, the remaining difference between Mr. Whitaker and his adversaries is minute and obscure. The genuine history, which he produces, of a Fergus, the cousin of Ossian, who was transplanted (A.D. 320) from Ireland to Caledonia, is built on a conjectural supplement to the Erse poetry, and the feeble evidence of Richard of Cirencester, a monk of the fourteenth century. The lively spirit of the learned and ingenious antiquarian has tempted him to forget the nature of a question which he so vehemently debates, and so absolutely decides."

a The origin of the Scots and Picts has been also vehemently debated since the time of Gibbon. With respect to the Scots, it is, however, now generally admitted, that they were the Gael of the present day, and the same race as the inhabitants of Ireland. Whether Ireland or Scotland was the original seat of the Scoti is immaterial; but it cannot admit of doubt that in the 4th and following centuries the Scoti were more numerous in Ireland than in Scotland, and that the former island was regarded as their proper home. Thus Claudian says, "Scotorum cumulos flevit "glacialis Ierne" (de iv. Cons. Hon. 33); "totam cum Scotus Iërnen movit" (de Laud. Stilich. ii. 251); and for several centuries Ireland was constantly called "Scotia," or the land of the Scots. (For authorities, see Zeuss, Die Deutschen und die Nachbarstämme, p. 568, seq.)

With regard to the Picts there is more difficulty; they have been pronounced by different investigators of their history to have been Germans, Scandinavians, Welsh, Gael, or something distinct from all four. It may, however, be considered almost certain that they were Kelts, and probably nearly allied to the Welsh. Bede represents them as distinct from the Britons and the Scots both in nationality and language, and we may regard them as those ancient Caledonian tribes who maintained their independence, and who continued masters of the northern parts of Britain, till the Scots crossed over to

the island from Ireland. That the Picts were Kelts, and akin to the Welsh rather than to the Gael, appears from the names of their kings, of whom a genuine list from the fifth century downwards is preserved in a manuscript of the Colbertine Library. The names of these kings are not Gaelic, but most of them can be identified as Welsh, though with some distinctions, amounting at all events to a difference in dialect. Almost the only Pictish word given as such by an ancient writer is the well-known Pen val (or, as it appears in the oldest MSS. of Bede, Peann fahel), the name given by the Picts to the Wall's End, or eastern termination of the Vallum of Antoninus. The first part of the word is decidedly Welsh; pen, head, being contrary to all Gaelic analogy. Again, the name of the Ochil hills in Perthshire is better explained from the Welsh uchel, high, than from the Gael, uasal.

The Picts dwelt in the eastern part of Scotland, on both sides of the Grampian hills, from Inverness and Elgin to Dumbarton, or from the Firth of Murray to those of Forth and Clyde; but, at a later period, in the south-west of Scotland, as far as the Picts' Wall, where, on the river Nith, in Dumfriesshire, we meet with a particular tribe of them, the Nithwaras. See Garnett, Transactions of the Philological Society, vol. i. p. 119, seq.; Lappenberg, Hist. of England, translated by Thorpe, vol. i. p. 55, seq.-S.

the importance of his achievements by the language of panegyric, which celebrates only his triumph over the elements, or, in other words, the good fortune of a safe and easy passage from the port of Boulogne to the harbour of Sandwich.112 The calamities which the afflicted provincials continued to experience from foreign war and domestic tyranny were aggravated by the feeble and corrupt administration of the eunuchs of Constantius; and the transient relief which they might obtain from the virtues of Julian was soon lost by the absence and death of their benefactor. The sums of gold and silver which had been painfully collected, or liberally transmitted, for the payment of the troops, were intercepted by the avarice of the commanders; discharges, or, at least, exemptions, from the military service, were publicly sold; the distress of the soldiers, who were injuriously deprived of their legal and scanty subsistence, provoked them to frequent desertion; the nerves of discipline were relaxed, and the highways were infested with robbers. 113 The oppression of the good and the impunity of the wicked equally contributed to diffuse through the island a spirit of discontent and revolt; and every ambitious subject, every desperate exile, might entertain a reasonable hope of subverting the weak and distracted government of Britain. The hostile tribes of the North, who detested the pride and power of the King of the World, suspended their domestic feuds; and the barbarians of the land and sea, the Scots, the Picts, and the Saxons, spread themselves, with rapid and irresistible fury, from the wall of Antoninus to the shores of Kent. Every production of art and nature, every object of convenience or luxury, which they were incapable of creating by labour or procuring by trade, was accumulated in the rich and fruitful province of Britain. A philosopher may deplore the eternal discord of the human race, but he will confess that the desire of spoil is a more rational provocation than the vanity of conquest. From the age of Constantine to that of the Plantagenets this rapacious spirit continued to instigate the poor and hardy Caledonians: but the same people whose generous humanity seems to inspire the songs of Ossian was disgraced by a savage ignorance of the virtues of peace and of the laws of war. Their southern neighbours have felt, and perhaps exaggerated, the cruel depredations of the

114

112 Hieme tumentes ac sævientes undas calcâstis Oceani sub remis vestris; . insperatam imperatoris faciem Britannus expavit. Julius Firmicus Maternus de Errore Profan. Relig. p. 464 [p. 59, ed. Lugd. B. 1672] edit. Gronov. ad calcem Minuc. Fel. See Tillemont (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 336).

113 Libanius, Orat. Parent. c. xxxix. p. 264. This curious passage has escaped the diligence of our British antiquaries.

The Caledonians praised and coveted the gold, the steeds, the lights, &c., of the stranger. See Dr. Blair's Dissertation on Ossian, vol. ii. p. 343; and Mr. Macpherson's Introduction, p. 242-286.

270

RESTORATION OF BRITAIN

CHAP. XXV. Scots and Picts;115 and a valiant tribe of Caledonia, the Attacotti,116 a the enemies, and afterwards the soldiers, of Valentinian, are accused by an eyewitness of delighting in the taste of human flesh. When they hunted the woods for prey, it is said that they attacked the shepherd rather than his flock; and that they curiously selected the most delicate and brawny parts both of males and females, which they prepared for their horrid repasts.117 If in the neighbourhood of the commercial and literary town of Glasgow a race of cannibals has really existed, we may contemplate in the period of the Scottish history the opposite extremes of savage and civilised life. Such reflections tend to enlarge the circle of our ideas, and to encourage the pleasing hope that New Zealand may produce in some future age the Hume of the Southern Hemisphere.

Restoration of Britain

by Theodosius,

A.D. 367-370.

Every messenger who escaped across the British Channel conveyed the most melancholy and alarming tidings to the ears of Valentinian, and the emperor was soon informed that the two military commanders of the province had been surprised and cut off by the barbarians. Severus, count of the domestics, was hastily despatched, and as suddenly recalled, by the court of Trèves. The representations of Jovinus served only to indicate the greatness of the evil, and, after a long and serious consultation, the defence, or rather the recovery, of Britain was intrusted to the abilities of the brave Theodosius. The exploits of that general, the father of a line of emperors, have been celebrated, with peculiar complacency, by the writers of the age; but his real merit deserved their applause, and his nomination was received, by the army and province, as a sure presage of approaching victory. He seized the favourable moment of navigation, and securely landed the numerous and veteran bands of the Heruli and Batavians, the Jovians and the Victors. In

115 Lord Lyttelton has circumstantially related (History of Henry II. vol. i. p. 182), and Sir David Dalrymple has slightly mentioned (Annals of Scotland, vol. i. p. 69), a barbarous inroad of the Scots, at a time (A.D. 1137) when law, religion, and society must have softened their primitive manners.

116 Attacotti bellicosa hominum natio. Ammian. xxvii. 8. Camden (Introduct. p. clii.) has restored their true name in the text of Jerom. The bands of Attacotti which Jerom had seen in Gaul were afterwards stationed in Italy and Illyricum (Notitia, S. viii. xxxix. xl.).

117 Cum ipse adolescentulus in Galliâ viderim Attacottos (or Scotos) gentem Britannicam humanis vesci carnibus; et cum per silvas porcorum greges, et armentorum pecudumque reperiant, pastorum nates et feminarum papillas solere abscindere; et has solas ciborum delicias arbitrari. Such is the evidence of Jerom (tom. ii. p. 75 [adv. Jovinianum, 1. ii. tom. ii. p. 335, ed. Vallars.]), whose veracity I find no reason to question.

The Attacotti appear to have been akin to the Scoti, with whom they probably crossed over from Ireland to Britain. In the Irish annals they appear under the

name of Aiteachtuath. Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Rom. Geography, vol. I. p. 320.-S.

his march from Sandwich to London, Theodosius defeated several parties of the barbarians, released a multitude of captives, and, after distributing to his soldiers a small portion of the spoil, established the fame of disinterested justice by the restitution of the remainder to the rightful proprietors. The citizens of London, who had almost despaired of their safety, threw open their gates, and, as soon as Theodosius had obtained from the court of Trèves the important aid of a military lieutenant and a civil governor, he executed with wisdom and vigour the laborious task of the deliverance of Britain. The vagrant soldiers were recalled to their standard, an edict of amnesty dispelled the public apprehensions, and his cheerful example alleviated the rigour of martial discipline. The scattered and desultory warfare of the barbarians, who infested the land and sea, deprived him of the glory of a signal victory; but the prudent spirit and consummate art of the Roman general were displayed in the operations of A.D. 368 and two campaigns, which successively rescued every part of the 369. province from the hands of a cruel and rapacious enemy. The splendour of the cities and the security of the fortifications were diligently restored by the paternal care of Theodosius, who with a strong hand confined the trembling Caledonians to the northern angle of the island, and perpetuated, by the name and settlement of the new province of Valentia, the glories of the reign of Valentinian.118 The voice of poetry and panegyric may add, perhaps with some degree of truth, that the unknown regions of Thule were stained with the blood of the Picts, that the oars of Theodosius dashed the waves of the Hyperborean ocean, and that the distant Orkneys were the scene of his naval victory over the Saxon pirates.119 He left the province with a fair as well as splendid reputation, and was immediately promoted to the rank of master-general of the cavalry by a prince who could applaud, without envy, the merit of his servants. In the important station of the Upper Danube, the conqueror of Britain checked and defeated the armies of the Alemanni, before he was chosen to suppress the revolt of Africa.

118 Ammianus has concisely represented (xx. 1, xxvi. 4, xxvii. 8, xxviii. 3) the whole series of the British war.

119 Horrescit. . . . ratibus. . . . impervia Thule.
Ille.... nec falso nomine Pictos

Edomuit. Scotumque vago mucrone secutus
Fregit Hyperboreas remis audacibus undas.

Claudian, in iii. Cons. Honorii, ver. 53, &c.
Maduerunt Saxone fuso

Orcades: incaluit Pictorum sanguine Thule.
Scotorum cumulos flevit glacialis Ierne.

In iv. Cons. Hon. ver. 31, &c.

See likewise Pacatus (in Panegyr. Vet. xii. 5). But it is not easy to appreciate the intrinsic value of flattery and metaphor. Compare the British victories of Bolanus (Statius, Silv. v. 2) with his real character (Tacit. in Vit. Agricol. c. 16).

« ForrigeFortsett »