Empire.—Part IV.
When the suffrage of the generals and of the army committed the
sceptre of the Roman empire to the hands of Valentinian, his
reputation in arms, his military skill and experience, and his
rigid attachment to the forms, as well as spirit, of ancient
discipline, were the principal motives of their judicious choice.
The eagerness of the troops, who pressed him to nominate his
colleague, was justified by the dangerous situation of public
affairs; and Valentinian himself was conscious, that the
abilities of the most active mind were unequal to the defence of
the distant frontiers of an invaded monarchy. As soon as the
death of Julian had relieved the Barbarians from the terror of
his name, the most sanguine hopes of rapine and conquest excited
the nations of the East, of the North, and of the South. Their
inroads were often vexatious, and sometimes formidable; but,
during the twelve years of the reign of Valentinian, his firmness
and vigilance protected his own dominions; and his powerful
genius seemed to inspire and direct the feeble counsels of his
brother. Perhaps the method of annals would more forcibly express
the urgent and divided cares of the two emperors; but the
attention of the reader, likewise, would be distracted by a
tedious and desultory narrative. A separate view of the five
great theatres of war; I. Germany; II. Britain; III. Africa; IV.
The East; and, V. The Danube; will impress a more distinct image
of the military state of the empire under the reigns of
Valentinian and Valens.
I. The ambassadors of the Alemanni had been offended by the harsh
and haughty behavior of Ursacius, master of the offices; 88 who
by an act of unseasonable parsimony, had diminished the value, as
well as the quantity, of the presents to which they were
entitled, either from custom or treaty, on the accession of a new
emperor. They expressed, and they communicated to their
countrymen, their strong sense of the national affront. The
irascible minds of the chiefs were exasperated by the suspicion
of contempt; and the martial youth crowded to their standard.
Before Valentinian could pass the Alps, the villages of Gaul were
in flames; before his general Degalaiphus could encounter the
Alemanni, they had secured the captives and the spoil in the
forests of Germany. In the beginning of the ensuing year, the
military force of the whole nation, in deep and solid columns,
broke through the barrier of the Rhine, during the severity of a
northern winter. Two Roman counts were defeated and mortally
wounded; and the standard of the Heruli and Batavians fell into
the hands of the conquerors, who displayed, with insulting shouts
and menaces, the trophy of their victory. The standard was
recovered; but the Batavians had not redeemed the shame of their
disgrace and flight in the eyes of their severe judge. It was the
opinion of Valentinian, that his soldiers must learn to fear
their commander, before they could cease to fear the enemy. The
troops were solemnly assembled; and the trembling Batavians were
enclosed within the circle of the Imperial army. Valentinian then
ascended his tribunal; and, as if he disdained to punish
cowardice with death, he inflicted a stain of indelible ignominy
on the officers, whose misconduct and pusillanimity were found to
be the first occasion of the defeat. The Batavians were degraded
from their rank, stripped of their arms, and condemned to be sold
for slaves to the highest bidder. At this tremendous sentence,
the troops fell prostrate on the ground, deprecated the
indignation of their sovereign, and protested, that, if he would
indulge them in another trial, they would approve themselves not
unworthy of the name of Romans, and of his soldiers. Valentinian,
with affected reluctance, yielded to their entreaties; the
Batavians resumed their arms, and with their arms, the invincible
resolution of wiping away their disgrace in the blood of the
Alemanni. 89 The principal command was declined by Dagalaiphus;
and that experienced general, who had represented, perhaps with
too much prudence, the extreme difficulties of the undertaking,
had the mortification, before the end of the campaign, of seeing
his rival Jovinus convert those difficulties into a decisive
advantage over the scattered forces of the Barbarians. At the
head of a well-disciplined army of cavalry, infantry, and light
troops, Jovinus advanced, with cautious and rapid steps, to
Scarponna, 90 9011 in the territory of Metz, where he surprised a
large division of the Alemanni, before they had time to run to
their arms; and flushed his soldiers with the confidence of an
easy and bloodless victory. Another division, or rather army, of
the enemy, after the cruel and wanton devastation of the adjacent
country, reposed themselves on the shady banks of the Moselle.
Jovinus, who had viewed the ground with the eye of a general,
made a silent approach through a deep and woody vale, till he
could distinctly perceive the indolent security of the Germans.
Some were bathing their huge limbs in the river; others were
combing their long and flaxen hair; others again were swallowing
large draughts of rich and delicious wine. On a sudden they heard
the sound of the Roman trumpet; they saw the enemy in their camp.
Astonishment produced disorder; disorder was followed by flight
and dismay; and the confused multitude of the bravest warriors
was pierced by the swords and javelins of the legionaries and
auxiliaries. The fugitives escaped to the third, and most
considerable, camp, in the Catalonian plains, near Châlons in
Champagne: the straggling detachments were hastily recalled to
their standard; and the Barbarian chiefs, alarmed and admonished
by the fate of their companions, prepared to encounter, in a
decisive battle, the victorious forces of the lieutenant of
Valentinian. The bloody and obstinate conflict lasted a whole
summer’s day, with equal valor, and with alternate success. The
Romans at length prevailed, with the loss of about twelve hundred
men. Six thousand of the Alemanni were slain, four thousand were
wounded; and the brave Jovinus, after chasing the flying remnant
of their host as far as the banks of the Rhine, returned to
Paris, to receive the applause of his sovereign, and the ensigns
of the consulship for the ensuing year. 91 The triumph of the
Romans was indeed sullied by their treatment of the captive king,
whom they hung on a gibbet, without the knowledge of their
indignant general. This disgraceful act of cruelty, which might
be imputed to the fury of the troops, was followed by the
deliberate murder of Withicab, the son of Vadomair; a German
prince, of a weak and sickly constitution, but of a daring and
formidable spirit. The domestic assassin was instigated and
protected by the Romans; 92 and the violation of the laws of
humanity and justice betrayed their secret apprehension of the
weakness of the declining empire. The use of the dagger is seldom
adopted in public councils, as long as they retain any confidence
in the power of the sword.
88 (return) [ Ammian, xxvi. 5. Valesius adds a long and good note
on the master of the offices.]
89 (return) [ Ammian. xxvii. 1. Zosimus, l. iv. p. 208. The
disgrace of the Batavians is suppressed by the contemporary
soldier, from a regard for military honor, which could not affect
a Greek rhetorician of the succeeding age.]
90 (return) [ See D’Anville, Notice de l’Ancienne Gaule, p. 587.
The name of the Moselle, which is not specified by Ammianus, is
clearly understood by Mascou, (Hist. of the Ancient Germans, vii.
2)]
9011 (return) [ Charpeigne on the Moselle. Mannert—M.]
91 (return) [ The battles are described by Ammianus, (xxvii. 2,)
and by Zosimus, (l. iv. p. 209,) who supposes Valentinian to have
been present.]
92 (return) [ Studio solicitante nostrorum, occubuit. Ammian
xxvii. 10.]
While the Alemanni appeared to be humbled by their recent
calamities, the pride of Valentinian was mortified by the
unexpected surprisal of Moguntiacum, or Mentz, the principal city
of the Upper Germany. In the unsuspicious moment of a Christian
festival, 9211 Rando, a bold and artful chieftain, who had long
meditated his attempt, suddenly passed the Rhine; entered the
defenceless town, and retired with a multitude of captives of
either sex. Valentinian resolved to execute severe vengeance on
the whole body of the nation. Count Sebastian, with the bands of
Italy and Illyricum, was ordered to invade their country, most
probably on the side of Rhætia. The emperor in person,
accompanied by his son Gratian, passed the Rhine at the head of a
formidable army, which was supported on both flanks by Jovinus
and Severus, the two masters-general of the cavalry and infantry
of the West. The Alemanni, unable to prevent the devastation of
their villages, fixed their camp on a lofty, and almost
inaccessible, mountain, in the modern duchy of Wirtemberg, and
resolutely expected the approach of the Romans. The life of
Valentinian was exposed to imminent danger by the intrepid
curiosity with which he persisted to explore some secret and
unguarded path. A troop of Barbarians suddenly rose from their
ambuscade: and the emperor, who vigorously spurred his horse down
a steep and slippery descent, was obliged to leave behind him his
armor-bearer, and his helmet, magnificently enriched with gold
and precious stones. At the signal of the general assault, the
Roman troops encompassed and ascended the mountain of Solicinium
on three different sides. 9212 Every step which they gained,
increased their ardor, and abated the resistance of the enemy:
and after their united forces had occupied the summit of the
hill, they impetuously urged the Barbarians down the northern
descent, where Count Sebastian was posted to intercept their
retreat. After this signal victory, Valentinian returned to his
winter quarters at Treves; where he indulged the public joy by
the exhibition of splendid and triumphal games. 93 But the wise
monarch, instead of aspiring to the conquest of Germany, confined
his attention to the important and laborious defence of the
Gallic frontier, against an enemy whose strength was renewed by a
stream of daring volunteers, which incessantly flowed from the
most distant tribes of the North. 94 The banks of the Rhine 9411
from its source to the straits of the ocean, were closely planted
with strong castles and convenient towers; new works, and new
arms, were invented by the ingenuity of a prince who was skilled
in the mechanical arts; and his numerous levies of Roman and
Barbarian youth were severely trained in all the exercises of
war. The progress of the work, which was sometimes opposed by
modest representations, and sometimes by hostile attempts,
secured the tranquillity of Gaul during the nine subsequent years
of the administration of Valentinian. 95
9211 (return) [ Probably Easter. Wagner.—M.]
9212 (return) [ Mannert is unable to fix the position of
Solicinium. Haefelin (in Comm Acad Elect. Palat. v. 14)
conjectures Schwetzingen, near Heidelberg. See Wagner’s note. St.
Martin, Sultz in Wirtemberg, near the sources of the Neckar St.
Martin, iii. 339.—M.]
93 (return) [ The expedition of Valentinian is related by
Ammianus, (xxvii. 10;) and celebrated by Ausonius, (Mosell. 421,
&c.,) who foolishly supposes, that the Romans were ignorant of
the sources of the Danube.]
94 (return) [ Immanis enim natio, jam inde ab incunabulis primis
varietate casuum imminuta; ita sæpius adolescit, ut fuisse longis
sæculis æstimetur intacta. Ammianus, xxviii. 5. The Count de Buat
(Hist. des Peuples de l’Europe, tom. vi. p. 370) ascribes the
fecundity of the Alemanni to their easy adoption of strangers.
——Note: “This explanation,” says Mr. Malthus, “only removes the
difficulty a little farther off. It makes the earth rest upon the
tortoise, but does not tell us on what the tortoise rests. We may
still ask what northern reservoir supplied this incessant stream
of daring adventurers. Montesquieu’s solution of the problem
will, I think, hardly be admitted, (Grandeur et Décadence des
Romains, c. 16, p. 187.) * * * The whole difficulty, however, is
at once removed, if we apply to the German nations, at that time,
a fact which is so generally known to have occurred in America,
and suppose that, when not checked by wars and famine, they
increased at a rate that would double their numbers in
twenty-five or thirty years. The propriety, and even the
necessity, of applying this rate of increase to the inhabitants
of ancient Germany, will strikingly appear from that most
valuable picture of their manners which has been left us by
Tacitus, (Tac. de Mor. Germ. 16 to 20.) * * * With these manners,
and a habit of enterprise and emigration, which would naturally
remove all fears about providing for a family, it is difficult to
conceive a society with a stronger principle of increase in it,
and we see at once that prolific source of armies and colonies
against which the force of the Roman empire so long struggled
with difficulty, and under which it ultimately sunk. It is not
probable that, for two periods together, or even for one, the
population within the confines of Germany ever doubled itself in
twenty-five years. Their perpetual wars, the rude state of
agriculture, and particularly the very strange custom adopted by
most of the tribes of marking their barriers by extensive
deserts, would prevent any very great actual increase of numbers.
At no one period could the country be called well peopled, though
it was often redundant in population. * * * Instead of clearing
their forests, draining their swamps, and rendering their soil
fit to support an extended population, they found it more
congenial to their martial habits and impatient dispositions to
go in quest of food, of plunder, or of glory, into other
countries.” Malthus on Population, i. p. 128.—G.]
9411 (return) [ The course of the Neckar was likewise strongly
guarded. The hyperbolical eulogy of Symmachus asserts that the
Neckar first became known to the Romans by the conquests and
fortifications of Valentinian. Nunc primum victoriis tuis
externus fluvius publicatur. Gaudeat servitute, captivus
innotuit. Symm. Orat. p. 22.—M.]
95 (return) [ Ammian. xxviii. 2. Zosimus, l. iv. p. 214. The
younger Victor mentions the mechanical genius of Valentinian,
nova arma meditari fingere terra seu limo simulacra.]
That prudent emperor, who diligently practised the wise maxims of
Diocletian, was studious to foment and excite the intestine
divisions of the tribes of Germany. About the middle of the
fourth century, the countries, perhaps of Lusace and Thuringia,
on either side of the Elbe, were occupied by the vague dominion
of the Burgundians; a warlike and numerous people, 9511 of the
Vandal race, 96 whose obscure name insensibly swelled into a
powerful kingdom, and has finally settled on a flourishing
province. The most remarkable circumstance in the ancient manners
of the Burgundians appears to have been the difference of their
civil and ecclesiastical constitution. The appellation of
_Hendinos_ was given to the king or general, and the title of
_Sinistus_ to the high priest, of the nation. The person of the
priest was sacred, and his dignity perpetual; but the temporal
government was held by a very precarious tenure. If the events of
war accuses the courage or conduct of the king, he was
immediately deposed; and the injustice of his subjects made him
responsible for the fertility of the earth, and the regularity of
the seasons, which seemed to fall more properly within the
sacerdotal department. 97 The disputed possession of some
salt-pits 98 engaged the Alemanni and the Burgundians in frequent
contests: the latter were easily tempted, by the secret
solicitations and liberal offers of the emperor; and their
fabulous descent from the Roman soldiers, who had formerly been
left to garrison the fortresses of Drusus, was admitted with
mutual credulity, as it was conducive to mutual interest. 99 An
army of fourscore thousand Burgundians soon appeared on the banks
of the Rhine; and impatiently required the support and subsidies
which Valentinian had promised: but they were amused with excuses
and delays, till at length, after a fruitless expectation, they
were compelled to retire. The arms and fortifications of the
Gallic frontier checked the fury of their just resentment; and
their massacre of the captives served to imbitter the hereditary
feud of the Burgundians and the Alemanni. The inconstancy of a
wise prince may, perhaps, be explained by some alteration of
circumstances; and perhaps it was the original design of
Valentinian to intimidate, rather than to destroy; as the balance
of power would have been equally overturned by the extirpation of
either of the German nations. Among the princes of the Alemanni,
Macrianus, who, with a Roman name, had assumed the arts of a
soldier and a statesman, deserved his hatred and esteem. The
emperor himself, with a light and unencumbered band, condescended
to pass the Rhine, marched fifty miles into the country, and
would infallibly have seized the object of his pursuit, if his
judicious measures had not been defeated by the impatience of the
troops. Macrianus was afterwards admitted to the honor of a
personal conference with the emperor; and the favors which he
received, fixed him, till the hour of his death, a steady and
sincere friend of the republic. 100
9511 (return) [ According to the general opinion, the Burgundians
formed a Gothic o Vandalic tribe, who, from the banks of the
Lower Vistula, made incursions, on one side towards Transylvania,
on the other towards the centre of Germany. All that remains of
the Burgundian language is Gothic. * * * Nothing in their customs
indicates a different origin. Malte Brun, Geog. tom. i. p. 396.
(edit. 1831.)—M.]
96 (return) [ Bellicosos et pubis immensæ viribus affluentes; et
ideo metuendos finitimis universis. Ammian. xxviii. 5.]
97 (return) [ I am always apt to suspect historians and
travellers of improving extraordinary facts into general laws.
Ammianus ascribes a similar custom to Egypt; and the Chinese have
imputed it to the Ta-tsin, or Roman empire, (De Guignes, Hist.
des Huns, tom. ii. part. 79.)]
98 (return) [ Salinarum finiumque causa Alemannis sæpe jurgabant.
Ammian xxviii. 5. Possibly they disputed the possession of the
_Sala_, a river which produced salt, and which had been the
object of ancient contention. Tacit. Annal. xiii. 57, and Lipsius
ad loc.]
99 (return) [ Jam inde temporibus priscis sobolem se esse Romanam
Burgundii sciunt: and the vague tradition gradually assumed a
more regular form, (Oros. l. vii. c. 32.) It is annihilated by
the decisive authority of Pliny, who composed the History of
Drusus, and served in Germany, (Plin. Secund. Epist. iii. 5,)
within sixty years after the death of that hero. _Germanorum
genera_ quinque; Vindili, quorum pars _Burgundiones_, &c., (Hist.
Natur. iv. 28.)]
100 (return) [ The wars and negotiations relative to the
Burgundians and Alemanni, are distinctly related by Ammianus
Marcellinus, (xxviii. 5, xxix 4, xxx. 3.) Orosius, (l. vii. c.
32,) and the Chronicles of Jerom and Cassiodorus, fix some dates,
and add some circumstances.]
The land was covered by the fortifications of Valentinian; but
the sea-coast of Gaul and Britain was exposed to the depredations
of the Saxons. That celebrated name, in which we have a dear and
domestic interest, escaped the notice of Tacitus; and in the maps
of Ptolemy, it faintly marks the narrow neck of the Cimbric
peninsula, and three small islands towards the mouth of the Elbe.
101 This contracted territory, the present duchy of Sleswig, or
perhaps of Holstein, was incapable of pouring forth the
inexhaustible swarms of Saxons who reigned over the ocean, who
filled the British island with their language, their laws, and
their colonies; and who so long defended the liberty of the North
against the arms of Charlemagne. 102 The solution of this
difficulty is easily derived from the similar manners, and loose
constitution, of the tribes of Germany; which were blended with
each other by the slightest accidents of war or friendship. The
situation of the native Saxons disposed them to embrace the
hazardous professions of fishermen and pirates; and the success
of their first adventures would naturally excite the emulation of
their bravest countrymen, who were impatient of the gloomy
solitude of their woods and mountains. Every tide might float
down the Elbe whole fleets of canoes, filled with hardy and
intrepid associates, who aspired to behold the unbounded prospect
of the ocean, and to taste the wealth and luxury of unknown
worlds. It should seem probable, however, that the most numerous
auxiliaries of the Saxons were furnished by the nations who dwelt
along the shores of the Baltic. They possessed arms and ships,
the art of navigation, and the habits of naval war; but the
difficulty of issuing through the northern columns of Hercules
103 (which, during several months of the year, are obstructed
with ice) confined their skill and courage within the limits of a
spacious lake. The rumor of the successful armaments which sailed
from the mouth of the Elbe, would soon provoke them to cross the
narrow isthmus of Sleswig, and to launch their vessels on the
great sea. The various troops of pirates and adventurers, who
fought under the same standard, were insensibly united in a
permanent society, at first of rapine, and afterwards of
government. A military confederation was gradually moulded into a
national body, by the gentle operation of marriage and
consanguinity; and the adjacent tribes, who solicited the
alliance, accepted the name and laws, of the Saxons. If the fact
were not established by the most unquestionable evidence, we
should appear to abuse the credulity of our readers, by the
description of the vessels in which the Saxon pirates ventured to
sport in the waves of the German Ocean, the British Channel, and
the Bay of Biscay. The keel of their large flat-bottomed boats
were framed of light timber, but the sides and upper works
consisted only of wicker, with a covering of strong hides. 104 In
the course of their slow and distant navigations, they must
always have been exposed to the danger, and very frequently to
the misfortune, of shipwreck; and the naval annals of the Saxons
were undoubtedly filled with the accounts of the losses which
they sustained on the coasts of Britain and Gaul. But the daring
spirit of the pirates braved the perils both of the sea and of
the shore: their skill was confirmed by the habits of enterprise;
the meanest of their mariners was alike capable of handling an
oar, of rearing a sail, or of conducting a vessel, and the Saxons
rejoiced in the appearance of a tempest, which concealed their
design, and dispersed the fleets of the enemy. 105 After they had
acquired an accurate knowledge of the maritime provinces of the
West, they extended the scene of their depredations, and the most
sequestered places had no reason to presume on their security.
The Saxon boats drew so little water that they could easily
proceed fourscore or a hundred miles up the great rivers; their
weight was so inconsiderable, that they were transported on
wagons from one river to another; and the pirates who had entered
the mouth of the Seine, or of the Rhine, might descend, with the
rapid stream of the Rhone, into the Mediterranean. Under the
reign of Valentinian, the maritime provinces of Gaul were
afflicted by the Saxons: a military count was stationed for the
defence of the sea-coast, or Armorican limit; and that officer,
who found his strength, or his abilities, unequal to the task,
implored the assistance of Severus, master-general of the
infantry. The Saxons, surrounded and outnumbered, were forced to
relinquish their spoil, and to yield a select band of their tall
and robust youth to serve in the Imperial armies. They stipulated
only a safe and honorable retreat; and the condition was readily
granted by the Roman general, who meditated an act of perfidy,
106 imprudent as it was inhuman, while a Saxon remained alive,
and in arms, to revenge the fate of their countrymen. The
premature eagerness of the infantry, who were secretly posted in
a deep valley, betrayed the ambuscade; and they would perhaps
have fallen the victims of their own treachery, if a large body
of cuirassiers, alarmed by the noise of the combat, had not
hastily advanced to extricate their companions, and to overwhelm
the undaunted valor of the Saxons. Some of the prisoners were
saved from the edge of the sword, to shed their blood in the
amphitheatre; and the orator Symmachus complains, that
twenty-nine of those desperate savages, by strangling themselves
with their own hands, had disappointed the amusement of the
public. Yet the polite and philosophic citizens of Rome were
impressed with the deepest horror, when they were informed, that
the Saxons consecrated to the gods the tithe of their _human_
spoil; and that they ascertained by lot the objects of the
barbarous sacrifice. 107
101 (return) [ At the northern extremity of the peninsula, (the
Cimbric promontory of Pliny, iv. 27,) Ptolemy fixes the remnant
of the _Cimbri_. He fills the interval between the _Saxons_ and
the Cimbri with six obscure tribes, who were united, as early as
the sixth century, under the national appellation of _Danes_. See
Cluver. German. Antiq. l. iii. c. 21, 22, 23.]
102 (return) [ M. D’Anville (Establissement des Etats de
l’Europe, &c., p. 19-26) has marked the extensive limits of the
Saxony of Charlemagne.]
103 (return) [ The fleet of Drusus had failed in their attempt to
pass, or even to approach, the _Sound_, (styled, from an obvious
resemblance, the columns of Hercules,) and the naval enterprise
was never resumed, (Tacit. de Moribus German. c. 34.) The
knowledge which the Romans acquired of the naval powers of the
Baltic, (c. 44, 45) was obtained by their land journeys in search
of amber.]
104 (return) [ Quin et Aremoricus piratam _Saxona_ tractus
Sperabat; cui pelle salum sulcare Britannum
Ludus; et assuto glaucum mare findere lembo.
Sidon. in Panegyr. Avit. 369.
The genius of Cæsar imitated, for a particular service, these
rude, but light vessels, which were likewise used by the natives
of Britain. (Comment. de Bell. Civil. i. 51, and Guichardt,
Nouveaux Mémoires Militaires, tom. ii. p. 41, 42.) The British
vessels would now astonish the genius of Cæsar.]
105 (return) [ The best original account of the Saxon pirates may
be found in Sidonius Apollinaris, (l. viii. epist. 6, p. 223,
edit. Sirmond,) and the best commentary in the Abbé du Bos,
(Hist. Critique de la Monarchie Françoise, &c. tom. i. l. i. c.
16, p. 148-155. See likewise p. 77, 78.)]
106 (return) [ Ammian. (xxviii. 5) justifies this breach of faith
to pirates and robbers; and Orosius (l. vii. c. 32) more clearly
expresses their real guilt; virtute atque agilitate terribeles.]
107 (return) [ Symmachus (l. ii. epist. 46) still presumes to
mention the sacred name of Socrates and philosophy. Sidonius,
bishop of Clermont, might condemn, (l. viii. epist. 6,) with
_less_ inconsistency, the human sacrifices of the Saxons.]
II. The fabulous colonies of Egyptians and Trojans, of
Scandinavians and Spaniards, which flattered the pride, and
amused the credulity, of our rude ancestors, have insensibly
vanished in the light of science and philosophy. 108 The present
age is satisfied with the simple and rational opinion, that the
islands of Great Britain and Ireland were gradually peopled from
the adjacent continent of Gaul. From the coast of Kent, to the
extremity of Caithness and Ulster, the memory of a Celtic origin
was distinctly preserved, in the perpetual resemblance of
language, of religion, and of manners; and the peculiar
characters of the British tribes might be naturally ascribed to
the influence of accidental and local circumstances. 109 The
Roman Province was reduced to the state of civilized and peaceful
servitude; the rights of savage freedom were contracted to the
narrow limits of Caledonia. The inhabitants of that northern
region were divided, as early as the reign of Constantine,
between the two great tribes of the Scots and of the Picts, 110
who have since experienced a very different fortune. The power,
and almost the memory, of the Picts have been extinguished by
their successful rivals; and the Scots, after maintaining for
ages the dignity of an independent kingdom, have multiplied, by
an equal and voluntary union, the honors of the English name. The
hand of nature had contributed to mark the ancient distinctions
of the Scots and Picts. The former were the men of the hills, and
the latter those of the plain. The eastern coast of Caledonia may
be considered as a level and fertile country, which, even in a
rude state of tillage, was capable of producing a considerable
quantity of corn; and the epithet of _cruitnich_, or
wheat-eaters, expressed the contempt or envy of the carnivorous
highlander. The cultivation of the earth might introduce 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 colors 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 Scots, 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 supplied 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, a 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 of imaginary kings
have been adorned by the fancy of Boethius, and the classic
elegance of Buchanan. 111
108 (return) [ In the beginning of the last century, the learned
Camden was obliged to undermine, with respectful scepticism, the
romance of _Brutus_, the Trojan; who is now buried in silent
oblivion with _Scota_, the daughter of Pharaoh, and her numerous
progeny. Yet I am informed, that some champions of the _Milesian
colony_ may still be found among the original natives of Ireland.
A people dissatisfied with their present condition, grasp at any
visions of their past or future glory.]
109 (return) [ Tacitus, or rather his father-in-law, Agricola,
might remark the German or Spanish complexion of some British
tribes. But it was their sober, deliberate opinion: “In universum
tamen æstimanti Gallos cicinum solum occupâsse credibile est.
Eorum sacra deprehendas.... ermo haud multum diversus,” (in Vit.
Agricol. c. xi.) Cæsar had observed their common religion,
(Comment. de Bello Gallico, vi. 13;) and in his time the
emigration from the Belgic Gaul was a recent, or at least an
historical event, (v. 10.) Camden, the British Strabo, has
modestly ascertained our genuine antiquities, (Britannia, vol. i.
Introduction, p. ii.—xxxi.)]
110 (return) [ In the dark and doubtful paths of Caledonian
antiquity, I have chosen for my guides two learned and ingenious
Highlanders, whom their birth and education had peculiarly
qualified for that office. See Critical Dissertations on the
Origin and Antiquities, &c., of the Caledonians, by Dr. John
Macpherson, London 1768, in 4to.; and Introduction to the History
of Great Britain and Ireland, by James Macpherson, Esq., London
1773, in 4to., third edit. Dr. Macpherson was a minister in the
Isle of Sky: and it is a circumstance honorable for the present
age, that a work, replete with erudition and criticism, should
have been composed in the most remote of the Hebrides.]
111 (return) [ 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. * Note: This controversy has not slumbered since the
days of Gibbon. We have strenuous advocates of the Phœnician
origin of the Irish, and each of the old theories, with several
new ones, maintains its partisans. It would require several pages
fairly to bring down the dispute to our own days, and perhaps we
should be no nearer to any satisfactory theory than Gibbon
was.—M.]