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CALEDONIA

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 987 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CALEDONIA , the See also:

Roman name of See also:North See also:Britain, still used especially in See also:poetry for See also:Scotland. It occurs first in the poet See also:Lucan (A.D. 64), and then often in Roman literature. There were (I) a See also:district Caledonia, of which the See also:southern border must have been on or near the See also:isthmus between the See also:Clyde and the Forth, (2) a Caledonian See also:Forest (possibly in See also:Perthshire), and (3) a tribe of Caledones or Calidones, named by the geographer See also:Ptolemy as living within boundaries which are now unascertainable. The See also:Romans first invaded Caledonia under See also:Agricola (about A.D. 83). They then fortified the Forth and Clyde Isthmus with a See also:line of forts, two of which, those at Camelon and Barhill, have been identified and excavated, penetrated into Perthshire, and fought the decisive See also:battle of the See also:war (according to See also:Tacitus) on the slopes of See also:Mons Graupius.' The site—quite as hotly contested among antiquaries as between Roman and Caledonian —may have been near the Roman encampment of Inchtuthill (in the policies of Delvine, Io m. N. of See also:Perth near the See also:union of See also:Tay and See also:Isla), which is the most northerly of the ascertained Roman encampments in Scotland and seems to belong to the See also:age of Agricola. Tacitus represents the result as a victory. The See also:home See also:government, whether averse to expensive conquests of barren hills, or afraid of a victorious See also:general, abruptly recalled Agricola, and his See also:northern conquests—all beyond the See also:Tweed, if not all beyond Cheviot—were abandoned. The next advance followed more than fifty years later. About A.D.

140 the district up to the See also:

Firth of Forth was definitely annexed, and a rampart with forts along it, the See also:Wall of See also:Antoninus See also:Pius, was See also:drawn from See also:sea to sea (see BRITAIN: Roman; and GRAIIAM's DYKE). At the same See also:time the Roman forts at Ardoch, north of See also:Dunblane, Carpow near See also:Abernethy, and perhaps one or two more, were occupied. But the See also:conquest was stubbornly disputed, and after several risings, the See also:land north of Cheviot seems to have been lost about A.D. 18o-185. About A.D. 208 the See also:emperor Septimius See also:Severus carried out an extensive punitive expedition against the northern tribes, but while it is doubtful how far he penetrated, it is certain that after his See also:death the Roman See also:writ never again ran north of Cheviot. See also:Rome is said, indeed, to have recovered the whole land up to the Wall of Pius in A.D. 368 and to have established there a See also:province, See also:Valentia. A province with that name was certainly organized somewhere. But its site and extent is quite uncertain and its duration was exceedingly brief. Through-out, Scotland remained substantially untouched by Roman influences, and its See also:Celtic See also:art, though perhaps influenced by Irish, remained See also:free from Mediterranean infusion. Even in the See also:south of Scotland, where Rome ruled for See also:half a See also:century (A.D.

142-180), the occupation was military and produced no civilizing effects. Of the actual See also:

condition of the land during the See also:period of 'Roman See also:rule in Britain, we have yet to learn the details by excavation. The curious carvings and ramparts, at Burghead on the See also:coast of See also:Elgin, and the underground See also:stone houses locally called " wheems," in which Roman fragments have been found, may represent the native forms of dwelling, &c., and some of the "See also:Late Celtic" See also:metal-See also:work may belong to this age. But of the See also:political divisions, the boundaries and capitals of the tribes, and the like, we know nothing. Ptolemy gives a See also:list of tribe and See also:place-names. But hardly one can be identified with any approach to certainty, except in the extreme south. Nor has any certainty been reached about the ethnological problems of the See also:population, the See also:Aryan or non-Aryan See also:character of the Picts and the like. That the Caledonians, like the later Scots, sometimes sought their fortunes in the south, is proved by a curious tablet of about A.D. 220, found at See also:Colchester, dedicated to an unknown See also:equivalent of See also:Mars, Medocius, by ohe " Lossio Veda, See also:nepos [ = See also:kin of] Vepogeni, Caledo." The name Caledonia is said to survive in 1 This, not Grampius, is the proper spelling, though Grampius was at one time commonly accepted and indeed gave rise to the See also:modern name Grampian.the second syllable of See also:Dunkeld and in the See also:mountain name Schiehallion (Sith-chaillinn).

End of Article: CALEDONIA

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