Finnan died in his thirtieth year, 107, A. C. and was succeeded by his son Durstus; who proving a tyrant, was killed in battle, by his nobles, in the ninth year of his reign. He was succeeded by his brother Even I. who was a wise monarch, and successfully assisted the Picts against the Britous. Even died in his 19th year B. C. 79, when the crown was usurped by his bastard son Gillus, who murdered the two sons of Durstus, but was killed in battle two years after. In 77, A. C. Even II. the nephew of Finnan, succeeded Gillus, and built the towns of Innelochy and Inverness.

He

overcame Belus, king of the Orkneys, who had invaded Scotland, and was succeeded by his son Eder, in the 30th year, A. C.; in whose time Julius Cæsar invaded the southern parts of this island. Eder is said to have assisted the Britons against the common enemy. He was succeeded, after a reign of forty-eight years, by his son Even III. in the year 12, A. C. who is represented as a monster of crueity and lust: for, not content with having one hundred noble concubines of his own, he made a law that a man might marry as many wives as he could maintain; and that the king should lay the first night with every noble bride, and the nobles the like with the daughters of their tenants. Nor was fre less remarkable for hfs cruelty and rapaciousness, which at length occasioned a rebellion; and Even was dethroned, imprisoned, and put to death, in the seventh year of his reign, and fourth A. C. This monster was succeeded by Metellanus, nephew of Ederus, he was a wise and good king, and reigned prosperously thirty-nine years in peace, and was succeeded by his sister's son, the famous Caractacus, A. D. 35, who is celebrated by Boece, Forduu, Monipenny, Buchannan, and all other ancient Scottish historians, as one of the greatest of their monarchs; although the English historians claim him as a British monarch, and king of the Silures, in South Wales. But the Scottish historians insist that his fame for wisdom, courage, and riches, (accumulated during

the

the peaceable reign of his uncle) being very great, he was invited by the Britons to assist them in expelling the Romans, and that upon his arrival at York, to which the Britons had retired, after a defeat, he was elected general of the combined troops of the Britons, Scots, and Picts; who, though equally brave and numerous, amounting to sixty thousand men, were defeated by the Romans in three different battles; in the last of which, Caractacus's queen, daughter, and brother, were taken prisoners by Vespasian, and soon after he himself was betrayed to the Romans by his step-mother, Queen Cartismandua, and carried prisoner to Rome, where he was honourably treated by Vespasian, and afterwards restored with his relations. They add, that after this Caractacus reigned in peace, till the year 55, when he died in the twentieth year of his reign.

Caractacus was succeeded by his brother, Corbred I., who punished the treachery of Cartismandua, by burying her alive. Corbred's sister, the famous Woada or Voadicea, being married to the king of the Britons, and shamefully used by the Romans, herself being whipped, and her daughters ravished, Corbred raised a great army of Scots and Picts, expelled the Romans out of the north of England, and took Berwick. About this time the Scots were joined by a numerous tribe of the Murrays from Moravia, under their general Roderi; who assisted them in their -wars, receiving the county of Murray in reward for their bravery. After this Woada raised an army of five thousand ladies, to revenge the cause of the sex, who joing the combined forces, defeated the Romans, and killed seven thousand of them; but Suetonius coming soon after, with a fresh body of ten thousand troops, the combined army was defeated, and Woada killed herself. Corbred returned to Scotland, where he died in peace, in the eighteenth year of his reign, A. D. 72, and was succeeded by Dardanus, nephew of Metellanus; who proving a cruel tyrant, was beheaded.

by

by his nobles, in the year 76. He was succeeded by Corbred II. sirnamed Galdus, and called by the Roman historians Galgacus, in whose reign the invasion by Agricola happened. Agricola having completed the conquest of the southern parts, and in a great measure civilized the inhabitants, formed a like plan with regard to Scotland. At this time the Caledonians were rendered more formidable than ever they had been, by the accession of great numbers from the south; for though the Romans had civilized the greatest part, many of those savage warriors, disdaining the pleasures of a peaceable life, retired to the northward, where the martial dispositions of the Scots better suited their inclination. The utmost efforts of valour, however, were not proof against the discipline of the Roman troops, and the experience of their commander. In the third year Agricola had penetrated as far as the river Tay; but the particulars of his progress are not recorded. In the fourth year, he built a line of forts, between the friths of Forth and Clyde, to exclude the Caledonians from the south parts of the island; and the year after, he subdued those parts which lay to the south and west of his forts, viz. the counties of Galloway, Cantyre, and Argyle, which were then inhabited by a people called Cangi, who, as Tacitus expressly informs us, had never before been known to the Romans. Agricola still pursued the same prudent measures, by which he had already secured the possession of such a large tract of country, advancing slowly, and building forts as he advanced, to keep the people in obedience. The Scots, though commanded by their king, who is said to be well acquainted with the manner of fighting, and discipline of the Romans, were yet obliged to retreat; but at last, finding that the enemy made such progress, as endangered the subjugation of the whole country, he resolved to cut off their communication with the southern parts, and likewise to prevent all possibility of a retreat by sea; Agricola then divided his troops into three bodies,

bodies, having a communication with each other. Upon this Galgacus resolved to attack the weakest of the three, which consisted only of the 9th legion, and lay at that time, at a place called Louchare, about two miles from Loch-Leven, in Fifeshire. The attack was made in the night, and as the Romans were both unprepared and inferior in number, the Scots penetrated into the heart of their camp, and were making a great slaughter, when Agricola detached some light armed troops to their assistance; by whom the Caledonians in their turn were routed, and forced to fly to the marshes, and inaccessible places, were the enemy could not follow them. This engagment has been magnified by the Roman historians into a victory, though it can scarce be admitted from the testimonies of other historians. The Romans, however, certainly advanced very considerably, and the Scots as constantly retreated, till they came to the foot of the Grampian-mountains, where the Caledonians resolved to make their last stand. In the eighth year of the war, Agricola advanced to the foot of the mountains, where he found the enemy ready to receive him. A desperate engagement ensued. In the beginning, the Britons had the advantage, by the dextrous management of their bucklers; but Agricola having ordered three Tungriah and two Batavian cohorts, armed with short swords, and embossed bucklers, terminating in a point to attack the Scots, who were armed with long swords, the latter soon found these weapons useless in a close encounter; and as their bucklers only covered a small part of their bodies, they were easily cut in pieces by their adversaries. The most forward of their cavalry and charioteers fell back upon their infantry, and disordered their centre; but the Britons endeavouring to outflank their enemies, the Roman general opposed them with his horse; and the Caledonians were at length routed with great slaughter, and forced to fly into the woods, whither the Romans pursued with so little caution, that numbers of them were cut off,

Agricola,

Agricola, however, having ordered his troops to proceed more regularly, prevented the Scots from attacking and cutting off his men in separate parties, as they had expected; so that this victory proved the greatest stroke to the Caledonians that they had hitherto received. This battle is supposed by some to have been fought in Strathern, half a mile south from the kirk of Comrie; but others imagine the place to have been near Fontingal Camp, a place somewhat farther on the other side of the Tay. Great as this victory was, it seems not to have been productive of any solid or lasting advantage to the Romans; as Agricola, instead of putting an end to the war by the immediate conquest of all Caledonia, retreated into the country of the Foresti, commonly supposed to be Forfarshire, though others imagine it to have been the county of Fife. Here he received hostages from part of the Caledonians; and ordered part of his fleet to sail round Britain, that they might discover whether it were an island or a continent. The Romans had no sooner left that part of the country, than the Caledonians demolished all the forts they had raised; and Agricola being soon after recalled by Domitian, the farther progress of the Roman arms was stopped; Galgacus proving superior to any of the successors of that general. Galgacus or Corbredus reigned peaceably after this, till the year 110, when he died, in the thirty-fifth year of his reign.

From the time of Agricola to that of Adrian, little is known of the affairs of Scotland, except that Lugtacus succeeded his father in the year 110, and proving a cruel tyrant, was killed by his nobles, in the year 113. He was sueceeded by his cousin Morgallus, in whose reign Adrian came into Britain. During this interval the Scots must have entirely driven the Romans out of their country, and re-conquered all that tract which lay between Agricola's chain of forts and Carlisle on the west, and Newcastle of Tinmouth Bar on the east, which Adrian, on visiting Britain, fixed as

the