Twenty years later they made another formidable irruption into the Province, but were repelled by Marcellus Ulpius.
In A.D. 208 the Emperor Severus found it necessary to come in person to repel these frequent and formidable attacks of the northern barbarians, whom we now find under the names of Mæatæ and Caledonii. The former occupied the lower lands next the wall, and the latter the mountainous regions beyond, but notwithstanding the difference in name, they appear to have been virtually the same people.
"The manners of the two nations are described as the same, and they are viewed by the historians in these respects as if they were but one people. They are said to have neither walls nor cities, as the Romans regarded such, and to have neglected the cultivation of the ground. They lived by pasturage, the chase, and the natural fruits of the earth. The great characteristics of the tribes believed to be indigenous were found to exist among them. They fought in chariots, and to their arms of the sword and shield, as described by Tacitus, they had now added a short spear of peculiar construction, having a brazen knob at the end of the shaft, which they shook to terrify their enemies, and likewise a dagger. They are said to have had community of women, and the whole of their progeny were reared as the joint offspring of each small community. And the third great characteristic, the custom of painting the body, attracted particular notice. They are described as puncturing their bodies, so as, by a process of tattooing, to produce the representation of animals, and to have refrained from clothing, in order that what they considered an ornament should not be hidden."—(Skene, Celtic Scotland, vol. i. p. 83.)
Severus opened up the country by cutting down woods, throwing bridges across the rivers, clearing the jungles, and making roads in various directions, and in this manner, after great loss of human life, but without fighting a single battle, he penetrated as far north as the shores of the Moray Firth. Returning through the heart of the Highlands he concluded a peace with the Caledonians, from whom he received hostages. He then rebuilt the wall between the Clyde and the Forth and returned to York. Soon afterwards the Mæatæ and Caledonii again revolted, and thus a second time drew forth the ire of the aged Emperor, but, while he was preparing a severe revenge, death overtook him.
Little is known of the subsequent relative positions of the Romans and Caledonians till A.D. 306, when Constantius Chlorus is said to have penetrated into the low country beyond the wall, and defeated the Picts.
For upwards of fifty years there is again a complete silence as to the conduct of the natives beyond the Roman boundary, and it is not till A.D. 360 that they reappear on the historic field. Then the comparative security and prosperity enjoyed by the provincial Britons during the last 150 years was broken, and the inroads of the barbarians into the province became so formidable that they appeared to be deliberate attempts to drive the Romans entirely out of Britain. The Picts were now joined by a new nation which emerged from Ireland, and became known to the Romans under the name Scoti. The effect of this combination of hostile tribes is thus described by Mr. Skene:—
"We learn from the account given by the historian of their eventual recovery, that the districts ravaged by the Picts were those extending from the territories of the independent tribes to the wall of Hadrian between the Tyne and the Solway, and that the districts occupied by the Scots were in a different direction. They lay on the western frontier, and consisted of part of the mountain region of Wales on the coast opposite to Ierne, or the island of Ireland, from whence they came.... During four years the invading tribes retained possession of the districts they had occupied, and were with difficulty prevented from overrunning the province; but in the fourth year a more formidable irruption took place. To the two nations of the Picts and the Scots were now added two other invading tribes—the Saxons, who had already made themselves known and dreaded by their piratical incursions on the coast; and the Attacotti, who, we shall afterwards find, were a part of the inhabitants of the territory on the north of Hadrian's wall, from which the Romans had been driven out on its seizure by the independent tribes. They now joined the Picts in invading the province from the north, while the attack of the Saxons must have been directed against the south-eastern shore; and thus assailing the provinces on three sides—the Saxons making incursions on the coast between the Wash and Portsmouth, afterwards termed the Saxon Shore, where they appear to have slain Nectarides, the Count of the maritime tract, the Picts and Attacotts on the north placing Fallofandus, the Dux Britanniarum, whose duty it was to guard the northern frontier, in extreme peril, and the Scots penetrating through the mountains of Wales—the invading tribes penetrated so far into the interior, and the extent and character of their ravages so greatly threatened the very existence of the Roman government, that the Emperor (Julian) became roused to the imminence of the danger, and, after various officers had been sent without effect, the most eminent commander of the day, Theodosius the elder, was despatched to the assistance of the Britons. He found the province in the possession of the Picts, the Scots, and the Attacotts, who were ravaging it and plundering the inhabitants in different directions. The Picts, we are told, were then divided into two nations, the 'Dicalidonæ' and the 'Vecturiones,' a division evidently corresponding to the twofold division of the hostile tribes in the time of Severus, the 'Caledonii' and the 'Mæatæ.' The similarity of name and situation sufficiently identifies the first-mentioned people in each of the twofold divisions. The Mæatæ had been obliged to cede a part of their territory to the Romans, so that part of the nation had passed under their rule, and a part only remaining independent probably gave rise to the new name of 'Vecturiones.' The 'Attacotti,' we are told, were a warlike nation of the Britons, and the epithet applied to the 'Scoti' of ranging here and there shows that their attacks must have been made on different parts of the coast."—(Skene, Celtic Scotland, vol. i. pp. 98-100.)
Theodosius, with a powerful army, soon drove back the invaders, and restored the province to its former integrity; but his success was without any permanent result. During the next forty years, till the final withdrawal of the Roman troops in A.D. 410, the provincial Britons, especially those inhabiting the district between the two walls, became a prey to the surrounding hostile nations as often as the increasing demands on the military resources of the Empire at home caused a temporary retirement of its troops. Thus, during the short period here referred to, the portion of the Province was overrun and desolated no less than three different times, and as often restored by the Roman legions. At length, however, a time came when these were destined never to return, and the semi-Romanised Britons were allowed to struggle with the northern barbarians as best they could. What took place in North Britain after this great event, or how the contending nationalities settled the country among them, can only be gleaned by the uncertain voice of tradition; nor was the veil of darkness which thus fell on the country removed till a new source of historical records sprung up by means of the civilising influence of the early Christian Church and her learned emissaries.
"When the page of history once more opens to its annals, we find that the barbaric nations whom we left harassing the Roman province till the Romans abandoned the island, had now effected fixed settlements within the island, and formed permanent kingdoms within its limits. South of the Firths of Forth and Clyde we find her containing a Saxon organisation, and tribes of Teutonic descent, hitherto known by the general name of Saxons, in full possession of her most valuable and fertile districts, and the Romans of the old British provincials confined to the mountains of Wales and Cumbria, the western districts extending from the Solway to the Clyde, and the peninsula of Cornwall. North of the Firths we find the barbarian tribes of the Picts and Scots, which had so often harassed the Roman province from the north and west, formed into settled kingdoms with definite limits; while Hibernia or Ireland now appears under the additional designation of Scotia."—(Skene, Celtic Scotland, vol. i. p. 115.)
The settlements of these four nationalities were as follows:—The Angles occupied the south-eastern district, and ultimately formed the kingdom of Northumbria, which extended from the Firth of Forth to the river Humber. The provincial Britons were divided into several petty states, which originally belonged to two varieties of the British race. Those in the northern districts, corresponding to the Damnonii of Ptolemy, and occupying the modern shires of Lanark, Renfrew, and Ayr, are said to have belonged to the Cornish variety; while the Cymric branch extended as far north as Dumfriesshire. The battle of Ardderyd[42] (Arthuret, west side of the Esk near Carlisle), in A.D. 573, which ended in the defeat of the Angles, consolidated these petty states into the kingdom of Cumbria or Strathclyde under Rhydderch with the fortress of Alclyde (Dumbarton) as its capital. (573-601 Rodercus filius Totail regnavit in Petra Cloithe.—Adamnan.)