The conclusion the author has come to is, that a careful examination of the narrative, compared with the physical features of the country, rightly apprehended, points to the site he has selected, and that it presents features which remarkably correspond with the description of the battle. This position was originally suggested in the Statistical Account of the Parish of Bendochy, published in 1797 (O. S. A. v. 19, p. 367), but has not received the attention it deserves.

The combined action of the fleet—præmissa classe—as well as the history of the previous campaigns, exclude any position west of the Tay; and if Dealgan Ross is evidently not the place, from the limited size of the camp, Ardoch is equally objectionable, from there being no hill near which answers the description of ‘Mons Granpius.’ The expression ‘transisse æstuaria’ in the plural, in Agricola’s speech, places it north of the Firth of Tay. The position at Urie involves the improbability that he marched for several days parallel to the range of the so-called Grampians, if his route was by Strathmore, and there are no camps to indicate a march nearer the coast before the battle was fought. The remains of this ‘vallum’ or rampart between the Isla and the Tay are still among the most remarkable Roman works in Scotland, and are known by the name of the Cleaven Dyke. It seems to have been the work of the same general who constructed the great camp at Ardoch, for, in connection with the latter, was a small work of an octagonal shape, with many ramparts, and the only other specimen the author has observed of a similar work is at the east end of the Cleaven Dyke.

[54]. See for an elaborate description of this wall Mr. Collingwood Bruce’s exhaustive work, The Roman Wall, a Description of the Mural Barrier of the North of England, third edition, 1867. The main authority for Hadrian’s work in Britain is Ælius Spartianus (181), who says, ‘Ergo conversis regio more militibus, Britanniam petiit: in qua multa correxit, murumque per octaginta millia passuum primus duxit, qui Barbaros Romanosque divideret.’—(De Hadr. 11.)

CHAPTER II.
THE ROMAN PROVINCE IN SCOTLAND.

Ptolemy’s description of North Britain.

The Romans had now acquired more detailed information regarding the number and position of the tribes of Caledonia, their names, the situation of their towns, and the leading geographical features of the country. These are preserved to us, as they existed at this time, by the geographer Ptolemy, and his account of the north part of the island has apparently been compiled from the itineraries of the Roman soldiers, the observations made from the fleet in its circuit round the island, and the reports of those who had penetrated into the interior of the country. From these and other sources of information he lays down the position of the prominent features of the coast—the headlands, bays, estuaries, and mouths of the rivers, and the position of the towns in the interior, by giving the latitudes and longitudes of each. These degrees of longitude, however, are subject to a double correction. First, he places the island in too northern a latitude; and secondly, his degrees of longitude are less than the true degree, and therefore the number of degrees stated between two places is greater than they ought to be. Besides this, he has fallen into the extraordinary error of turning the country north of the Firths of Forth and Clyde to the east instead of to the north. This error mainly affects that part of the country between the Solway and the Clyde on the west, and the Wear and the Forth on the east—the coast on the west being unduly expanded, and that on the east proportionably contracted. Beyond the Firths of Forth and Clyde the effect of this strange error is to alter the points of the compass, and to substitute north for west, east for north, south for west, and west for south. The former error does not much affect the accuracy of the relative distances of places near each other. The latter, with the distortion of the distances and relative position of the localities which it creates, can be corrected without difficulty, and that part of the map reconstructed as if this error had not been fallen into. Where the country is unaffected by these mistakes, his accuracy is so great, when compared with the face of the country, that his localities can be laid down, with some rare exceptions, with considerable confidence.[[55]]

Ptolemy places the ‘Itunae Aestuarium’ on the west, and the mouth of the river ‘Vedra’ on the east, nearly opposite each other, and there is little difficulty in identifying the former with the Solway Firth, and the latter with the river Wear.[[56]] It is between these points and the river Tay that the distortion of the country takes place,—the north shore of the Solway Firth being continued in the same northern line with the west coast of England, instead of stretching to the west at right angles to it,—the Mull of Galloway being his northern point, and the northern part of Scotland made to extend towards the east. The effect is, that in the remaining part of his description the word east must be understood as really north, and that the east coast, from the Wear to the Forth, is too much circumscribed in distance, while the distances on the western side of the country are proportionably made too great. It is remarkable that the part of the country thus affected by this extraordinary mistake should be exactly the scene of Agricola’s campaigns; and it appears strange that the more northern part of the country, the information as to which he must have derived from report, and the observation of the coast from the Roman fleet, should surpass in accuracy that part of the country so often and so recently traversed by Agricola’s troops, with regard to which his means of correct knowledge might be supposed to be so much greater. We are almost led to attribute more simple truth and force to the remark made by Tacitus, that ‘it frequently happened that in the same camp were seen the infantry and cavalry intermixed with the marines, all indulging their joy, full of their adventures, and magnifying the history of their exploits; the soldier describing, in the usual style of military ostentation, the forests he had passed, the mountains he had climbed, and the Barbarians whom he put to the rout; while the sailor, no less important, had his storms and tempests, the wonders of the deep, and the spirit with which he conquered winds and waves,’ than we should otherwise suppose. If it could be inferred that Agricola’s soldiers had reported exaggerated itinerary distances, and magnified the country they had traversed, and the difficulties they had overcome, and, further, had believed, that in the second campaign, while the rest of the country was unknown to them, they were marching north instead of west, the mistake would be precisely accounted for. It seems almost to add force to this conjecture, that in the very scene where this emulation between the army and the navy is recorded to have taken place, and where a whole summer was spent in subjugating a comparatively small territory—the peninsula between the firths of Forth and Tay—the distances are still more greatly exaggerated, and the area of the peninsula increased beyond all proportion.

The coast.

Be this as it may, let us follow Ptolemy round the coast, keeping in view that he designates a headland by the Greek term ἄκρον, and the Latin ‘promontorium;’ a firth or estuary by εἴσχυσις, and ‘aestuarium;’ a bay or sea loch by κόλπος, and ‘sinus;’ and the mouth of a river by ποταμοῦ ἐκβολαί or ‘fluvii ostia.’ By correcting Ptolemy’s mistake, and restoring the country between the Wear and Solway on the south, and the Tay on the north, to its proper proportion, we can identify the mouth of the river ‘Alaunus’ with that of the Alne, or Allan, in Northumberland; while the next point mentioned by Ptolemy in proceeding along the coast towards the north—the Boderia estuary—is obviously the ‘Bodotria’ of Tacitus, or Firth of Forth. Directly opposite to Boderia, Ptolemy places the Clota estuary, or Firth of Clyde, and the space between the two—the neck of land on which Agricola placed his line of forts—is correct in distance. Between the Ituna estuary or Solway Firth and the Clota or Clyde, Ptolemy has three of the rivers flowing into the Solway—the ‘Novius’ or Nith, the ‘Deva’ or Dee, and the ‘Iena’[[57]] estuary, or that of the Cree. They can be easily identified, though the intermediate distances are too great. He mentions the river Luce by the name of the ‘Abravannus,’ the promontory of the ‘Novantæ’ or Mull of Galloway, the Rerigonius Bay or Loch Ryan, and Vindogara Bay or that of Ayr.

Proceeding northwards along the east coast, we find the peninsula of Fife unduly extended in breadth; but the great feature of the Tava estuary, which bounds it on the north, it is impossible to mistake. Its identity with the ‘Tavaus’ of Tacitus and the Firth of Tay is perfectly clear. The position of the mouth of the river Tina, between the Boderia and the Tava, corresponds with the relative situation of the river Eden, which flows through the centre of Fife, and enters the German Ocean near St. Andrews.