[66]. The first of our historians to make use of Ptolemy was Hector Boece, but he placed his names too far north. He puts the Brigantes in Galloway, and the Novantes in Kintyre, and hence their towns are placed in Argyll instead of Wigtown. The Ulm edition of 1486, which is a very inaccurate one, was apparently the edition used by Boece, and in it the name Rerigonium is misprinted Beregonium. Boece applied the name to the vitrified remains, the correct name of which was Dunmhicuisneachan, the fort of the sons of Uisneach, now corrupted into Dunmacsniochan, and thus arose one of the spurious traditions created by Boece’s History.
[67]. In some of the editions this name is Vanduara, and is considered by Chalmers to have been Paisley, and he has been followed by all subsequent writers. His reasons are very inconclusive, viz. that there are said to have been Roman remains at Paisley, and that Vanduara is probably derived from the Welsh Gwendwr or White water, and the river at Paisley is called the White Cart. But rivers do not change their names. If it had ever been called Gwendwr, it would have borne the name still; and to rest the identity of Vanduara with Paisley upon a mere conjectural etymology is the reverse of satisfactory. The best editions give Vandogara as the form of the name, which obviously connects it with Vindogara or the bay of Ayr; and Ptolemy’s position corresponds very closely with Loudon Hill on the river Irvine, where there is a Roman camp. What confirms this identity is, that the towns in the territory of the Damnonii appear afterwards to have been all connected with Roman roads, and there are the remains of a Roman road leading from this camp to Carstairs.
[68]. All editions agree in placing Devana in the interior of the country, at a distance of at least thirty miles from the coast. Its identity with the sea-port of Aberdeen rests upon the authority of Richard of Cirencester alone.
[69]. Mr. Burton, in stating his disbelief in the genuineness of Richard and its results, adds, among other things to be abandoned, ‘the celebrated Winged Camp; the Pteroton Stratopedon can no longer remain at Burghead in Moray, though a water tank there has become a Roman bath to help in its identification, and it must go back to Edinburgh or some other of its old sites.’—(Vol. i. p. 62.) He is, however, mistaken in supposing that its identification rests upon Richard. Ptolemy is in reality the authority for Alata Castra and its position on the shore of the Moray Firth.
It is of course absurd to recognise Roman remains there at that early period, but there can be no question that a native strength existed on that headland. See Proc. Ant. Soc. vol. iv. p. 321, for an account of the remains.
[70]. The only authorities for the events in the reign of Antoninus are two short passages. One, the passage of Pausanias, referred to in Note [63], and the other of Julius Capitolinus, who says (De Anton. Pio, 5), ‘Per legatos suos plurima bella gessit. Nam et Britannos per Lollium Urbicum legatum vicit, alio muro cespiticio submotis barbaris ducto.’ The expression ‘submotis barbaris’ proves that this wall now formed the boundary between the barbarian or independent tribes and the Roman province. It is analogous to the expression used by Aelius Spartianus of ‘qui barbaros Romanosque divideret,’ in stating the building of Hadrian’s wall. It does not necessarily imply an actual driving north of the people, but only the extension of the province, so that the part hostile to the Roman power came to be farther removed.
Chalmers has treated the Roman wars in Scotland very strangely. His narrative of the actions of Lollius Urbicus extends over seventy closely printed pages; while for all this the actual authority is comprised within exactly fourteen words of Julius Capitolinus. The campaigns of Severus, by far more important, occupy just six pages; and yet for these we have the detailed narrative of two independent historians.
[71]. The principal stations on the wall were at the following places—viz., West Kilpatrick, Duntocher, Castlehill, East Kilpatrick, Bemulie, Kirkintilloch, Auchindavy, Barhill, Westerwood, Castlecary, and Rough Castle; and as they are in general constructed partly of stone, and some of them connected with baths and more elaborate works, they are probably to be attributed to a later age. See a paper by David Milne Home, Esq., in the Trans. Roy. Soc. vol. xxvii. part i. p. 39, for the latest account of the wall.
[72]. Et adversus Britannos quidem Calphurnius Agricola missus est.—(Capitolin. Mar. Aur. 8.)
[73]. In Britannia, in Germania, et in Dacia imperium ejus recusantibus provincialibus, quae omnia ista per duces sedata sunt.—(Lamprid. Comm. c. 13. Conf. Dion. 72. 8.)