The genuine history of the Britons asserted against Mr. Macpherson ...

THE BRITONS ASSERTED. 127
and Ptolemy does. Tacitus does not fpecify any
particular nations ; but he fpeaks exprefsly of
them in general. And Mr. Macpherfon's argument
again fails. Amplas civitates trans Bodo-
triam fitas ; motus univcrfarum ultra gentium ;
Caledoniam incolentes populi ; confpirationem
civitatum ; and, omnium civitatum vires \ From
the officers of Agricola, therefore, might the
Romans have derived that knowledge of the do-
meftic arrangements of the Caledonians, which
Ptolemy has prefented to us. And, even addi-
tional to this fource of intelligence, Ptolemy had
the fincfl opportunity that ever a geographer had,
of knowing the internal difpofition of Caledonia
compleatly, from the remarkable war of which
Mr. Macpherfon appears to be totally unappriz-
ed, the invafion of Caledonia by Lollius Urbicus
about the year 140, and the redu^iion of half
of it under the dominion of the Romans ^ And
Ptolemy, as I have previoufly remarked, has
aftually given us an ailronomical obfervation,
which was made at Invernefs, and could have
been made only in confequence of that reduc-
tion.
* Agric. V. 2^, 27, and 30.
* See Hillory of Mancheller, p. 5^—56, ami 418—419.
3
P. 50.