The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

4 THE HIGHLANDERS [part i
they consisted at that time of two races, strongly distinguished
from each other by their manners, and the relative state of
civiHzation to which they had advanced. The one race in-
habited the interior of the country, and all tradition of their
origin seemed to have been lost ; while the other race, which
inhabited the more maritime parts of the island, were acknowledged
to have proceeded from Belgium. From this we may
infer, that the inland people were principally the ancient
Albiones, while the others were a new people, termed
The Britanni. ... •
, r i
i i i i
Britanm, who by the conquest oi the island had
imposed it upon their name.^
At the same period, too, it would seem that Ireland had
received a new race of people, termed Scotti, as in the cosmo-
graphy attributed to yEthicus, and said to have been
drawn up by the orders of Julius Caesar, we find it
inentioned that Ireland was inhabited by Gentibiis Scotoruni\~
Sidonius Apollinaris also mentions the Scots as having been
amoncs: the enemies of Caesar. 3 That these Scots are to be dis-
tinguished from the more ancient Hiberni,
of St. Patrick, the most ancient notices perhaps which we have
of the state of that island. 4 But even independently of that, we
is clear from the lives
should be led to the same result by analogy, the name of Scotia
having gradually superseded that of Hibernia, in the same
manner as the name of Britannia had previously superseded that
of Albion. It would thus appear, that in the time of C?esar, each
of the British isles had received a new race of inhabitants, the
Britanni and the Scotti, in addition to the old possessors, the
Albiones and the Hiberni.
The next author from whom we derive any information
relative to the inhabitants of Britain is Tacitus, who, from the
peculiar sources of information which he possessed, and his
general credit as an historian, is the more worthy of attention, s
From the few remarks which he makes on the different inhabi-
•
Ca?sar de Bello Gallico, v. 12.
' " Fuderit et quanquam Scotum."—
Sidon, Apollinar. Car. vii., 1. 90.
^''Cceli solisque temperie magis
utilis Hibernia a Scotorum gentibus
colitur: Menavia insula seque ac for a clear demonstration of this
Hibernia Scotorum gentibus habi- fact.
tatur." .
*
See Innes's Critical Essay, vol. ii.,
' Tacitus in Vita Agricola, 11.