The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

CHAP. I] OFSCOTLAND 9
strong ; for besides the inference to be drawn from the mere
fact of finding the Picti occupying the territories of the Cale-
donians at no very distant period after these Caledonians appear
in independence and strength, and when there is no hint of their
having been overthrown, or subjected to invasion by a foreign
people, we have the distinct and positive testimony of Eumenius,
who talks of " The Caledonians and other
" ^ Picts ; and of
Ammianus Marcellinus, who informs us that the Picts were
divided into two nations, the Dicalcdones and the Vecturiones.^
It appears then that the Picts consisted of two great nations, of
which one is identified by Eumenius with the Caledonii ; and
as
the Maeatae were certainly of the same race, and inhabited the
same territories with the other division of the Pictish nation,
their identity cannot be doubted. We see, therefore, the Cale-
donii of Tacitus and Dio. presenting, under the name of Picti,
the same twofold division of their nation, and continuing the
same system of successful resistance and active incursion which
had rendered them so formidable in the first two centuries.
We may therefore hold it established as an incontrovertible
fact, that the Picts and Caledonians were the same people,
appearing at different times under different appellations, and that
they were consequently the sole remaining descendants of the
Albiones, the most ancient inhabitants of the island. 3
Attacotti.
Of the Attacotti, we know
.
informs us, that they
less. St. -^ Jerome
. .
were a people inhabiting
Britain.4 They appear in independence, and engaged in com-
pany with the Picts and Scots in frequent incursions into the
Roman province, during the years 364 and 368.5 After these
dates they are not mentioned again, although the Picts and
Scots are stated to have ravaged the Roman province in the
years 384, 396, and 398,5 until we find them in the early part of
the fifth century as enrolled among the Roman troops ;4 and
'
Eumenius, paneg. Constantin. by the Britons and Romans and tliat
;
2 Amm. Marc. 1 27 c
their
8.
peculiar and national name was
. , , ,. , p p ,, . .^ that of Albanich, manifestly the
As an additional proof of this, it 3
^ t i.\ 11 e
, , ,, , % ., ', , oriBinal of tJie classical name 01
will be afterwards sliewn that the
applications of Caledonii and Picti
were not acknowledged by them-
Albiones.
*
Jerom, tom. ii., p. 76.
selves, but were imposed upon them ' Ammian. Marcellin. passim