The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

CHAP. I] OFSCOTLAND 3
cipally the Triads, written, if we may judge from internal
and the annals
evidence, between the sixth and ninth centuries ;
of Carradoc of Nant Garvan, who lived in the thirteenth century.
of Scot-
Besides these, much light is thrown upon the history
land during the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries, by the
Norse Sagas.^
Proceeding upon the principle
plain, that in order to determine the original
of this classilication, it is
colonization of
. . „ , , Scotland, and to establish the great leading facts
' c> o
Original colo-
be
^f j^-g
nization^to
early history, we must turn exclusively to the
from the Ro- Roman -^^-^ authors and we shall find that ; j man authors
although o
*"''y- the information contained in them is scanty, yet that
when they are considered without reference to later and less
trustworthy authorities, they afford data amply
sufficient for
this purpose. The earliest authentic notice of the British isles
and of their inhabitants which we possess, appears to be the
voyage of Hamilcar, the Carthaginian, in the fifth century
before the incarnation, as described by Festus Avienus ; from
that account it may be inferred that at that period the larger
island was inhabited by a people called Alhioncs,
habitants were while the Gens Hibernorum possessed the smaller
the Albiones. . , , , . i i i
• t- •
^ i
island, to which they gave their name. 2 Jr'rom this
period we meet with little concerning these islands, except the
occasional mention of their names, until the arms of Julius
Caesar added Britain to the already overgrown empire of the
Romans. 3 When Caesar landed upon that island its name had
already changed from the more ancient appellation of Albion
to that of Britannia ; and although he calls the inhabitants
indiscriminately Britanni, yet it appears from his account, that
'
Reference is liere made also to the Propinqiia
rursus insula Albionum
originals of these very important patet."
historians, and the author must in —Festus Avienus de Oris Maritimis,
like manner protest agaiust the v. 35.
authority of Torfseus. „_,, ,^ ^ ^. , ^, „ -x- 1
•' 5 The oldest notice of the British
'"
Ast hinc duobus in sacram— sic in- isles is undoubtedly that contained in
sulam a Treatise of the World, generally
Dixere Prisci— solibus cursus rati est : attributed to Aristotle. In this trea-
Hsec inter undas multum cespitem tise they are called Albion and lerne,
jacit,
which appear to be their most ancient
Eamque late gens Hibernorum colit ; appellations.