A history of the Highlands and of the Highland clans : with an ...

PRELtMINAnV DISSERTATION. llU
Koi'tli Britain, who, in conjunction with the Picts, had begun to make
themselves formidable to tiie Romans. That the Scoti of Ammianus
uire distinct from the Picts is evident, and as the Scots were unknown
to Agricola and Severus, they must have arrived in Scotland posterior
to the celebrated expedition of the hitter.
Besides tlie Scottish auxiliaries, the Picts were aided by a warlike
people called Attacotti ; but although Ammianus seems to distinguish
tiiem from the Scoti, Pinkerton thinks that the term Attacotti was
neither more nor less than the name given by the provincial Britons to
tlie Dalreudini. This cmijecture appears to be well founded, as Richard
of Cirencester places in Ptolemy's map, the Attacotti on the north of the
Frith of Clyde, and the Damni Albani just above them, being in the very
position in which the Dalreudini are placed by Bede on their arrival. "The
Attacotti make a distinguished figure in the Notitia Imperii, a work of
the fifth century, where numerous bodies of them appear in the list of
the Roman armj-. One body was in Illyricum, their ensign a kind of
mullet : another at Rome, their badge a circle : the Attacotti Honoriani
were in Italy. In the same work are named bodies of Parthians, Sar-
matae, Arabs, Franks, Saxons, &c. These foreign soldiers had, in all
likelihood, belonged to vanquished armies ; and been spared from car-
nage on condition of bearing arms in those of Rome. Some, it is likely,
were foreign levies and auxiliaries. To which class those Attacotti be-
longed is diflicult to say. Certain it is, that Tlicodosius, in 368, re-
pelled the Piks, Scots, and Attacotti, from the Roman provinces in
Britain; rebuilt the wall of Antoninus between Forth and Clyde ; and
fbundetl the province of Valentia. The Attacotti, finding no employment
for their arms, might be tempted to enter into the Roman armies; for it
was the Roman policy in latter ages to levy as many foreign troops as
possible, and to oppose barbarians to barbarians. Perhaps the Atta-
cotti were subdued, and forced to furnish levies. Perhaps these bodies
were prisoners of war." *
Of the Celtic language there were at no very distant period seven
dialects, viz. the Waldensian, the Armorican, or Bas Breton, the Cornish,
the Welsh, the Manks, the Irish, and the Scottish Gaelic. The
l'asque,or Cantabrian,is considered by some philologists as a dialect of the
Celtic, but although it contains many words from that language, these bear
too small a proportion to the other words of a different origin, of which
the Basque is chiefly composed, to entitle it to be classed among the
Celtic idioms. With the exception of the Waldensian and Cornish, the
other dialects are still spoken ; but remains of the former exist in cer-
tain manuscripts collected by Sir Samuel Morland, and preserved in the
public library of the university of Cambridge, where they were lodged
in the year sixteen hundred and fifty-eight, and the latter has been pre-
served in books. Of these different dialects, the Waldensian, the Ar-
• I'uik.-noirs Kh.iui.v, ,..l. W. p. -a.