Caledonia

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Caledonia.

Caledonia is the Latin name given by the Romans to the land in today's Scotland north of their province of Britannia, beyond the frontier of their empire. Modern use is as a romantic or poetic name for Scotland, as a whole.

Original usage

The original use of the name, as used by Tacitus, Ptolemy, Lucan and Pliny the Elder, referred to the area (or parts of the area) also known as Pictavia or Pictland north of the Antonine Wall in today's Scotland.^[1] The name may be related to that of a Pictish tribe, the Caledonii, one amongst several in the area, though perhaps the dominant tribe which would explain the binomial Caledonia/Caledonii. Their name can be found in Dùn Chailleann, the Scottish Gaelic word for the town of Dunkeld meaning "fort of the Caledonii", and in that of the mountain Sìdh Chailleann or Schiehallion, the "fairy [hill] of the Caledonians". According to Historia Brittonum the site of the seventh battle of the mythic Arthur was a forest in what is now Scotland, called Coit Celidon in early welsh. Such mythology has endured till today in Midlothian. Near the town centre of Edinburgh stands an old volcanic mountain called Arthur's Seat.^[2]

The north-west ridge of Schiehallion

Other hypotheses regarding the origin of Caledonia (and Scotia) are to be taken into consideration. According to Moffat (2005) the name derives from caled, the P-Celtic word for "hard". This suggests the original meaning may have been "the hard (or rocky) land" although it is possible it meant "the land of the hard men".^[3] Keay and Keay (1994) state that the word is "apparently pre-Celtic".^[4]

Location

The exact location of what the Romans called Caledonia in the early stages of Britannia were uncertain, and the boundaries are unlikely to have been fixed until the building of Hadrian's Wall. From then onwards Caledonia stood to the north of the wall, and to the south was Britannia, not so much the island but the roman province. ^[5] During the brief Roman military incursions into central and northern Scotland,^[6] A part of it (Lowlands) was indeed absorbed into the province of Britannia, a name also used by Rome, prior to their conquest of the southern and central parts of the island, to refer to the island of Great Britain, once the Romans had built a second wall further to the north (the Antonine Wall) and their garrisons advanced north likewise. To the south prevailed the rising Roman-Britons who carried on nonetheless trade and relations with the Picts who dwelt to the north of the wall as testified by archaeological evidence, much of it available today at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

Modern usage

The modern use of "Caledonia" in English and Scots is as a romantic or poetic name for Scotland as a whole.^[4] An example is the song "Caledonia", a folk ballad written by Dougie MacLean, published in 1979 on the album of the same name and covered by various other artists since, including Amy Macdonald.^[7][8] Ptolemy's account also referred to the Caledonia Silva, an idea still recalled in the modern expression "Caledonian Forest", although the woods are much reduced in size since Roman times.^[9]

Some scholars will argue that the name "Scotland" itself is derived from Scotia, a Latin term first used for Ireland (also called Hibernia by the Romans) and later for Scotland, the Scoti peoples having originated in Ireland and resettled in Scotland.^[10] Another, post conquest, Roman name for the island of Great Britain was Albion, which is cognate with another Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland : Alba.

See also

• Scotia
• Scotland during the Roman Empire
• Hadrian's Wall
• Battle of Mons Graupius
• New Caledonia
• Caledonian Club a membership-only club in London for Scots.
• Antonine Wall
• Roman invasion of Caledonia

References

• "Caledonia" (1911) Encyclopædia Britannica.
• Hanson, William S. "The Roman Presence: Brief Interludes", in Edwards, Kevin J. & Ralston, Ian B.M. (Eds) (2003) Scotland After the Ice Age: Environment, Archaeology and History, 8000 BC - AD 1000. Edinburgh. Edinburgh University Press.
• Keay, J. & Keay, J. (1994) Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland. London. HarperCollins. ISBN 0002550822
• Moffat, Alistair (2005) Before Scotland: The Story of Scotland Before History. London. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 050005133X
• Smout, T.C. MacDonald, R. and Watson, Fiona (2007) A History of the Native Woodlands of Scotland 1500-1920. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 9780748632947

Notes

1. ^ Moffat (2005) pp. 21-22.
2. ^ Encyclopedia Mythica
3. ^ Moffat (2005) p. 22.
4. ^ ^{a b} Keay (1994) p. 123.
5. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica (1911) though, states that "a tribe of Caledones" are "named by the geographer Ptolemy as living within boundaries which are now unascertainable".
6. ^ The military presence of Rome lasted for little more than 40 years for most of Scotland and only as much as 80 years in total anywhere. At no time was even half of Scotland's land mass under Roman control. See Hanson (2003) p. 198.
7. ^ "Rock and roll years: the 1970s" (16 October 2003) The Scotsman. Retrieved 17 January 2009.
8. ^ "Biography" dougiemaclean.com. Retrieved 17 January 2009.
9. ^ Smout et al. (2007) pp. 20-25. The extent of the reduction is a matter of debate. This association with a Silva (literally the flora), by extension, forest or woods reinforces the explanation that Caledonia was a forest or forested area named after the Caledonii or these were named after the woods where they dwelt.
10. ^ Bede used a Latin form of the word Scots as the name of the Gaels of Dál Riata. Reference: Roger Collins, Judith McClure; Beda el Venerable, Bede (1999). The Ecclesiastical History of the English People: The Greater Chronicle ; Bede's Letter to Egbert. Oxford University Press. pp. 386. ISBN. 

External links

• Anglia Scotia et Hibernia - 1628 map of the region by Mercator and Hondius