2 Life of Agricola is to be considered one of the fabricated works, though it may not have been produced for the purpose of identifying Hibernia with Ireland only. Ireland or Hibernia is mentioned several times in this work. In one place it is implied that its ports were more frequented, in Agricola's time, than those of Britain;1 but this is contradicted by the evidence which will be produced when speaking of the absence of civilization and trade among the early inhabitants of Ireland. In another place, it is said that Agricola had often remarked that with a legion and a few auxiliaries, Ireland might easily be annexed to the Roman empire. For this information he is said to have depended upon a certain petty king of Ireland, who had been driven from that country, but whose name is prudently withheld. If this had been true, it would have been strange to find that Agricola, according to this work, wasted so much time and the lives of so many men, in trying to conquer so barbarous a country as Scotland, while a fine commercial country lay an easy prey at no great distance. These are not the only statements in Tacitus' Life of Agricola which are open to objection. The authenticity of the whole work has been questioned even; and several cogent proofs have been adduced to support this opinion. Among the first editions of Tacitus' works it was not included. It was first produced at the time that Hector Boece, the most fabulous of the early Scottish historians, was studying at Paris. It mentions few places in Scotland, but speaks of the Horesti as one of the tribes inhabiting that country. Ptolemy, who gives the names of many, if not all of the tribes inhabiting Scotland not long after Agricola's time, never mentions the Horesti. In addition to this there is no reliable evidence to show that Agricola ever was in Britain. It is said that he is not even mentioned, during the fourteen centuries after he lived, by any other author but Dion Cassius, whose history has been imperfectly preserved. This is the only work which can be produced in support of the authenticity of Tacitus' Life of Agricola, and it cannot be said to afford much. The early annalists of both Scotland and England totally ignore both Tacitus and Agricola. Gildas, Nennius, the Saxon Chronicle, Ethelwerd, Henry of Huntingdon, William of Malmesbury, Florence of Worcester, Roger of Wendover, &c., give an account of the British wars of Julius Cæsar, Claudius, Nero, Vespasian, Severus, &c., but nothing is said of Agricola's grand campaign.1 Hector Boece is the first writer who says anything about it. 2 Another objection to the authenticity of Tacitus' Life of Agricola may be noticed, as it bears on the early history of Scotland. It is there stated, in direct opposition to other writers, that Agricola first subdued and explored the Orkney Islands. Eutropius, Bede, Nennius, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Henry of Huntingdon, and Ordericus Vitallis, all affirm that it was the emperor Claudius who added the Orcades to the Roman empire. Dr Skene says it is difficult to reconcile the statement that Claudius added the Orcades to the Roman empire, with that of Tacitus, that Agricola first made the Orcades known.3 Whether are we to believe the Life of Agricola on this point, or the statements of the other writers just mentioned? If the latter, then this 1 Burton's History of Scotland, vol. i,, page 10, note. also tends to show that the work under review is a fabrication. It will be afterwards shown that the Orcades spoken of by Bede and these other writers are not the Orkney Islands. These latter, we learn from authentic records, were not so called till the ninth century, if not later, but it is not unlikely that Tacitus' Life of Agricola may have been compiled partly to support this transference of the name. In addition to the foregoing objections, it may be urged that the statements in the Life of Agricola regarding the previous conquests of the Roman troops in Britain do not accord very well with the references of Lucan, Martial, V. Flaccus, Statius, and Pliny, to the Caledonians. The latter writers imply that the Romans had reached the Caledonian territory before Agricola's time; Tacitus does not admit this. Then again we are told that the brilliant campaigns of Agricola went for nothing after all. If it were possible to prove that this Life of Agricola is a travestied account of the actions of Lollius Urbicus in Britain, there would be better circumstantial evidence to support it. It is certain that Urbicus was the commander of the Roman troops in Britain when the wall and chain of forts were built between the firths of Forth and Clyde; and it would not require any severe strain on our faith to believe that he fought several severe engagements with the tribes to the north of this barrier. His conquests were not fruitless either. The wall which he built remained the boundary of the Roman province to the north till the time when the Romans left the island.1 The character of Vettius Bolanus, as described by Tacitus in the Life of Agricola," is also entirely at vari 1 Skene's Celtic Scotland, vol. i., p. 77. 2 Section xvi. ance with the adulation of Statius when speaking of the same general's actions in Caledonia. If we are to believe that the description was really penned by Tacitus, and that it is true, then we must confess that in this instance Statius has strung together a series of fables about Bolanus. There are numerous other discrepancies in this work, but it is needless to point them all out as they have been frequently commented on by different editors. Considered along with the fact that Agricola's campaigns had never been heard of by any of the early annalists of either England or Scotland, and that he is not commemorated by a single coin or inscription found in Britain, they lead to the conclusion that the Life of Agricola is a fabrication of the fifteenth or sixteenth century. It is remarkable that two celebrated men of the name of Agricola flourished about that period. ADAMNAN'S LIFE OF ST COLUMBA. Adamnan's Life of St Columba is considered to be so genuine a work that the very idea of doubting its authenticity will be received with wonder by the numerous writers who have dealt with Columba's life and works. Those of them, however, who condescend to peruse the following pages may perhaps reconsider the grounds of their decision. The present writer is not the only person who has questioned the authenticity of this work. Dr Giles, in his edition of Bede's Ecclesiastical History,' says: "I have strong doubts of Adamnan's having written it." Sir James Dalrymple, and a Prussian clergyman, likewise called the genuine 1 Bohn's Translation, p. 264, note. ness of the work in question ;1 and viewed in the light thrown upon the subject in bringing forward the proofs which support the opinion that Scotland was the only Scotia, the doubts expressed by these writers receive strong confirmation. 3 It has to be remarked, in the first place, that although Reeves' edition of Adamnan's Life is said to be founded upon a manuscript of the eighth century, it is allowed that there is a total absence from it of the interlacing and artistic work which characterises most of the Scotic writings of the same period; and it appears first to have been heard of fifty years after the Reformation in Scotland.2 Besides this, reference is made to a work of Adamnan's, entitled The Holy Places, in Bede's Ecclesiastical History and Wendover's Flowers of History; but no notice is taken in either work of his Life of Columba. With reference to this omission in the Ecclesiastical History, it is explained that Adamnan probably wrote his Life of Columba after visiting king Aldfrid; but if this were the case, it is strange that no notice is taken in the Life of his having adopted the Roman usage with regard to Easter observance, which was at variance with the custom advocated by his illustrious predecessor. This explanation will not suit Wendover's case. He was a writer of the thirteenth century, and as five hundred years had elapsed since Adamnan lived, it would have been strange to find that he had never heard or read of such a remarkable work as this Life of Columba, had it then existed. It would have been a book as well worth noticing as that about the holy places. Wendover mentions Columba as well 1 Reeves' Adamnan, appendix to pref., p. lix. 2 Ibid, pref., pp. viii., &c. 3 See above, pp. 48 and 49. |