Note 70 — Chapter II · THE ROMAN PROVINCE IN SCOTLAND.

The only authorities for the events in the reign of Antoninus are two short passages. One, the passage of Pausanias, referred to in Note 63, and the other of Julius Capitolinus, who says (De Anton. Pio, 5), ‘Per legatos suos plurima bella gessit. Nam et Britannos per Lollium Urbicum legatum vicit, alio muro cespiticio submotis barbaris ducto.’ The expression ‘submotis barbaris’ proves that this wall now formed the boundary between the barbarian or independent tribes and the Roman province. It is analogous to the expression used by Aelius Spartianus of ‘qui barbaros Romanosque divideret,’ in stating the building of Hadrian’s wall. It does not necessarily imply an actual driving north of the people, but only the extension of the province, so that the part hostile to the Roman power came to be farther removed.

Chalmers has treated the Roman wars in Scotland very strangely. His narrative of the actions of Lollius Urbicus extends over seventy closely printed pages; while for all this the actual authority is comprised within exactly fourteen words of Julius Capitolinus. The campaigns of Severus, by far more important, occupy just six pages; and yet for these we have the detailed narrative of two independent historians.