Roman myth

Scotland’s ancient history divides 18th-century antiquarians in this erudite book, reviewed by Felicity Loughlin

Classical Caledonia: Roman History and Myth in EighteenthCentury Scotland

Alan Montgomery Edinburgh University Press, 2020 225 pages

Hardcover, £75.00

ISBN: 9781474445641

In this engaging and well-researched book, Alan Montgomery invites us to eavesdrop on the fractious debates that animated the antiquarian communities of 18th-century Scotland. This period saw numerous Scottish antiquarians and historians drawn into contentious disputes over the scope, duration and impact of the Roman invasions of Scotland during the first three centuries AD. Had Caledonia become a virtual Roman province with all the accompanying trappings of classical civilisation? Or had brave Caledonia succeeded where so many – including its southern neighbour – had failed, by preventing Rome from subjugating its people?

Guiding us through the central participants and contours of the debate, and exploring the motives, methods and sources that informed its development, Montgomery demonstrates that the antiquarian fascination with Roman Scotland was not driven by intellectual curiosity alone. Positioning the growing interest in the nation’s early history in the context of the controversial union with England in 1707, as well as the persistent debates over Jacobitism in the first half of the 18th century, he convincingly argues that Caledonia’s encounter with Rome became an important battleground in competing efforts to defend and define the nation’s reputation and identity.

As the book reveals, Roman Scotland presented a problem for Scottish antiquarians, a group shown to include scholars, gentlemen, statesmen and soldiers with differing political and religious allegiances. On the one hand, the schoolroom and university encouraged educated Scots to admire the classical civilisation of ancient Rome. On the other, many shared the views of humanist historians such as Hector Boece and George Buchanan, who had celebrated Rome’s inability to conquer Caledonia and delighted in Tacitus’s account of the brave Calgacus, who had reportedly defended Caledonian liberty against Agricola’s invading forces.

While figures such as the physician and geographer Robert Sibbald were eager to paint a picture of a thoroughly classical Caledonia, others, including the antiquarian Alexander Gordon, defended earlier narratives of an unvanquished Caledonia. Some, including the politician Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, appeared unable to decide which narrative they preferred. Montgomery shows that conflicting forms of patriotism and personal predilections often played their part in determining differing historical interpretations, as each antiquarian tended to advocate a vision of the past ‘that he himself would have preferred to inhabit’ (p.195).

Several chapters concentrate on the methods and sources used by Scottish antiquarians. As Montgomery shows, detailed study of the material remains of Roman Scotland and close readings of the available textual evidence, above all Tacitus’s Agricola, failed to provide decisive answers to the debate. As a result, figures on both sides tended to supply the deficit by indulging in fanciful historiographical and etymological conjectures, which increasingly exposed antiquarians to ridicule. Chapter 8 demonstrates that matters were complicated still further in the latter half of the 18th century by the appearance of two influential forgeries: Charles Bertram’s bogus De Situ Britanniae (1747), widely accepted until the mid-19th century, and James Macpherson’s Ossianic poetry, which portrayed eloquent Caledonian warriors in a way that captivated hearts and minds across Europe, and included several historical references to the 3rdcentury Roman invasions.

Montgomery concludes that by the early 19th century, the inconclusive evidence led Roman Scotland to be abandoned as a focal point for patriotic history. More stable narratives, most notably those focused on William Wallace and Robert the Bruce, took precedence. As Montgomery notes, in contrast with contemporary England, France and Germany, where the resistance shown to the Roman invaders by Arminius, Vercingetorix and Boudica was celebrated, the possibly fictional Calgacus did not enjoy a renaissance in Scotland.

As a whole, the book offers an insightful account of the rise and fall of Roman history and myth in attempts to define and defend Scotland’s national and historical reputation. Its detailed analysis of an important theme in Scottish antiquarianism in the first half of the 18th century makes a substantial contribution to the growing body of research dedicated to Scotland’s ‘early’ Enlightenment. At the same time, by pursuing the development of debates on Roman Scotland into the latter half of the period, Montgomery offers a fresh perspective on the intellectual culture and historiography of the ‘high’ (post-1740) Scottish Enlightenment, which is more frequently associated with stadial or conjectural sociological histories of the origins and progress of human societies. In doing so, the book also offers an important reminder of the varied ways in which antiquity shaped the landscape and historical imagination of 18th-century Scots.