Caledonia
The name given by the Romans to the northern part of Britain which corresponds to present day Scotland. It was occupied by tribe called the Caledones and to defend their northern frontier the Romans were forced into a position in which the country had to be invaded. The invasion was carried out in 82 by Julius Agricola and he defeated the Caledones at the decisive Battle of Mons Graupius; present day Perthshire was the limit of his advance. The Forth Valley was invaded in 142 and the Romans remained in the area with an army of occupation until the third century. The name 'Scotland' originated in the 11th century when the south-western Scots, who had emigrated centuries earlier from Ireland, became the dominant tribe in the country. Caledonia continued in use as a poetic or romantic name for Scotland, as in the long poem by Sir Walter Scott, The Lay OF The Last Minstrel.
0 Caledonia! stern and wild,
Meet nurse for a poetic child!
Land of brown heath and shaggy wood,
Land of the mountain and the flood.
Land of my sires!
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