CALEDONIA, the ancient name of Scotland. From the testimonies of Tacitus, Dio, and Solinus, we find that the ancient Caledonia comprehended all that country situated to the north of the rivers Forth and Clyde. In proportion as the Silures or Cimbri advanced northwards, the Caledonians, circumscribed within narrower limits, were forced to pass over into the islands which fringe the western coasts of Scotland. It is about this period, probably, that we ought to fix the first great migration of the British Gael into Ireland; that kingdom being much nearer to the promontory of Galloway and Cantyre than many of the Scottish isles are to the continent of North Britain.

To the country which the Caledonians possessed they gave the name of Gael-doch, which is the only appellation the Scots, who speak the Gaelic language, know for their own division of Britain. Gael-doch is a compound formed from Gael, the first colony of the ancient Gauls who transmigrated into Britain, and doch, a district or division of a country. The Romans, by transposing the letter l in Gael, and by softening into a Latin termination the ch of doch, formed, it is supposed, the well-known name of Caledonia.

At the period when Agricoa invaded North Britain, A. D. 81, that portion of the island appears to have been possessed by twenty-one tribes of aboriginal inhabitants having little or no political connection with one another, although evidently identical in origin, in language, in customs, and in manners. The names and topographical positions of these Caledonian tribes or clans have been preserved and pretty accurately ascertained. They were, 1. The Ottadini, or Ottadeni, who occupied the south-east boundary of North Britain, extending along the whole line of coast from the southern Tyne to the Frith of Forth, and including the half of Northumberland, the eastern part of Roxburghshire, and the whole of Berwickshire and of East Lothian; 2. The Gadeni, who inhabited the interior of the country, to the west of the Ottadini, including the western part of Northumberland, a small part of Cumberland to the north of the Irthing, the western part of Roxburghshire, the whole of Selkirkshire, Tweeddale, a considerable part of Mid-Lothian, and nearly all West-Lothian; their possessions extending from the Tyne on the south to the Frith of Forth on the north; 3. The Selgovae, who inhabited Annandale, Nithsdale, and Eskdale in Dumfriesshire, and the eastern part of Galloway as far as the river Deva or Dee, which was their western boundary; 4. The Novantae, who possessed the middle and western parts of Galloway, from the Dee on the east to the Irish Sea on the west; on the south they were bounded by the Solway Frith and the Irish Sea, and on the north by the chain of hills which separates Galloway from Carrick; 5. The Damnii, the most important of the southern tribes, who inhabited the whole extent of country from the ridge of hills which separates Galloway frem Ayrshire on the south, to the river Erne on the north, and possessed all Strathclyde, the shires of Ayr, Renfrew, and Stirling, and a small part of those of Dumbarton and Perth; 6. The Horestii, who inhabited the country between Eodotria or Forth on the south, and the Tavus or Tay on the north, comprehending the shires of Clackmannan, Kinross, and Fife, with the eastern part of Strathern, and [7:6:2] the country westward of the Tay as far as the river Brann; 7. The Venricoes, who possessed the territory between the Tay on the south and the Carron on the north, comprehending Gowrie, Strathmore, Stormont, and Strathardle in Perthshire, together with the whole of Angus, and the larger part of Kineardineshire; 8. The Taixali, who inhabited the northern part of the Mearns, and the whole of Aberdeenshire as far as the Doveran; 9. The Vacomagi, who inhabited the country on the south side of the Moray Frith, from the Doveran on the east to the Ness on the west, comprehending the shires of Banff, Elgin, Nairn, the eastern part of Inverness, and Braemar in Aberdeenshire; 10. The Albani, afterwards called Damnii-Albani, who possessed the interior districts between the lower ridge of the Grampians, which skirts the southern side of the loch and river Tay on the south, and the chain of mountains which forms the southern limit of Inverness-shire on the north; 11. The Attacoti, who inhabited the whole of the country from Lochfyne on the west to the eastward of the river Leven and Loehlomond, comprehending the whole of Cowal in Argyleshire and the greater part of Dumbartonshire; 12. The Caledonii proper,^[1. This name, according to Chalmers, is merely the latinized form of Celyddonl, from Celyddon, the descriptive appellation given to the country by the British colonists, and signifying literally the Coverts. ] who inhabited the whole of the interior of the country from the ridge of mountains which separates Inverness and Perth on the south, to the range of hills which forms the forest of Balnagowan in Ross on the north, comprehending all the middle parts of Inverness and Ross; 13. The Cantoe, who possessed the east of Ross from the Moray Frith on the south to the Frith of Dornoch on the north; 14. The Logi, who possessed the south-eastern coast of Sutherland, extending from the Dornoch Frith on the south-west to the Helmsdale river on the east; 15. The Carnabii, who inhabited the south, the east, and the north-east of Caithness, from the Helmsdale river, comprehending the three great promontories of Noss-head, Duneansbay-head, and Dunnet-head; 16. The Cattini, a small tribe, who inhabited the north-western corner of Caithness, and the eastern half of Strathnaver in Sutherlandshire, having the river Naver, the Navarijluvius of Ptolemy, for their western boundary; 17. The Mertae, who occupied the interior of Sutherland; 18. The Carnonacae, who inhabited the northern and western coast of Sutherland, and a small part of the western shore of Ross, from the Naver on the east to the Volsas bay on the south-west; 19. The Creones, who inhabited the western coast of Ross, from the Volsas bay on the north to Loehduich on the south; 20. The Cerones, who inhabited the whole western coast of Inverness, and the districts of Ard-namurchan, Morvern, Sunart,and Ardgower in Argyleshire, having Loehduich on the north, and the Linne-loch on the south; and, 21. The Εpidii, who inhabited the south-west of Argyleshire, from Linne-loch on the north, to the Frith of Clyde and the Irish Sea on the south, including Cantyre, and were bounded on the east by the country of the Albani, and by Loehfyne. Such, according to the best authorities, were the names and geographical positions of the twenty-one tribes which, at the time of the Roman invasion, occupied the whole of North Britain.

When the tribes of North Britain were attacked by the Romans under Agricoa (see article Britain, chap. i.), they entered into associations, in order that, by uniting their strength, they might be more able to repel the common enemy. But the particular name of the tribe which either its superior power or military reputation placed at the head of the association, was the general name given by the Romans to all the confederates. Hence it is that the Moeatoe, who inhabited the districts of Scotland lying southward of the frith, and the Caledonians, who inhabited the west and north-west parts, engrossed the glory which belonged in common, though in an inferior degree, to the other tribes settled of old in North Britain.

The origin of the appellations Scoti and Picti, introduced by the later Roman authors, has occasioned much controversy among antiquaries in modern times. It seems tolerably certain, however, that the Scots and Piets were one and the same people; or rather, that the term Picti or Picts was the generic, and that of Scoti, or Scots, only a specific appellation. Eumenius the orator, who first mentions the Picts, alludes to the Caledones aliique Picti ; an expression which implies that the Caledones and other tribes were considered as Picts. Again, with reference to the question whether the Scots were aboriginal Britons, or merely emigrants from Ireland, it has been shown by arguments which appear to Be invincible, that they came originally from Ireland; but,on the other hand, it seems equally certain, that the Scots of Ireland, or the Scoticae gentes of Porphyry, a branch of the great Celtic family, passed over, at a very remote period, from the shores of Britain into Ireland, and before the beginning of the fifth century had given their name to the whole of that country. Their name, however, does not occur in the Roman annals till a.d. 360; but all the authors of the fourth century agree that Ireland was the proper country of the Scots, and that they invaded the Roman territories in North Britain about the period above mentioned. They are described as an erratic or wandering race, who earned on a predatory system of warfare, and also as a transmarine people, who came from Ireland, their native island. Under the denomination of Picts were included the Caledonians and Scots, and probably also the Attacots, a warlike clan, settled on the shores of Dumbarton and Cowal. See Scotland.

Caledonia, the name of a settlement made by the Scots on the western side of the Gulf of Darien in 1698, out of which they were starved at the request of the East India Company.

New Caledonia, an island in the South Sea, discovered by Captain Cook. See Australasia.