the death of their haughty enemy. [12]

[Footnote 12: Dion, l. lxxvi. p. 1280, &c. Herodian, l. iii. p. 132,
&c.]

This Caledonian war, neither marked by decisive events, nor attended
with any important consequences, would ill deserve our attention; but it
is supposed, not without a considerable degree of probability, that the
invasion of Severus is connected with the most shining period of the
British history or fable. Fingal, whose fame, with that of his heroes
and bards, has been revived in our language by a recent publication, is
said to have commanded the Caledonians in that memorable juncture, to
have eluded the power of Severus, and to have obtained a signal victory
on the banks of the Carun, in which the son of the King of the World,
Caracul, fled from his arms along the fields of his pride. [13]
Something of a doubtful mist still hangs over these Highland traditions;
nor can it be entirely dispelled by the most ingenious researches of
modern criticism; [14] but if we could, with safety, indulge the
pleasing supposition, that Fingal lived, and that Ossian sung, the
striking contrast of the situation and manners of the contending nations
might amuse a philosophic mind.

The parallel would be little to the advantage of the more civilized
people, if we compared the unrelenting revenge of Severus with the
generous clemency of Fingal; the timid and brutal cruelty of Caracalla
with the bravery, the tenderness, the elegant genius of Ossian; the
mercenary chiefs, who, from motives of fear or interest, served under
the imperial standard, with the free-born warriors who started to arms
at the voice of the king of Morven; if, in a word, we contemplated the
untutored Caledonians, glowing with the warm virtues of nature, and the
degenerate Romans, polluted with the mean vices of wealth and slavery.

[Footnote 13: Ossian's Poems, vol. i. p. 175.]

[Footnote 14: That the Caracul of Ossian is the Caracalla of the Roman
History, is, perhaps, the only point of British antiquity in which Mr.
Macpherson and Mr. Whitaker are of the same opinion; and yet the opinion
is not without difficulty. In the Caledonian war, the son of Severus was
known only by the appellation of Antoninus, and it may seem strange that
the Highland bard should describe him by a nickname, invented four years
afterwards, scarcely used by the Romans till after the death of that
emperor, and seldom employed by the most ancient historians. See Dion,
l. lxxvii.