Ossian Collection > Essay on the authenticity of the poems of Ossian

4 ON THE AUTHENTICITY
sions, that the events, related in the poems
ascribed to Ossian, did not take place about
the period which has been generally assign-
ed ; that is, whilst the Romans occupied
that part of Caledonia which lies to the
south of the wall of Antoninus. We have
the authentic evidence of Roman history,
and of Roman remains still existing, to
prove, that, even in the time of Agricola,
the northern and western Caledonians — the
people to whom these poems relate, and
amongst whom they are said to have been
composed — were a numerous and warlike
race of men ; and that their incursions into
the Roman province, in that, and during the
succeeding periods of Roman domination,
were frequent and fomiidable.
In the poems, accordingly, we find, as
might have been expected, many express al-
lusions to these encounters between the na-
tives and the Roman invaders. But who
was the hero " of the fierce eye ;" or who