Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 1

JERk OF OSSIAN. is
in order to recover the possessions they had lost.
The enraged emperor commanded his army to march
into their country, and to destroy it ^vith fire and
sword. His orders were but ill executed, for his
son, Caracalla, was at the head of the army, and
his thoughts were entirely taken up with the
hopes of his father's death, and with schemes to
supplant his brother Geta. He scarcely had en-
tered the enemy's country, when news was brought
him that Severus was dead. A sndden peace is
patched up with the Caledonians, and, as it ap-
pears from Dion Cassius, the country they had
lost to Severus was restored to them.
The Caracul of Fingal is no other than Cara-
calla, who, as the son of Severus, the emperor of
Rome, whose dominions were extended almost
over the known world, was not without reason
called the So?t of the King of the IVuiid. Tho
space of time between 211, the year Severus died,
and the beginning of the fourth century, is not
so great, but Ossian, the son of Fingal, might
have seen the Christians whom the persecution un-
der Dioclesian had driven beyond the pale of the
Roman empire.
In one of the many lamentations of the death of
Oscar, a battle which he fought against Caros king
of ships, on the banks of the winding Carun *, is
mentioned among his great actions. It is more tliart
probable, thatthe Caros mentioned here, is the same
with the noted usurper Carausius, who assumed the
purple in the year 287, and seizing on Britain, de^
feated the em.peror Maximinian Herculius in several
uaval engagements, which gives propriety to hU
* Cax-avon. wiiidino- river,