lf of the peninsula of Fife. They were the
"novae gentes," or new nations, whose territories Agricola ravaged as far
as the "Tavaus," or Tay, in his third campaign. They were somewhat
civilised, having towns, of which we know the names of six--three lying
south of and three north of the Firths. The chief of the southern towns
was Coria--Carstairs, near Lanark, on the Clyde. North of the Forth
there were Alauna, where the Allan joins the Forth; Lindum--that is
Ardoch, at our own doors; and Victoria, in Fife, situated on a small
lake. The lake has disappeared, but the name Lochore remains, and is
otherwise famous than as a town of the Damnonii. The natural division
line between the Selgovae, Novantes, and Damnonii was the hilly country
which separates the waters that flow north from those that find their way
into the Solway--the Ituna Aestuarium, as its name then was. Crossing
this mountain barrier, Agricola struck into the valley of the Clyde,
passed with his legions through Lanarkshire and Stirlingshire, then by
the fords of the Forth and the Vale of the Allan into Strathearn, thence
onward to the Tay. There was an alternative route. A fleet accompanied
his movements. He might have crossed the Firth of Forth--the Bodotria
Aestuarium--and penetrated through Fife to the Tay. But Tacitus usually
mentions the crossing of estuaries, and he omits it in this case.
Besides, he states that the natives on the north shore of the Forth were
new to him in the fifth campaign.

It was, therefore, in the year 80 A.D., during his third campaign, that
Agricola entered Strathearn by way of Alauna. He did not effect a
permanent conquest. His operations rather resembled a reconnaisance in
force. But he meant serious business. He planted forts in commanding
situations, choosing so wisely, from a strategic point of view, that not
one of them was ever taken or surrendered. They were placed so as to
command the principal passes into the Highlands. They form a ring-fence
round the territory hastily overrun by Agricola in this third campaign.
Beginning in the west with Bochastle, at the Pass of Leny, near
Callander, we come successively to Dalginross, at Comrie; Fendoch, at the
mouth of the Sma' Glen; the camp at the junction of the Almond and the
Tay; and, Ardargie, in the parish of Forgandenny, on the River May,
commanding an extensive prospect of the Ochils, and along the course of
the road from the Tay to the great camp at Ard