ANCIENT TRAVELLERS IN SCOTLAND.

The article focuses on early Roman voyages of discovery to northern Britain and the misidentification of the Shetland Isles as Thule, which caused longstanding confusion in ancient geography. It details the expedition of Demetrius in 83 CE, ordered by Emperor Vespasian, alongside Governor Gnaeus Julius Agricola’s military campaigns extending Roman control in Scotland. Ancient sources such as Pliny the Elder, Pomponius Mela, and Pytheas of Marseille are discussed for their records of northern British islands, with Pytheas’s account of Thule—an island near the frozen Cronian Sea—being particularly influential yet disputed. The article argues that the Roman fleet under Agricola likely sighted the Shetland Isles but misnamed them Thule, a mistake perpetuated by the geographer Ptolemy around 140 CE, complicating the understanding of Britain’s ancient geography.