Scotland during the Roman Empire of the geography of Scotland had extended to the "Hebudes" (The Hebrides), "Dumna" (probably the Outer Hebrides), the Caledonian Forest, and the Caledonians. Ptolemy, possibly drawing on earlier sources of information as well as more contemporary accounts from the Agricolan invasion, identified 18 tribes in Scotland in his "Geography", but many of the names are obscure. His information becomes much less reliable in the north and west, suggesting early Roman knowledge of these area was confined to observations from the sea. Famously, his coördinates place most of Scotland north of Hadrian's Wall bent at a right angle, stretching due eastward
Scotland during the Roman Empire in Scotland. He is briefly mentioned by Bede who states that around 397 he set up his base at Whithorn in the south-west of Scotland, building a stone church there, known as Candida Casa. More recently it has been suggested that Ninian was the 6th-century missionary Finnian of Moville, but either way Roman influence on early Christianity in Scotland does not seem to have been significant. Although little more than a series of relatively brief interludes of military occupation, Imperial Rome was ruthless and brutal in pursuit of its ends. Genocide was a familiar part of its foreign policy and