THANKS SALIM FOR REPLYING AND IT IS INTERESTING TO READ THAT THE VILLAGERS NEAR HADRIANS WALL can be traced as akin to Northern Syrians for there is another link between UK Celts and Syria / Scythia.
From what I understand the Saxons when invading Britain attempted to enter the area we call today the Lothians. This was the breadbasket of the Britons and from what I understand the Saxons were pushed out to Lindisfarne when the Picts, Scots and Britons united to defeat them in battle. This is supposed to be the birth of the Saltire as a national emblem and it also leads to the acceptance of Christianity by the Picts and the birth of Alba, which leads eventually to Scotland. The Saxons at this time were heathen and the Scots were the race to convert them.
The whole basis of the brigand / thief reference to “Scotti” resides in such wonderful and accurate historians as Bede who also put forward the Scots were the produce or bastards of the Irish and the Picts. The Scots women being given to Pictish men and based on the late Roman writers who refer to the Scots and the Picts as attacking and harassing their northern borders of the empire.
I believe that is a biased and untrue foundation of the Scots and earliest writings indicate that the Scots named themselves after a Queen or noblewoman. Indeed the lands were called Scota Major and Scota Minor and you would surely expect Scotti Major and Minor. The term Eriguena as indicating an Ireland stems from after the fall of Rome, (and the Germanisation of Europe in many ways), perhaps coming from Ire meaning North and all earlier references are to Scota.