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Scotland during the Roman Empire refers to theprotohistorical period during which theRoman Empire interacted within the area of modernScotland. Despite sporadic attempts at conquest and government between the first and fourth centuries AD, most of modern Scotland, inhabited by theCaledonians and theMaeatae, was not incorporated into the Roman Empire with Roman control over the area fluctuating.
In theRoman imperial period, the area of Caledonia lay north of theRiver Forth, while the area now called England was known asBritannia, the name also given to theRoman province roughly consisting of modernEngland and Wales and which replaced the earlierAncient Greek designation asAlbion.Roman legions arrived in the territory of modern Scotland around AD 71, having conquered theCeltic Britons of southern Britannia over the preceding three decades. Aiming to complete theRoman conquest of Britannia, theRoman armies underQuintus Petillius Cerialis andGnaeus Julius Agricola campaigned against the Caledonians in the 70s and 80s. TheAgricola, a biography of theRoman governor of Britannia by his son-in-lawTacitus mentions a Roman victory at "Mons Graupius" which became the namesake of theGrampian Mountains but whose identity has been questioned by modern scholarship. In 2023 a lost Roman road built by Julius Agricola was rediscovered in Drip close to Stirling: it has been described as "the most important road in Scottish history".[1][2]
Agricola then seems to have repeated an earlier Greek circumnavigation of the island byPytheas and received submission from local tribes, establishing the Romanlimes of actual control first along theGask Ridge, and then withdrawing south of a line from theSolway Firth to theRiver Tyne, i.e. along theStanegate. This border was later fortified asHadrian's Wall. Several Roman commanders attempted to fully conquer lands north of this line, including a second-century expansion that was fortified as theAntonine Wall.
The history of the period is complex and not well-documented. Theprovince ofValentia, for instance, may have been the lands between the two Roman walls, or the territory around and south of Hadrian's Wall, orRoman Wales. Romans held most of their Caledonian territory only a little over 40 years; they probably only held land in present-day Scotland for about 80 years. Some Scottish historians such asAlistair Moffat maintain Roman influence was inconsequential.[4][unreliable source?] Despite grandiose claims made byan eighteenth-century forged manuscript, it is now believed that the Romans at no point controlled even half of present-day Scotland and that Roman legions ceased to affect the area after around 211.
"Scots" and "Scotland" proper would not emerge as unified ideasuntil the eighth century. In fact, the Roman Empire influenced every part of Scotland during the period: by the time of theEnd of Roman rule in Britannia around 410, the variousIron Age tribes native to the area had united as, or fallen under the control of, thePicts, while the southern half of the country was overrun by tribes ofRomanized Britons. TheScoti (GaelicIrish raiders who would give Scotland its Anglicised name) had begun to settle along the west coast. All three groups may have been involved in theGreat Conspiracy that overran Roman Britannia in 367. The era saw the emergence of the earliest historical accounts of the natives. The most enduring legacies of Rome, however, wereChristianity andliteracy, both of which arrived indirectly viaIrish missionaries.
Ptolemy's tribes located north of the Forth-Clyde isthmus include theCornovii inCaithness, theCaereni,Smertae,Carnonacae,Decantae,Lugi, andCreones also north of theGreat Glen, theTaexali in the north-east, theEpidii inArgyll, theVenicones inFife, the Caledonians in the centralHighlands and theVacomagi centred nearStrathmore. It is likely that all of these cultures spoke a form ofCeltic language known asCommon Brittonic. The occupants of southern Scotland were theDamnonii in the Clyde valley, theNovantae in Galloway, theSelgovae on the south coast and theVotadini to the east.[5] These peoples may have spoken a form ofBrittonic language although no one really knows for sure as there are no written records.
Little is known about this alliance of Iron Age tribes. The exact location of "Caledonia" is unknown, and the boundaries are unlikely to have been fixed.[6] The name itself is a Roman one, as used by Tacitus, Ptolemy, Pliny the Elder andLucan,[7][unreliable source?] but the name by which the Caledonians referred to themselves is unknown. It is likely that prior to the Roman invasions, political control in the region was highly decentralised and no evidence has emerged of any specific Caledonian military or political leadership.[8]
Despite the discovery of many hundreds ofIron Age sites in Scotland, there is still a great deal that remains to be explained about the nature of theCeltic life in the early Christian era.[9]Radiocarbon dating for this period is problematic and chronological sequences are poorly understood.[10] For a variety of reasons, much of the archaeological work to date in Scotland has concentrated on the islands of the west andnorth and both excavations and analysis of societal structures on the mainland are more limited in scope.[11]
The peoples of early Iron Age Scotland, particularly in the north and west, lived in substantial stone buildings calledAtlantic roundhouses. The remains of hundreds of these houses exist throughout the country, some merely piles of rubble, others with impressive towers and outbuildings. They date from about 800 BC to AD 300, with the most imposing structures having been created around the second century BC. The most massive constructions that date from this time are the circularbrochs. On average, the ruins only survive up to a few metres above ground level, but there are five extant examples of towers whose walls still exceed 6.5 m (21 ft) in height.[12] There are at least 100 broch sites in Scotland.[13] Despite extensive research, their purpose and the nature of the societies that created them are still a matter of debate.[14]
In some parts of Iron Age Scotland, quite unlike almost all of recorded history right up to the present day, there does not seem to have been ahierarchical elite. Studies have shown that these stone roundhouses, with massively thick walls, must have contained virtually the entire population of islands such asBarra andNorth Uist. Iron Age settlement patterns in Scotland are not homogeneous, but, in these places, there is no sign of a privileged class living in large castles or forts, nor of an elite priestly caste or of peasants with no access to the kind of accommodation enjoyed by the middle classes.[15]
Over 400souterrains have been discovered in Scotland, many of them in the south-east, and, although few have been dated, those that have suggest a construction date in the second or third centuries. The purpose of these small underground structures is also obscure. They are usually found close to settlements (whose timber frames are much less well-preserved) and may have been for storing perishable agricultural products.[16]
Scotland also has numerousvitrified forts but an accurate chronology has again proven to be evasive. Extensive studies of such a fort at Finavon Hill nearForfar inAngus, using a variety of techniques, suggest dates for the destruction of the site in either the last two centuries BC or the mid-first millennium.[17] The lack of Roman artefacts (common in local souterrain sites) suggests that many sites were abandoned before the arrival of the legions.[18]
Unlike the earlierNeolithic andBronze Ages, which have provided massive monuments to the dead, Iron Age burial sites in Scotland are rare, and a 2008 find atDunbar may provide further insight into the culture of this period. A similar site of a warrior's grave atAlloa has been provisionally dated to AD 90–130.[19][20][21]
Ptolemy'sGeography identifies 19 "towns" from intelligence gathered during the Agricolan campaigns of the first century. No archaeological evidence of any truly urban places has been found from this time and the names may have indicated hill forts or temporary market and meeting places. Most of the names are obscure:Devana may be the modernBanchory;Alauna ("the rock") in the west is probablyDumbarton Rock and the place of the same name in the east Lowlands may be the site ofEdinburgh Castle.Lindon may beBalloch onLoch Lomond side.[22][unreliable source?]
There are remains of fifteen broch towers in southern Scotland that appear to date from the period immediately prior to or following Agricola's invasion. They are found in four locations: the Forth valley, close to theFirth of Tay, the far south-west and the easternBorders. Their existence so far from the main centres of broch-building is something of a mystery. The Leckie broch may have been destroyed by the Roman invaders, yet, like the nearby site of Fairy Knowe atBuchlyvie, a substantial amount of both Roman and native artefacts has been recovered there. Both structures were built in the late first century and were evidently high-status buildings. The inhabitants raised sheep, cattle and pigs, and benefited from a range of wild game, includingred deer andwild boar.
Edin's Hall Broch inBerwickshire is the best-preserved southern broch and, although the ruins are superficially similar to some of the larger Orcadian broch villages, it is unlikely that the tower was ever more than a single-storey high. There is an absence of Roman artefacts at this site. Various theories for the existence of these structures have been proposed, including their construction by northern invaders following the withdrawal of Roman troops after the Agricolan advance, or by allies of Rome encouraged to emulate the impressive northern style in order to suppress native resistance, perhaps even the Orcadian chiefs whose positive relationship with Rome may have continued from the beginnings of Romano-British relations.[23] It is also possible that their construction had little to do with Roman frontier policy and was simply the importation of a new style by southern elites, or it may have been a response by such elites to the growing threat of Rome prior to the invasion and an attempt to ally themselves, actually or symbolically, with the north that was largely free of Roman hegemony.[24]
Scotland had been inhabited for thousands of years before the Romans arrived. However, it is only during theGreco-Roman period that Scotland is recorded in writing.
The workOn the Cosmos byAristotle orPseudo-Aristotle mentions two "very large" islands calledAlbion (Great Britain) andIerne (Ireland).[26][27] The Greek explorer and geographerPytheas visited Britain sometime between 322 and 285 BC and may have circumnavigated the mainland, which he describes as being triangular in shape. In his workOn the Ocean, he refers to the most northerly point asOrcas (Orkney).[5]
Originals ofOn the Ocean do not survive, but copies are known to have existed in the first century so at the least a rudimentary knowledge of the geography of north Britain would have been available to Roman military intelligence.[28][29]Pomponius Mela, the Roman geographer, recorded in hisDe Chorographia, written around AD 43, that there were 30Orkney islands and sevenHaemodae (possiblyShetland).[30] There is certainly evidence of an Orcadian connection with Rome prior to AD 60 from pottery found at theBroch of Gurness.[31][unreliable source?] By the time ofPliny the Elder (d. AD 79), Roman knowledge of the geography of Scotland had extended to theHebudes (The Hebrides),Dumna (probably theOuter Hebrides), theCaledonian Forest, and theCaledonians.[30] A traveller calledDemetrius ofTarsus related toPlutarch the tale of an expedition to the west coast in or shortly before AD 83. He stated that it was "a gloomy journey amongst uninhabited islands" but that he had visited one which was the retreat of holy men. He mentioned neither thedruids nor the name ofthe island.[32][unreliable source?]
Ptolemy, possibly drawing on earlier sources of information as well as more contemporary accounts from theAgricolan invasion, identified 18 tribes in Scotland in hisGeography, but many of the names are obscure. His information becomes much less reliable in the north and west, suggesting early Roman knowledge of these areas were confined to observations from the sea.[30][33] Famously, his co-ordinates place most of Scotland north of Hadrian's Wall bent at a right angle, stretching due eastward from the rest of Britain.
Ptolemy's catalogue of tribes living north of the Forth-Clyde isthmus include theCaereni,Smertae,Carnonacae,Decantae,Lugi, andCreones all to the north of theGreat Glen, theCornovii inCaithness, theTaexali in the north-east, theEpidii inArgyll, theVenicones inFife, theVacomagi centred nearStrathmore, the Caledonians in the centralHighlands.[5]
The earliest written record of a formal connection between Rome and Scotland is the attendance of the "King of Orkney" who was one of 11 British kings who submitted to the emperorClaudius atColchester in AD 43 following theinvasion of southern Britain three months earlier.[34][35] The long distances and short period of time involved strongly suggest a prior connection between Rome and Orkney, although no evidence of this has been found and the contrast with laterCaledonian resistance is striking.[36]
Pomponius Mela, the Roman geographer, recorded in hisDe Chorographia, written c. 43 AD, that there were thirtyOrkney islands.[30] There is certainly evidence of an Orcadian connection with Rome prior to AD 60 from pottery found at theBroch of Gurness and 1st and 2nd century Roman coins have been found at Lingro broch.[37][38]
However the apparently cordial beginnings recorded in Colchester did not last. We know nothing of the foreign policies of the senior leaders in mainland Scotland in the first century, but by AD 71 theRoman governorQuintus Petillius Cerialis had launched an invasion.[39]
TheVotadini, who occupied the south-east of Scotland, came under Roman sway at an early stage and Cerialis sent onedivision north through their territory to the shores of theFirth of Forth. TheLegio XXValeria Victrix took a western route throughAnnandale in an attempt to encircle and isolate theSelgovae who occupied the centralSouthern Uplands.[40][41][unreliable source?] Early success tempted Cerialis further north and he began constructing a line ofGlenblocker forts to the north and west of theGask Ridge which marked a frontier between theVenicones to the south and the Caledonians to the north.[42][unreliable source?]
In the summer of AD 78Gnaeus Julius Agricola arrived in Britain to take up his appointment as the new governor. Two years later his legions constructed a substantialfort atTrimontium nearMelrose. Excavations in the twentieth century produced significant finds including the foundations of several successive structures,Roman coins andpottery. Remains from theRoman army were also found, including a collection ofRoman armour (with ornate cavalry parade helmets), and horse fittings (with bronze saddleplates and studded leatherchamfrons). Agricola is said to have pushed his armies to the estuary of the "River Taus" (usually assumed to be theRiver Tay) and established forts there, including a legionary fortress atInchtuthil.[43]
In 2019, GUARD Archaeology team led by Iraia Arabaolaza uncovered a marching camp dating to the first century AD in Ayr, used by Roman legions during the invasion of Roman GeneralAgricola. According to Arabaolaza, the fire pits were split 30 metres apart into two parallel lines. The findings also included clay-domed ovens and 26 fire pits dated to between 77- 86 AD and 90 AD loaded with burn and charcoal contents. Archaeologists suggested that this site had been chosen as a strategic location for the Roman conquest of Ayrshire.[44][45]
In the summer of AD 84, the Romans faced the massed armies of the Caledonians at theBattle of Mons Graupius. Agricola, whose forces included a fleet, arrived at the site withlight infantry bolstered with Britishauxiliaries. It is estimated that a total of 20,000 Romans faced 30,000 Caledonianwarriors.[46][47]
Agricola put his auxiliaries in the front line, keeping the legions in reserve, and relied on close-quarters fighting to make the Caledonians' unpointed slashing swords useless. Even though the Caledonians were put to rout and therefore lost this battle, two-thirds of their army managed to escape and hide in the Scottish Highlands or the "trackless wilds" asTacitus called them. Battle casualties were estimated by Tacitus to be about 10,000 on the Caledonian side and roughly 360 on the Roman side. A number of authors have reckoned the battle to have occurred in theGrampianMounth within sight of theNorth Sea. In particular, Roy,[48] Surenne, Watt, Hogan and others have advanced notions that the site of the battle may have beenKempstone Hill,Megray Hill or other knolls near theRaedykesRoman camp. These points of high ground are proximate to theElsick Mounth, an ancienttrackway used by Romans and Caledonians for military manoeuvres.[49] Other suggestions include the hill ofBennachie inAberdeenshire, theGask Ridge not far fromPerth[50][page needed] andSutherland.[51] It has also been suggested that in the absence of any archaeological evidence and Tacitus' low estimates of Roman casualties, that the battle was simply fabricated.[52]
The first resident of Scotland to appear in history by name wasCalgacus ("the Swordsman"), a leader of the Caledonians at Mons Graupius, who is referred to by Tacitus in theAgricola as "the most distinguished for birth and valour among the chieftains".[53] Tacitus even invented a speech for him in advance of the battle in which he describes the Romans as:
Robbers of the world, having by their universal plunder exhausted the land, they rifle the deep. If the enemy be rich, they are rapacious; if he be poor, they lust for dominion; neither the east nor the west has been able to satisfy them. Alone among men they covet with equal eagerness poverty and riches. To robbery, slaughter, plunder, they give the lying name of empire; they make a solitude and call it peace.[53]
Calgacus' fate is unknown but, according to Tacitus, after the battle Agricola ordered theprefect of the fleet to sail around the north of Scotland to confirm that Britain was an island and to receive the surrender of theOrcadians. It was proclaimed that Agricola had finally subdued all the tribes of Britain.[54] However, the Roman historianCassius Dio reports that this circumnavigation resulted inTitus receiving his fifteenth acclamation as emperor in AD 79. This is five years before Mons Graupius is believed by most historians to have taken place.[55]Marching camps may have been constructed along the southern shores of theMoray Firth, although their existence is questioned.[51][56][57]Pinnata Castra, the location of which is uncertain, was identified by Ptolemy as the northernmostpolis in Britain and may mark the limit of the Agricola's advance by land.[58]
The total size of the Roman garrison in Scotland during theFlavian period of occupation is thought to have been some 25,000 troops, requiring 16–19,000 tons of grain per annum.[59] In addition, the material to construct the forts was substantial, estimated at 1 millioncubic feet (28,315 m3) of timber during the first century. Ten tons of buried nails were discovered at the Inchtuthil site, which may have had a garrison of up to 6,000 men and which itself consumed 30 linear kilometres of wood for the walls alone, which would have used up 100 hectares (250 acres) of forest.[60][61][unreliable source?][62]
Presumably as a consequence of the Roman advance, various hill forts such as Dun Mor in Perthshire, which had been abandoned by the natives long ago, were re-occupied. Some new ones may even have been constructed in the northeast, such as Hill O'Christ's Kirk inAberdeenshire.[63][unreliable source?]
Soon after his announcement of victory, Agricola was recalled to Rome byDomitian and his post passed to an unknown successor, possiblySallustius Lucullus. Agricola's successors were seemingly unable or unwilling to further subdue the far north. This inability to continue to hold the far north may be in part due to the limited military resources available to the Roman Proconsul after the recall of theLegio IIAdiutrix from Britain, to support Domitian's war in Dacia. Despite his apparent successes, Agricola himself fell out of favour; one author has speculated that Domitian may have been informed that Agricola's claim to have won a significant victory was fraudulent.[52] The fortress at Inchtuthil was dismantled before its completion and the other fortifications of the Gask Ridge (erected to consolidate the Roman presence in Scotland in the aftermath of Mons Graupius) were abandoned within the space of a few years. It is possible that the costs of a drawn-out war outweighed any economic or political benefit and it was deemed more profitable to leave the Caledonians to themselves.[64] By AD 87 the occupation was limited to the Southern Uplands and by the end of the first century the northern limit of Roman expansion was the Stanegate road between theTyne andSolway Firth.[65][unreliable source?]
The construction of 118 kilometres (73 mi) longHadrian's Wall in the early 120s on the orders of the EmperorHadrian consolidated the Roman line of defence (called theLimes Britannicus) on the Tyne-Solway line, where it remained until c. AD 139.[66][67]
It was a stone and turffortification built across the width of what is now northernEngland and was roughly 4 metres (13 ft) or more high along its length.[68] Thevallum Aelii, as the Romans called it, may have taken six years to construct. Small guard posts calledmilecastles were built atmile intervals with an additional two fortified observation points between them. The wall was wide enough to allow for a walkway along the top.[69]
The purpose of the wall appears to have been in part at least to control contact between the subjectBrigantes to its south and the clientSelgovae to the north.[70]
Quintus Lollius Urbicus was made governor ofRoman Britain in 138, by the new emperorAntoninus Pius. Urbicus was the son of aLibyan landowner[71] and a native ofNumidia (modernAlgeria). Prior to coming to Britain he served during theJewish Rebellion (132–35), and then governingGermania Inferior.
Antoninus Pius soon reversed the containment policy of his predecessor Hadrian, and Urbicus was ordered to begin the reconquest ofLowland Scotland by moving north. Between 139 and 140 he rebuilt the fort atCorbridge and by 142 or 143, commemorative coins were issued celebrating a victory in Britain. It is therefore likely that Urbicus led the reoccupation of southern Scotlandc. 141, probably using theLegio II Augusta. He evidently campaigned against severalBritish tribes (possibly including factions of the northern Brigantes), certainly against the lowland tribes ofScotland, theVotadini andSelgovae of the Scottish Borders region, and theDamnonii of Strathclyde. His total force may have been about 16,500 men.[72]
It seems likely that Urbicus planned his campaign of attack from Corbridge,[citation needed] advancing north and leaving garrison forts atHigh Rochester in Northumberland and possibly also atTrimontium as he struck towards the Firth of Forth. Having secured an overland supply route for military personnel and equipment alongDere Street, Urbicus very likely set up a supply port atCarriden for the supply of grain and other foodstuffs before proceeding against the Damnonii; success was swift.
It was possibly after the defences of theAntonine Wall were finished that Urbicus turned his attention upon the fourth lowland Scottish tribe,[citation needed] theNovantae who inhabited the Dumfries and Galloway peninsula. The main lowland tribes, sandwiched as they were between Hadrian's Wall of stone to the south and the new turf wall to the north, later formed a confederation against Roman rule, collectively known as theMaeatae. The Antonine Wall had a variety of purposes. It provided a defensive line against the Caledonians. It cut off the Maeatae from their Caledonian allies and created a buffer zone north of Hadrian's Wall. It also facilitated troop movements between east and west, but its main purpose may not have been primarily military. It enabled Rome to control and tax trade and may have prevented potentially disloyal new subjects of Roman rule from communicating with their independent brethren to the north and coordinating revolts.[73][74] Urbicus achieved an impressive series of military successes, but like Agricola's they were short-lived. Having taken twelve years to build, the wall was overrun and abandoned soon after AD 160.[75][76]
The destruction of some of the southern brochs may date to the Antonine advance, the hypothesis being that whether or not they had previously been symbols of Roman patronage they had now outlived their usefulness from a Roman point of view.[23]
In 1984, a candidate for aRoman fort was identified byaerial photography atEaster Galcantray, southwest ofCawdor.[77] The site was excavated between 1984 and 1988 and several features were identified which are supportive of this classification. If confirmed, it would be one of the most northerly known Roman forts in the British Isles.[78]
The possibility that the legions reached further north in Scotland is suggested by discoveries in Easter Ross. The sites of temporary camps have been proposed atPortmahomack in 1949, although this has not been confirmed.[79][80] In 1991 an investigation ofTarradale on theBlack Isle near theBeauly Firth concluded "the site appears to conform to the morphology of a Roman camp or fort".[81]
Construction of a newlimes between the Firth of Forth and theFirth of Clyde commenced. Contingents from at least one British legion are known to have assisted in the erection of the new turf barrier, as evidenced by an inscription from the fort atOld Kilpatrick, theAntonine Wall's western terminus. Today, thesward-covered wall is the remains of a defensive line made ofturf circa 7 metres (23 feet) high, with nineteen forts. It was constructed after AD 139 and extended for 60 km (37 mi).
The Roman frontier became Hadrian's Wall again, although Roman incursions into Scotland continued. Initially, outpost forts were occupied in the south-west andTrimontium remained in use but they too were abandoned after the mid-180s.[84] Roman troops, however, penetrated far into the north of modern Scotland several more times. Indeed, there is a greater density of Roman marching camps in Scotland than anywhere else in Europe, as a result of at least four major attempts to subdue the area. The Antonine Wall was occupied again for a brief period after AD 197.[85] The mostnotable invasion was in 209 when the emperorSeptimius Severus, claiming to be provoked by the belligerence of the Maeatae, campaigned against the Caledonian Confederacy. Severus invaded Caledonia with an army perhaps over 40,000 strong.[86]
According toDio Cassius, he inflicted genocidal depredations on the natives and incurred the loss of 50,000 of his own men to the attrition ofguerrilla tactics, although it is likely that these figures are a significant exaggeration.[87]
A string of forts was constructed in the northeast (some of which may date from the earlier Antonine campaign). These include camps associated with the Elsick Mounth, such asNormandykes,Ythan Wells,Deers Den andGlenmailen.[49] However, only two forts in Scotland, atCramond andCarpow (in the Tay valley) are definitely known to have been permanently occupied during this incursion before the troops were withdrawn again to Hadrian's Wall circa 213.[88] There is some evidence that these campaigns are coincident with the wholesale destruction and abandonment ofsouterrains in southern Scotland. This may have been due either to Roman military aggression or the collapse of local grain markets in the wake of Roman withdrawal.[89]
By 210, Severus' campaigning had made significant gains, but his campaign was cut short when he fell fatally ill, dying atEboracum in 211. Although his sonCaracalla continued campaigning the following year, he soon settled for peace. The Romans never campaigned deep into Caledonia again: they soon withdrew south permanently to Hadrian's Wall.[88][90] From the time of Caracalla onwards, no further attempts were made to permanently occupy territory in Scotland.[88]
It was during the negotiations to purchase the truce necessary to secure the Roman retreat to the wall that the first recorded utterance, attributable with any reasonable degree of confidence, to a native of Scotland was made. WhenJulia Domna, wife of Septimius Severus, criticised the sexual morals of the Caledonian women, the wife (whose name is unknown) of the Caledonian chiefArgentocoxos allegedly replied: "We fulfil the demands of nature in a much better way than do you Roman women; for we consort openly with the best men, whereas you let yourselves be debauched in secret by the vilest."[91]
The intermittent Roman presence in Scotland coincided with the emergence of thePicts, aconfederation of tribes who lived to the north of the Forth and Clyde from Roman times until the tenth century. They are often assumed to have been the descendants of the Caledonians though the evidence for this connection is circumstantial and the name by which the Picts called themselves is unknown.[92][93][unreliable source?] They are often said to have tattooed themselves, but evidence for this is limited. Naturalistic depictions of Pictish nobles, hunters and warriors, male and female, without obvious tattoos, are found on theirmonumental stones.[94] TheGaels of Dalriada called the PictsCruithne,[95][96] and Irish poets portrayed their Pictish counterparts as very much like themselves.[97]
The technology of everyday life is not well recorded, but archaeological evidence shows it to have been similar to that in Ireland and Anglo-Saxon England. Recently evidence has been found ofwatermills in Pictland andkilns were used for drying kernels of wheat or barley, not otherwise easy in the changeable, temperate climate.[98] Although constructed in earlier times, brochs, roundhouses andcrannogs remained in use into and beyond the Pictish period.[99][100][101][102]
Elsewhere in Scotlandwheelhouses were constructed, probably for ritualistic purposes, in the west and north. Their geographical locations are highly restricted, which suggests that they may have been contained within a political or cultural frontier of some kind and the co-incidence of their arrival and departure being associated with the period of Roman influence in Scotland is a matter of ongoing debate. It is not known whether the culture that constructed them was "Pictish" as such although they would certainly have been known to the Picts.[103]
Later excursions by the Romans were generally limited to the scouting expeditions in the buffer zone that developed between the walls, trading contacts, bribes to purchase truces from the natives, and eventually the spread of Christianity. TheRavenna Cosmography utilises a third- or fourth-century Roman map and identifies fourloci (meeting places, possibly markets) in southern Scotland.Locus Maponi is possibly theLochmaben Stone near modernGretna which continued to be used as a muster point well into the historic period. Two of the others indicate meeting places of the Damnonii and Selgovae, and the fourth,Manavi may beClackmannan.[104][unreliable source?]
The Pictish relationship with Rome appears to have been less overtly hostile than their Caledonian predecessors, at least in the beginning. There were no more pitched battles and conflict was generally limited to raiding parties from both sides of the frontier until immediately prior to and after the Roman retreat from Britannia.[105][unreliable source?] Their apparent success in holding back Roman forces cannot be explained solely with reference to the remoteness of Caledonia or the difficulties of the terrain. In part, it may have been due to the difficulties encountered in subjugating a population that did not conform to the strictures of local governance that Roman power usually depended on to operate through.[8]
As Rome's power waned, the Picts were emboldened. War bands raided south of Hadrian's Wall in earnest in 342, 360, and 365 and they participated with theAttacotti in theGreat Conspiracy of 367. Rome fought back, mounting a campaign underCount Theodosius in 369 which reëstablished a province which was renamedValentia in honour of theemperor. Its location is unclear, but it is sometimes placed on or beyond Hadrian's Wall. Another campaign was mounted in 384, but both were short-lived successes.[106][unreliable source?]Stilicho, themagister militum, may have fought awar against the Picts in Britain in around 398.Rome had fully withdrawn from Britain by 410, never to return.[106]
Roman influence assisted the spread of Christianity throughoutEurope, but there is little evidence of a direct link between the Roman Empire and Christian missions north of Hadrian's Wall. Traditionally,Ninian is credited as the firstbishop active in Scotland. He is briefly mentioned byBede[107] who states that around 397 he set up his base atWhithorn in the south-west of Scotland, building a stone church there, known asCandida Casa. More recently it has been suggested that Ninian was the sixth-century missionaryFinnian of Moville,[108][109] but either way Roman influence on early Christianity in Scotland does not seem to have been significant.
The military presence of Rome lasted for little more than 40 years for most of Scotland and only as much as 80 years in total anywhere. It's now generally considered that at no time was even half of Scotland's land mass under Roman control.[88]
Scotland has inherited two main features from the Roman period, although mostly indirectly: the use of theLatin script for its languages and the emergence ofChristianity as the predominant religion. Through Christianity, theLatin language would become used by the natives of Scotland for the purposes of church and government for centuries more.
Although little more than a series of relatively brief interludes of military occupation,[110] Imperial Rome was ruthless and brutal in pursuit of its ends.[111][unreliable source?] Genocide was a familiar part of its foreign policy and it is clear that the invasions and occupations cost thousands of lives. Alistair Moffat writes:
The reality is that the Romans came to what is now Scotland, they saw, burned, killed, stole and occasionally conquered, and then they left a tremendous mess behind them, clearing away native settlements and covering good farmland with the remains of ditches, banks, roads, and other sorts of ancient military debris. Like most imperialists, they arrived to make money, gain political advantage and exploit the resources of their colonies at virtually any price to the conquered. And remarkably, in Britain, in Scotland, we continue to admire them for it.[3]
All the more surprising given that theVindolanda tablets[112] show that the Roman nickname for the north British locals wasBrittunculi meaning "nasty little Britons".[3][unreliable source?]
Similarly, William Hanson concludes that:
For many years it has been almost axiomatic in studies of the period that the Roman conquest must have had some major medium or long-term impact on Scotland. On present evidence that cannot be substantiated either in terms of environment, economy, or, indeed, society. The impact appears to have been very limited. The general picture remains one of broad continuity, not of disruption.... The Roman presence in Scotland was little more than a series of brief interludes within a longer continuum of indigenous development."[113]
The Romans' part in the clearances of the once extensive Caledonian forest remains a matter of debate.[114] That these forests were once considerably more extensive than they are now is not in dispute, but the timing and causes of the reduction are. The sixteenth-century writerHector Boece believed that the woods in Roman times stretched north from Stirling intoAtholl andLochaber and was inhabited by white bulls with "crisp and curland mane, like feirs lionis".[115] Later historians such asPatrick Fraser Tytler andWilliam Forbes Skene followed suit as did the twentieth-century naturalistFrank Fraser Darling. Modern techniques, includingpalynology anddendrochronology suggest a more complex picture. Changing post-glacial climates may have allowed for a maximum forest cover between 4000 and 3000 BC and deforestation of the Southern uplands, caused both climatically and anthropogenically, was well underway by the time the legions arrived.[116] Extensive analyses of Black Loch inFife suggest that arable land spread at the expense of forest from about 2000 BC until the first-century Roman advance. Thereafter, there was re-growth of birch, oak and hazel for a period of five centuries, suggesting the invasions had a very negative impact on the native population.[117] The situation outside the Roman-held areas is harder to assess, but the long-term influence of Rome may not have been substantial.
The archaeological legacy of Rome in Scotland is of interest, but sparse, especially in the north. Almost all the sites are essentially military in nature and include about 650 km (400 mi) of roads.[118][119][unreliable source?] Overall, it is hard to detect any direct connections between native architecture and settlement patterns and Roman influence.[120] Elsewhere in Europe, new kingdoms and languages emerged from the remnants of the once-mighty Roman world. In Scotland, the Celtic Iron Age way of life, often troubled, but never extinguished by Rome, simply re-asserted itself. In the north the Picts continued to be the main power prior to the arrival and subsequent domination of the Scots ofDalriada. TheDamnonii eventually formed theKingdom of Strathclyde based atDumbarton Rock. South of the Forth, theCumbric speakingBrythonic kingdoms ofYr Hen Ogledd (English: "The Old North") flourished during the fifth to seventh centuries, later supplanted byAnglo-Saxon settlement and the formation ofNorthumbria in the land between theHumber and theRiver Forth.
The most enduring Roman legacy may be that created by Hadrian's Wall. Its line approximates the border between modern Scotland and England and it created a distinction between the northern third and southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain that plays a part in modern political debate. This is probably coincidental however, as there is little to suggest its influence played an important role in theearly Medieval period after the fall of Rome.[121]
TheLegio IX Hispana participated in the Roman invasion of Britain, suffering losses underQuintus Petillius Cerialis in the rebellion ofBoudica of 61, and setting up a fortress in 71 that later became part ofEboracum. Although some authors have claimed that the ninth Legion disappeared in 117,[122] there are extant records for it later than that year, and it was probably annihilated in the east of the Roman Empire.[123] For a time it was believed, at least by some British historians, that the legion vanished during its conflicts in present-day Scotland. This idea was used in the novelsThe Eagle of the Ninth byRosemary Sutcliff,Legion From the Shadows byKarl Edward Wagner,Red Shift byAlan Garner,Engine City byKen MacLeod,Warriors of Alavna by N. M. Browne, and in the feature filmsThe Last Legion,Centurion andThe Eagle.
In 1984, a strong candidate for aRoman fort was identified at Easter Galcantray, south west ofCawdor, byaerial photography: theCawdor castrum.[124]
The site was excavated between 1984 and 1988 and several features were identified which are supportive of this classification. Romanpottery similar to the one found in the greatInchtuthill Roman fort has been positively found.[125]
Probably it is one of the most northerly known Roman fort in the British Isles.[126] The possibility that Agricola and his successors reached the northernmost area of Scotland can be confirmed by discoveries north of Inverness. Specifically at Portmahomack[127] and Tarradale in northern Beauly Firth.[128]
Indeed, the Roman legions in the first and second centuries established a chain of very large forts atArdoch,Strageath,Inchtuthil,Battledykes,Stracathro andRaedykes, taking the Elsick Mounth on the way toNormandykes, before going north to Glenmaillen, Bellie, Balnageith and Cawdor.
Furthermore, there is certainly evidence of an Orcadian connection with Rome prior to AD 60 from pottery found at theBroch of Gurness, while 1st and 2nd century Roman coins have been found at Lingro broch in the Orkney islands.[129][130]
it would be plausible that Orkney might have been one of those areas that suggest direct administration by Imperial procurators, at least for a very short span of time. Montesanti
Historians like Montesanti in 2010 believe that also in Mine Howe (in the main Orkney island) there it is evidence of a possible roman presence.[131]
Territories with limitedRoman Empire occupation and contact | ||
|---|---|---|
| Occupied partially or temporarily |  | |
| Contacts & explorations | ||
| See also | ||