The Romans: 82AD-4th century
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Tacitus, a Roman historian was the first to start recording Scottish history when the Romans arrived in AD 82 Tacitus described how Agricola defeated an army of red-haired men in the Battle of Mons Graupius. It is thought the site was somewhere in the Grampian area and the name may have been taken from the battle.
The Romans called their victims the “painted ones”, from which the name 'Picts' derived. The Roman legionnaires could not compete with the hostile tribes who vanished into the mountains and forests. The Picts preferred ambushes rather than conventional army-type battles. The Romans held back as they believed they had lost an entire legion in a massacre. The legion had simply been posted elsewhere.
Hadrian built a wall between the Solway and the Tyne in 120, in the hope of containing the Picts. This failed to such an extent; another wall was built between the Forth and Clyde - the Antonine Wall. This was little better and duly abandoned and they withdrew to Hadrians Wall. |
In 208, Emperor Severus sailed up the Firth of Forth and attacked Fife and the lands around the River Tay. The Picts refused to be conquered. When the emperor died, the Romans withdrew starting an uneasy peace between the north and south. In due course, the Picts restarted their ferocious attacks and the Saxons began to invade from the northeast. The Roman occupation was in decline and legions were being recalled to fight nearer home. By the end of the fourth century the Romans abandoned Scotland completely, leaving the untamed Picts to defend themselves against new invaders. Not only had they failed to subdue their foes, but they failed to impose any of their sophisticated culture on them. The only evidence of their occupation is a few straight roads, a number of forts and the remains of the Antonine Wall.
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