#A2ZChallenge C is for Caledonians

C is for Caledonians

Theme: Ancient Roman Scotland during the Flavian era

Who were the Caledonians? And where does the name come from?

The first question isn’t easy to answer! The Ancient Romans termed the island of Britain as Britannia, a large expanse of land which in the main was populated by many different Late Iron-Age tribes, collectively named as Britons. However, the Ancient Romans also used the name Caledonians for the tribes who lived to the north of those Britons, in the barbarian territory of northern Britannia. For the Ancient Romans, any land not settled on and acquired into the Ancient Roman Empire was essentially barbarian territory. Exactly where their Ancient Roman boundary was for those large groups of Britons versus Caledonians isn’t easy to determine, and may never have been of a really fixed nature till the building of Hadrian’s Wall c. A.D.122, and then the Antonine Wall c. A.D. 142. (Note: The term Celtic for the tribes of Britain needs a whole new blog post) 

Some archaeological finds indicate that after a short time of use, by c. 160s, the Antonine Wall forts between the rivers Forth and Clyde were largely abandoned (though there may have been some forts with a continued presence for varying amounts of time). The bulk of the troops who had been stationed along the Antonine Wall appear to have moved south again with a new empire 'boundary' set once more in the borders (i.e. current boundary line for Scotland and England), though not necessarily as far south as Hadrian’s Wall, since forts like Trimontium (Newstead at Melrose) continued to be garrisoned till the 180s, or perhaps even later.

Wikimedia Commons

Towards the end of the second century, the Romans began to use a different name for a confederation of tribes of the central belt of Scotland and perhaps those who lived as far north-east as Tayside and Angus. They appear in documentation as the ‘Maeatae'. The tribes living in the mountains to the west and north-west of the Maeatae were still referred to as the Calidones. The Maeatae seem to have made treaties with Rome but by the time Septimius Severus became emperor in c. A.D. 193 that situation had changed, or was changing.

Around A.D. 208, Emperor Severus was written to have left Eboracum (York) with approximately 50,000 soldiers  - because the Maeatae had reneged on their treaty obligations a time too many for his liking. Severus and his elder son Caracalla headed north with their legionary forces to confront the Maeatae and Caledonians, to teach them a lesson they would never forget. Some experts (historians and specialist archaeologists e.g. 'soil samplers') believe Severus was intent on genocide, but it’s recorded that the Ancient Roman forces had heavy losses on the way north and perhaps only had around 30,000 by the time they reached the north-east of Scotland. No large battles - like that of Mons Graupius during the Agricolan Campaigns - were recorded, but a few contemporary Roman writers mention that the Caledonians were good at guerilla warfare.

There’s sufficient evidence of Severan temporary camps in the north-east of Scotland to give credence to Severus’ Caledonian campaigning having got that far north. An interesting observance I read in a technical document about land use (farming etc) in north-east Scotland mentioned that there seemed to have been a drop-off in farmed land use in north-east Scotland post A.D 210, which continued for a couple of decades - the theory based on a lack of seed deposits etc in middens and from ground excavations. A couple of reasons for lack of farming were postulated which are worthy of some thought:

copyright. Nancy Jardine

1) It took a few decades to 'naturally' replenish the local working-age population annihilated by Severus' troops.
2) The Severan troops had done such a successful job of  destroying and burning the land that it took decades for the soil to recover and be productive once more- taking into account that before the Roman invasions, the local farming output was of simple strip field crops of oats and barley and was of a subsistence-only nature.

The local tribes of ‘Scotland’ probably used natural boundaries to denote their lands from their neighbours. We have no knowledge of what those local tribes called themselves in barbarian 

Caledonian territory. No knowledge if they actually  thought of themselves as having any identity of being of a 'people' as we do now, since the indigenous population left nothing in writing to refer to.

The main Britannic tribal names currently referred to by historians, and interested amateurs like me, tend to have come from the map constructed from the information gathered by the mapmaker Claudius Ptolemaeus (see post for 2nd April of this #A2ZChallenge) and from references by writers like Cornelius Tacitus.

Ptolemy made his ‘map’ references after the Agricolan invasions of c. 84 but it’s probable that Ptolemy acquired some of his information from Agricola’s campaign diaries. The names Ptolemy used were perhaps close approximations to what the local dialect sounded like, or were translations of something indicative of a tribal trait e.g. the Selgovae of southern Scotland being the ‘hunters’,  or the Vacomagi of the Moray coast being ‘men of the low plains’.

And this brings me back to my theme for this April Blog series - Ancient Roman Scotland during the Flavian era.

Mons Graupius - Wallpaperest (Sean O'Brogain)

General Agricola may not have been the first Governor of Britannia to have marched Roman legions into what is now southern Scotland but the writer, Tacitus, states that Agricola was the first Governor and  Commander of the legions to march northwards into Caledonian territory to confront the amassed Caledonian allies at what Tacitus refers to as the Battle of Mons Graupius.
You can read more HERE about Mons Graupius in earlier articles posted on this blog.

Caledons feature in my Celtic Fervour Series. Brennus/ Bran, the main male character of Books 2 & 3, journeys north with his family seeking the one charismatic Caledon leader who will persuade the tribes of the north to amass together to confront the legions of Agricola in pitched battle. My Caledon leader is Calgach (Tacitus names the man Calgacus) and my battle ground is Beinn na Ciche. The hill range Bennachie in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, is one of the big contenders for the site of the Battle of Mons Graupius, though none has ever been positively identified.

Did you know any of the above information about Caledonia, and the Caledonians? If yes, please tell me in the comments box what might be new to you in this post, or of particular interest. 

Till tomorrow and another #A2ZChallenge blog post....

Slainthe! 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maeatae

https://www.yourstirling.com/celtic-and-roman-stirling/

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Roman.Britain.Severan.Campaigns.jpg

Some of my research books on Roman Scotland