Romans

	The Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius, who commissioned the Antonine Wall around  AD 140 as part of a strategy to subdue barbarians north of the Forth and Clyde, by David Lawrence.		The Roman general Magnus Maximus, who repelled a coalition of barbarians – Picts and Gaels – in AD 383, by David Lawrence.

The first recorded reference to Picti comes in a speech about education provision by a Roman orator living in France in 297, an indication of how far their fearsome reputation extended. From the 360s onwards, barbarian warbands mounted repeated attacks on the Roman border at Hadrian’s Wall. The ambitious Roman general Magnus Maximus proclaimed himself Emperor of Britannia on the strength of his defeat of these barbarians around 383 (but was promptly put to death by Rome).

Gaels The Irish kingdom of Dál Riata spread across the sea to western Scotland, and by at least 500 Irish Gaels were occupying land in Argyll. They were known to the Romans as Scotti (the word originally meant ‘pirates’). At times, through a combination of diplomacy and warfare, the Picts were their overlords, and vice versa. By the 10th century it was a strong ruling Gaelic dynasty with Pictish roots that emerged to rule Alba. Britons The British kingdom of Strathclyde, isolated from the Cumbrian Britons by the advance of the Angles in the early 600s, was a stable and powerful force in northern politics as late as the 1000s. It successfully defended its borders north of the Clyde against both Scots and Picts, and in 750 inflicted a heavy defeat on the Picts at Mugdock.

Territorial boundaries around AD 800.

Angles

Angles from Northumbria conquered Pictland’s neighbour to the SE, the kingdom of the Gododdin. In 638, they captured the Gododdin capital Din Eidyn and renamed it Edinburgh. From there, their aggressive armies pushed deep into southern Pictland, eventually controlling the land as far north as the River Tay. But in 685, at the Battle of Dún Nechtain, the Picts decisively defeated the Angles. A treaty was concluded between the Angles and the Picts around 729, and a few decades later they fought together against the Britons of Strathclyde.

The hillfort of Din Eidyn (now the site of Edinburgh Castle) around AD 100, by David Simon.

Vikings

		By the late 700s, the Picts were the dominant force in Scottish politics. But they were as ill-prepared as their neighbours for the devastating Viking raids that began in the mid-790s. The Vikings attacked the rich religious and secular settlements around the coast, taking booty and slaves. By the mid-800s, Norse had started to settle the entire Scottish coast from the Firth of Clyde to the Black Isle, including all the western and northern isles. Even the eastern heart of Pictland was under attack. The Picts were heavily defeated in 739 by a huge Viking army. The losses of life and morale destroyed the ruling Pictish dynasty. From the turmoil, Cináed son of Alpin emerged as a new king from the Gaelic west – also under attack by the Vikings. He was able to assume the crowns of both Pictland and Dál Riata.

A decorated Viking whale-bone plaque, found in a boat burial on Sanday, Orkney.