the bridgeness distance slab
The Bridgeness slab details Picts being crushed by Romans © National Museums Scotland. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk
© SCRAN

This distance slab from the Antonine Wall, found at Bridgeness, West Lothian, shows local warriors being crushed by Romans.

Who were the Picts?

early origins




The Roman general Magnus Maximus, who defeated a Pictish army in AD 383, by David Lawrence.    The name Picti (‘painted ones’) may first have been applied by the Romans to all the painted tribes inhabiting their newly conquered island of Britannia in the 100s. Its first recorded use was in AD 297. By then, it was being applied to those people who remained ‘uncivilised’ by contact with Roman culture.

These were the troublesome Iron-Age tribes to the north of the border at Hadrian’s Wall, the indigenous population of northern Britain. What is known of their language suggests that it was derived from the same Celtic roots as the Breton, Welsh and Cornish languages rather than the Irish Gaelic branch of the Celtic family. Columba, who was from Ireland, needed an interpreter when he spoke to Picts in the late 500s.
The Roman general Magnus Maximus, who defeated a Pictish army in AD 383, by David Lawrence.