Pict Weapons

A Roman writer tells of the weapons that the Caledonians used. 'Their arms are a shield and a short spear, in the upper part whereof is an apple of brass, that, while it is shaken, it may terrify the enemies with the sound, they have likewise daggers. They are able to bear hunger, cold, and all afflictions.' A measure of how troublesome the Caledonians were to the Romans is shown by the fact that one of the largest and most complex military forts in the Roman Empire was built at Ardoch in modern Perth in Scotland, and that within 10 years the Romans would be driven out of Caledonia for the first time.

Disappearance of the IX Legion

In the territory ( in modern Perthshire ), of a Pict tribe the Romans called the Vacomagi just below ( according to Ptolemy ), the territory of the Calidonii tribe, the IX Legion built a 53 acre 'great fortified camp' at Inchtuthil on the river Tay, called Pinnata Castra ( Fortress on the Wing ). The word for wing that the Romans used in the name of the fort, is also used for the wing or feathers of a bird and it seems to be a reference to the wing of the Roman eagle - symbol of the empire. Fort on the wing [ fringe or edge ] of the empire. In modern terms the Romans perhaps felt themselves to be living on the edge, in more ways than one - especially as the fort was near the edge of their main enemy the Calidonii. The fort was defended by a turf rampart 13 feet / 4 meters thick, and at the front by a stone wall 5 feet / 1.5 meters thick, with a ditch 20 feet / 6 meters wide and 6½ feet / 2 meters deep.

Although the Romans controlled large tracts of land they just couldn't conquer the country. In order to gain a wider control Agricola split his force into three groups. 'When Agricola learnt that the enemy's attack would be made with more than one army. Fearing that their superior numbers and their knowledge of the country might enable them to hem him in, he too [ like the Picts ] distributed his forces into three divisions, and so advanced.' Leading the Romans to believe that the Pict army had split into three divisions was a brilliant piece of Pict false information that had the desired effect of getting the Romans to split their forces - with dire results. It appears to have been the only mistake Agricola made during the invasion. When Agricola split his force into three, the IX [ Ninth ] Legion - who seem to have been especially hated by the Picts perhaps because of some heinous act of brutality - became the Picts main target.

There is some dispute as to what camp the IX were in when attacked, some believe Pinnata Castra ( which I favour ), but the prevailing view at present seems to be that it was their camp at Lochore in modern Fife. My argument for Pinnata Castra is that it was deeper into Pict territory, near the border of the Calidonii, but within reinforcing distance of the other camps particularly the large camp at Ardoch and so could be reached by Agricola relatively quickly, whereas Lochore was an earlier camp further south - not far enough into the main Pict territory and only about 35 miles from the legions winter quarters. It does not fit Tacitus' statement that Agricola distributed his forces into three divisions, and so advanced i.e. all three divisions advanced.

View a map where the location of many of the sites mentioned are shown
| Caledonian Map |

Tacitus had written earlier that 'not a single fort established by Agricola was either stormed by the enemy or abandoned by capitulation or flight'. This was about to change. The Caledonians carried out a daring attack in the dead of night on the fortress of the sleeping Ninth Legion - it was payback time ! Tacitus doesn't admit that the Roman intelligence was wrong but that the Picts, 'suddenly changed their plan, and with their whole force attacked by night the ninth Legion.' They first set bodies of troops at key positions to intercept any fleeing Legionnaires and then advance units overpowered the guards. In Tacitus words, 'Cutting down the sentries, who were asleep or panic-stricken, they broke into the camp.'

The statement that guards were asleep appears to be another spin on the truth by Tacitus. It is very unlikely that any of the guards were asleep because they were inspected at regular intervals and also because the penalty for being asleep on guard-duty was death. It seems the advance attackers managed to open the main gates allowing the waiting united Pict army to pour into the camp in their thousands, there may have been as many as 20,000 or 30,000 of them. Tacitus says, 'the battle was raging within the camp itself.' No doubt the 5,000 Romans sought to quickly organised fighting units; probably numbers of men without officers banded together for their own safety and attempted to make a stand, but many groups of awakening disorientated legionnaires, separated from their unit and in mortal fear, were thrown into a confused terrified panic in which they could see only one course of action - escape from the confined death trap of the fort. Most of them wouldn't even have had time to put on their armour.

A messenger managed to get through the Pict line and Agricola eventually came to the rescue with cavalry units just in time to save the remnants of the IX; if not for his actions the Legion might have become extinct at that point. The fierce fight with the cavalry units at the gate of the fort was probably called off by the Pict leaders because day was dawning and because Roman infantry units were on route to relieve the IX.

Tacitus is ashamedly silent about the IX' casualty figures, which must have been several thousand at least. The Romans couldn't simply reinforce the IX from other units, probably because more than half the Ninth Legion had been lost. They had to bring in a replacement Legion, pull the remnants of the IX out of Caledonia, re-form the whole Legion and repopulated it with new recruits and officers. Given the circumstances of the attack and the major task of rebuilding the Ninth Legion, the casualties could even have been as high as two out of every three legionnaires. As the depleted thin ranks of the Ninth Legion assembled for roll call the next morning it must have been a sad, depressing event that deflated Roman pride as name after name was called - and no-one answered. It is little wonder that Tacitus recorded that Pict attacks like this one 'spread terror' among the Roman Legions: 'the native tribes assailed the forts' ( Note that the word 'forts' is plural ): 'and spread terror by acting on the offensive.'

Excavations between 1952-65 revealed that within 4 years (about AD 85 ) of the attack, the Romans - afraid that the Caledonians would melt down any iron they left behind and hammer them into weapons - buried in a 12 foot / 3.5 meter pit, a hoard of over 875,000 hand-made iron nails, ranging in length from 2 inches / 5cm up to 16 inches / 40.5 cm, with a combined weight of 7 tonnes. They then tightly filled up the drains and sewers with gravel, set fire to Pinnata Castra and abandoned the whole area.

The Emperor of Rome marshalled a renewed Ninth Legion and after the recall of Agricola back to Rome, he sent them for a few years of training and campaigning to battle harden them, (they were known as the 'Hispana' because they helped conquer Spain for the Roman Empire). The Emperor then sent them to teach the Caledonians a lesson about the power of Rome. The new IX Hispana Legion proudly marched north - and simply disappeared. Not one trace has ever been found of them or any of their equipment. Some historians have claimed that the IX was pulled out of Caledonia but the Romans forgot to record that fact. However, the Romans did not loose a Legion in the paperwork; something terrible seems to have happened to the IX, it is as if they just ceased to exist.

Perhaps they suffered the ultimate shame - the Picts annihilated the IX and captured the Legion's Standard and so the disgraced remnants of the Legion were disbanded, and all records of its fate were erased. Roman policy was not to publicly record the fate of legions that had been disgraced or annihilated in battle. These disasters were looked on by the people as bad omens concerning the Emperor's rule and could even lead to political instability. Modern claims that the IX have been rediscovered, could in fact be a different Legion with the same number ( the practice of different Legions sharing a number is not unknown to historians - the distinctiveness of each legion was in their honouree name e.g. Hispana ). The disappearance of the Ninth Legion is one of the mysteries of the Roman Empire, a mystery that continues to this day - and the finger of suspicion points firmly at the Picts. Several scholars believe that it would have taken a major catastrophic event to cause the emperor Hadrian to decide to build his famous wall in modern England; they argue that the catastrophe was the annihilation of the IX legion by the Picts. One last fact is interesting. An inscription discovered in Rome and dated between 161 AD - 180 AD, lists 28 legions in west to east order - the IX Hispana are absent from the list.

Although Tacitus does not mention Caledonia in this next quoted passage, he may have had it in mind, because he is referring to the period just after the invasion of Caledonia when Agricola had been summoned back to Rome. He writes of those days; 'so many of our officers were besieged and captured with so many of our auxiliaries, it was no longer the boundaries of empire and the banks of rivers which were imperilled, but the winter-quarters of our legions and the possession of our territories. And so disaster followed upon disaster, and the entire year was marked by destruction and slaughter.' Note the reference above to the attacks on winter-quarters - this was one of the main strategies of the Picts. Tacitus had earlier written that the Picts, 'had been accustomed often to repair his summer losses by winter successes.' About the time that Tacitus is referring to, Rome retreated from most of their alleged territory of Caledonia. Tacitus makes a ridiculous and unbelievable statement that Caledonia 'was thoroughly subdued and immediately abandoned.' The men of the IX legion and the other Roman officers and legionaries - died for nothing !

Build a wall - No - two walls !

The Emperor Hadrian visited Britain in 122 AD bringing with him a vast number of soldiers, but decided that Caledonia was too much trouble for only a little reward ( yet they had thought it rewarding enough to invade three times ). In a decision designed first and foremost to block the constant punitive raids and daring invasions by the Picts into the Roman provinces, but possibly also ( like the main purpose of the Berlin Wall ), to stop the continual defection of peoples from the occupied territories, he gave orders to the army to abandon Caledonia and to mark and protect the northern boundary of the Roman Empire by building a massive wall the entire width of Britain, near the present border of Scotland and England. The tide had turned, the hunters were now hunted - the Picts had pro-actively seized the offensive.

Hadrian's Wall was an impressive structure, showing just how serious the threat from the Caledonians was. More than 80 Roman miles / 120 kilometres long ( 1,618 yards in a Roman mile; our mile is 1,760 yards ), the majority of it was built of stone, over four metres high, never less than 8 feet thick, with a shorter section in the west of turf but almost as high. It had in front a ditch, up to 12 metres wide and 4 meters deep and to the north a mound of earth parallel to the wall. On or near to the wall were sixteen forts, each one holding between 500 and 1000 troops. There was a network of mile-castles and turrets between them, and an infrastructure of roads to service and protect it. Sixteen years after Hadrian had ordered the wall to be built, he died, and the wall was still being built. In all it is reckoned that the Romans had to mine and move about 2 million tons of stone, rock and soil, to build this most massive and unique frontier structure in the Empire.

Most historians who are pro-Roman, have minimised or failed to realise that Rome taking on such a massive expensive, defensive project, proves they had a very high opinion of the fighting skills of the Picts, especially when you consider that no such expensive wall was built on any other Roman frontier and the fact that the Romans built not just one - but TWO walls to defend against the Caledonians. The walls are in reality a coast to coast Roman monument to the Picts, if not for their counter-attacks on the Empire - there would be no Hadrian and Antonine Wall.

The Romans tried again to suppress Caledonia. They moved about 120 miles north to the point where the West Highland Way begins, just above Glasgow. Here another wall was built named after Emperor Antonius Pius, the 'Antonine Wall', whose ruins can be seen near the start of the West Highland Way. This wall was thirty-seven miles long, from Old Kilpatrick on the Clyde to Carriden on the Forth and needed about 20,000 to guard and defend it. About 20 forts were built along its length. The Romans re-occupied much of the lands originally taken by Agricola but after less than 10 years of guerrilla war the Roman Legions were mass-attacked once again, with the wall and all 20 of its forts being lost. Roman casualties must have been exceedingly high. The Romans later returned to the wall, repaired the damage and set the 2nd, 6th and 20th Legions to defend the forts, but they were again attacked, overrun by the united Picts and forced to move back to Hadrian's Wall in modern England.

Severus

Caledonia was gaining quite a reputation in Rome. When, in the words of the Roman historian Dio Cassius the Picts, 'crossed the wall, did a great deal of damage and killed a general and his troops.' The governor of Pretania ( Britain ) was forced to appeal to the Emperor for help. In 208 AD ( 128 years after the invasion by Agricola ), 40,000 Romans ( double the force of Agricola ), led personally by Severus - Emperor of Rome, returned to ruthlessly punish the Picts. Not just by war but by destroying their fertile agricultural land. His strategy was simple - ethnic cleansing of all Picts by sword and starvation. In the words of Dr. Colin Martin, Severus policy 'seems to have been nothing short of an attempt at genocide of the Caledonian population'. In actual fact, through giving orders to his 40,000 men to cut down large areas of forest - Severus foolishly created more fertile land. No doubt at the beginning of his campaign he butchered many small helpless villages, killing the elderly, women - even pregnant women and innocent little children, but soon when the Picts learned of his butchery they would have evacuated everyone in his path.

The Roman historian Deo Cassius states that Severus, 'fought no battle and beheld no enemy in battle array'. It became obvious that time was on the side of the Caledonians as things started to go wrong for the Romans. In what can only be described as poetic justice, the Romans began to run out of food, and 'experienced countless hardships'. It appears that the Picts used a scorched earth policy just as they did after the battle of Mons Graupius. Deo Cassius writes that the Picts sometimes deliberately left a few cattle in the path of the hungry army to draw them ever deeper into the heart of the country, presumably drawing them away from their supply fleet. The Picts shadowed and harried the Roman army using hit and run tactics, attacking stragglers or those who were separated, scattered or lost, but they kept their discipline of avoiding a pitched battle. Severus took ill and had to be carried most of the time in a litter. Deo Cassius records that those Romans who were too exhausted or too ill to walk, presumably as a result of hunger - were slain by their own men in order to avoid capture.

Severus called for a truce in order to agree a treaty and on the way to the meeting, as the Pict army watched his approach his own son tried to kill him in full view of the Caledonians. Deo Cassius notes of this event that, 'the enemy's force were likewise spectators'. The Romans made a treaty with the Picts who agreed to allow some forts and occupation troops to stay in central Caledonia. This treaty is often said to show only that the Caledonians ceded territory to Rome, but by implication it means that the Emperor himself, in return for this limited concession of the smaller part of the country - agreed to give up Rome's ambitions for all the rest of Caledonia. It seems it was a Pict war strategy to make a temporary treaty with a butcher like Severus - at least until they got the next harvest in.

According to the Romans the truce was broken a year or two later, so Severus prepared once again to personally lead the invasion of Caledonia. Deo Cassius recorded Severus' raging orders, 'Let no one escape sheer destruction . . not even the babe in the womb of the mother, if it be male; let it nevertheless not escape sheer destruction'. His bloody plans never reached fruition; the butcher died at Eboracum ( York ) in modern England on 4 February 211 AD. The Roman historian Spartianus, writes of Severus' son Antoninus who succeeded him that, 'With the enemy ( Picts ) he came to terms, withdrew from their territory, and abandoned the forts.'

What terms ? The Romans withdrew - end of story. Unless the terms were, 'Don't attack Hadrian's Wall' ! 'Oh no, said the Picts, we would never do that'. The Romans retreated from Caledonia - never to return ! The Picts had won the 130 year war of Caledonia - it was then that the war against Roman occupation of the southern British provinces began.

Scots Dance on Roman Graves

When miners were levelling the ground to build Bridgeness Miners Welfare Club ( to be used for social events and dances ), about 1919, a Roman graveyard was uncovered. When the graves were opened by Officials of the Scottish National Museum, they were found to contain the skeletons of Roman soldiers and numbers of coins and other articles. The coffins being made out of 2 inch thick slabs of stone were too heavy to transport and therefore still lie beneath Bridgeness Miners Welfare Club to this day.

I think the Caledonians would have approved.

In fact, I think that through the mist
I see a forest of spears being shaken
and hear the deafening sound of
tens of thousands of Brass Apples rattling.
-------------

The Secret

Did the Caledonians have any use for the Roman Wall ?

2,000-year-old secret recently discovered.
I promise not to tell - show me the| Secret |

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