Ask any Scot and they ll proudly proclaim that we were never conquered.
When Rome colonised the known world somehow Scotland Withstood that mighty Empire
but how?
If you're interested in the people, places and events in Scottish history then click the subscribe
button at the bottom right of the screen In the meantime, let me tell you a story.
In the video I made about Hadrian s Wall I quipped that it was there to keep the English in,
and was a wee bit taken aback by the number of folk who felt the need to say
that Scotland and England didn t exist when Hadrian built his wall.
You can imagine my surprise at that turn of events.
What? Are you trying to tell me that Scotland
s not an immutable incorruptible nation state preformed in the singularity that
preceded the big bang? That, as the universe expanded,
the process of cosmic inflation wasn t just an English attempt to take over its prosperous,
more inventive, progressive, resource rich neighbour to the north
north being something that the Scots would invent in the future?
Are you trying to sell me that? Don t give me that bollocks.
Do you think the irony will be lost?
Whether or not Scotland always existed and what you think it was
goes a long way to deciding whether or not you think it was ever conquered.
The thing is that, whilst WE know that Scotland s always been here,
the Romans didn t. In their folly The Romans tried to subdue us
more than once. What s now Scotland
was neither established, nor homogeneous. There were multiple tribal groups
Votadini, Selgovae, Novante Damnonii Venicones if that s how to pronounce it
and who knows how much the Romans who wrote the names even really understood the relationships.
People lived in different types of places. Some lived in round houses on land.
Some lived in crannogs on the water some lived in brochs.
Now whilst we re on the subject of brochs, in a couple of weeks time I m going to Shetland
to make a video about the most fantastic and best preserved of all our brochs.
Whilst I m there I m going to meet up with local Shetland experts Chris Dyer and Laurie Goodlad.
Our conversation will be on my Patreon member page.
So if you re a Patreon member and you ve got any questions about Shetland and its history,
archaeology or culture then send them in and I ll
put them to these two top tour guide, writer, historian, native breed farming, museum people.
If you re not already a Patreon member then why not think about joining up.
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there s going to be a soaring drone shot in a minute.
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Now I live around 3-4 miles from the best-preserved Roman fort earthworks in Britain.
It s one of the many privileges of living in Perthshire
but what would these Romans have looked like form a Scottish point of view.
From the time that legionaries set foot on the south coast of what would become Britannia
people had to make hard choices. They knew all about Rome.
They knew about the military killing machine that was the Roman army.
100 years earlier Julius Ceaser had come, saw and conquered
before buggering off back to be the Ceaser.
People on this island KNEW that nobody had withstood the might of Rome
and those that had tried were enslaved or dead. So what are you going to do?
Some will resist, because that s what free people do.
Some will co-operate because common sense tells you
that everywhere the Romans have gone they have shaped the very landscape.
For hundreds of years, they ve changed the terrain to suit their will.
Some say that two thousand years from now their presence will still
be etched into the countryside. Everyone has been crushed.
What makes you think you will be any different? So let s think about Talorc.
It s 86 AD he s a Caledonian warrior who came to this place
after it had been deserted by the Romans. Can you imagine the elation?
Three years ago the most powerful empire in the world had invaded,
just like they had invaded everywhere. When they arrived it was
like nothing you d ever seen. Tens of thousands of men, more than you d ever
thought possible, arrived from the south , but unlike everywhere else,
where they took over, a few years after they arrived
now they ve turned back south. Oh the celebrations, the all-night
parties, the dancing in the streets cause the Romans did leave streets.
One road went to the south of this fort all along the Allan valley.
In fact, there was a road connecting a whole line of forts
and watchtowers that they d built looking north towards the hills and up the mouth of each glen.
This line of forts was called The Gask Ridge. Forget Hadrian s Wall the Antonine wall This
was the first frontier the Romans built across Britannia
now it s the venue for your well-deserved liberation street party.
I m Tallorc. I ve seen many summers and survived.
I survived the battle of Mons Graupius a few years ago,
but we d had some time to prepare. We knew the Romans were coming.
They landed in the very south around the time I was born.
Everyone knew it was only a matter of time before they reached us.
The Orkney chiefs even travelled all the way
down to Colchester to submit to Roman power back then
Without even putting up a fight. Who gives in without a fight?
True the Romans have slaughtered everyone who stood against them
men, women and children and they call us barbarians.
Every time an army took to the field against them the Romans paid back with slaughter.
They don t even fight like warriors, man on man they fight like a machines
cogs in wheels. They even fire great bolts and boulders
from far off, using actual machines. Where s the honour in that?
As the Romans came north, we learned from the warriors further south.
Pitched battles were dangerous. Some who could have done
battle now fight for Rome. They joined the Roman army.
25 years, a pension and farm in return for what? Fighting for Rome in some far-off land.
Then in the year they call 68 their mad emperor committed suicide;
Nero I think they called him. There were four emperors that year.
They were so busy fighting amongst themselves that we thought they d leave us in peace.
Finally the Emperor they call Vespasian triumphed
and HE sent us Agricola I think they call the year
79 when Agricola started to move into what they ll one day call Scotland.
The Votadini gave in quickly. The Selgovae were surrounded
and he moved north to the Tay. We harried them, we picked them off
Then in the year 83 the vast hoards of the Roman machine swarmed like bees,
drones and workers following their orders... they sting, leaving death without leaving honey.
It was like our leader Calgacus said before the battle of Mons Graupius
they made a desert and called it peace. Many tribes came together behind Calgacus
at that battle at Mons Graupius. When the battle took so many warriors,
we made for the hills to fight another day and we harried them again and hit and ran.
They hadn t just built this fort but a whole line of forts along the strath
There were watchtowers and some forts deeper into our territory,
so that every time we want to leave the glen they re watching
Any time we want to cross this line of forts they want tribute.
They say this is the frontier that divides Roman from Barbarian. Hah,
Barbarians? I say they re gangsters and
thieves and we just want to live free! but the mountains were still ours.
Now just a few years later they run. Hah!
Some say they re leaving because men on the Danube river
many days travel and a ship ride away have risen up against them
and they have to take their troops and leave us in peace
because we are not subdued. My name is Gioram.
My granddad Talorcan fought against the Romans at Mons Graupius.
He told me about the celebrations when the Romans left and returned south.
That was more than forty years ago now. The Romans are still there in the south.
They build forts of wood. Further south still they tell me of forts of stone,
bath houses, temples and towns. Many are servile under them.
Don t get me wrong we trade where we can, but we are not servants.
Some are seduced by coins. Their soldiers retire and remain.
They take land and mix with the people, yet still look down.
Some don t know whether they re Brittons or Romans.
Then in 117 their emperor Trajan died. We learned from our forefathers that
when one emperor dies the next seeks conquest
The new emperor himself came to the lands in the south...
We girded for battle but instead of conquest
he ordered a wall. A wall?
A stone wall from sea to sea. They tell me it s something no man can imagine
with forts and ramparts and soldiers marching back and forth.
People can t visit their family without permission to enter the gates,
farms were taken for land to build forts.
Some now make money from these forts. The harlots, the shoemakers, the publicans.
and more Roman soldiers retire. Men who came from far countries are given land
that once belonged to the people of this island but the wall is a long way from here.
Even when the Roman soldiers do tread north of the wall
we seldom see them. That s fine by me.
My name is Uradech. It s 170 years since the
birth of the person that some call The Christ. It s almost 50 years since they built the wall for
Emperor Hadrian in my grandad Gioram s lifetime. For years after that, things were peaceful.
We got on with life, farming, feasting occasionally nicking cattle from our neighbours
life was good. My grandad was still
alive when their emperor Hadrian died They replaced him with Antoninus Pious.
My father said that Antoninus wasn t a military man, so there d be no more invasions
in fact it made things worse. It was almost as if he had to prove himself.
You know that wee man syndrome. I don t know how tall he is, he s never
been here but you know what I mean. He sent some guy called Urbicus.
I don t know much about him. All I know is that the Romans invaded again
and they killed my uncle and my father.
Then they built this wall. There s nothing left of it now,
because it was mostly made of turf
with stone blocks at it s base and wooden palisade and ramparts on top.
When they told me of the wall of the Emperor Hadrian, I could hardly believe it
but they came north to us and built this wall here.
It runs from the Forth to the Clyde. In front of the wall was a ditch,
that was filled with all sorts of prickly bushes, spikes and other things that, if you attacked,
could cut you down before you got anywhere near the wall.
I was too young to avenge my father then, but my mother brought me up to be strong.
We harried them and people south of the wall harried them too,
just like my grandfather s grandfather Talorcan did generations ago.
In bitter, brutal revenge they slaughtered the Novante people of Galloway.
They couldn t escape south because of the wall that Hadrian built.
They couldn t escape north because of the wall that Antoninus built.
We learned to co-operate with other tribes.
I grew into a warrior and now they ve abandoned
their wall... and we have won. A thousand years from now all that will
be left here will be trees and a ditch and the romans will be forgotten.
You re probably wondering who I am. Cailtram they call me.
You might have heard of my grandad Uradech.
He fought the Romans who built the wall for Antoninus.
His grandad Gioram fought the Romans who built the wall for Hadrian.
His grandad before him fought the Romans at Mons Graupius.
The ones who built the forts of the Gask Ridge. My generation?
We ve just been through the most brutal Roman invasion yet.
OK so I admit, we were raiding and attacking Roman positions,
but God knows they ve invaded us how many times?
It s like the words passed down from my ancestor Talorcan.
The words Calgacus spoke at Mons Graupius They made a desert and call it peace.
Now, nobody even remembers where Mons Graupius was
Some say it never happened that if it had there would have
been evidence lost spears, broken chariots , but I ve heard that s what Calgacus said and
well All I m saying
is that the Romans can hardly complain that we raid when they invaded us.
Of course, now the people to the south call themselves Romano British
and the women have married retired Roman soldiers.
Once proud Britons wear togas and go to the bath house and leave behind the ways of the
gods and their ancestors. So yes we raid and in reply
the African Emperor of Rome Septimius Severus came north with such a
force as has never been seen in these lands. The fighting has been more brutal than ever,
the reprisals more vicious than even Romans would normally stomach
but the spirits were on our side even as they were about to descend in their hordes
of machine engineered murderous efficiency Septimius Severus was taken to York
where he died. His son Caracalla has made peace
and there s silver to share We re still here.
Again and again the Romans have come. Again and again they ve retreated,
leaving many dead in their wake, but not their lifestyle.
They tell me that away to the south they have great farm buildings and bath houses,
that retired Roman soldiers live in towns and run affairs.
Here less has changed
just we ve become stronger. tribes have come together as one people.
The Romans now call us Picts painted people they say,
though we re no more tattooed than they are in truth.
We are the Picts.
Little may they realise it, but it s the Romans made us strong
because of them we were forged into a nation. If you want to know more about us, then click the
link coming up on screen now. In the meantime