Did the Romans really reach Scotland?

[TomSea]

Did the Romans really reach Scotland?
Kirsten Henton

Hadrian’s Wall, the ancient marvel that snakes through northern England, quite rightly steals the show when it comes to the frontiers of Roman Britain. It’s a spectacular sight, rolling poetically over hillsides and serving up ruins of fortifications for all to see.

It once reached up to 4m in height and spanned an impressive 73 miles, and today boasts impressive remains with large portions of the original stone wall still intact. Its enduring presence, however, overshadows the true frontier that the Romans, those wily conquerors who built one of the world’s largest empires by the 2nd Century AD, constructed around 100 miles to the north.

It’s easy to see why there’s a lingering misconception that the Romans never made it past Hadrian's Wall, let alone into Scotland: it’s much neater and tidier to think that they stopped their foray at the tangible, man-made line that meanders through Northumberland and Cumbria. After all, the Romans were resident at Hadrian’s Wall for close to 300 years, defending their empire’s boundary and embedding themselves in the region. But the story of Rome’s north-west frontier far from ends there, for it was the Antonine Wall that, albeit briefly, held the title of the wildest edge of the empire.

Read more at: http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20190526-did-the-romans-really-reach-scotland

Some people know of Hadrian's wall but Antonine's wall goes further up Great Britain and indeed, is in what is now Scotland.  Antonine's wall also apparently, was less impressive, smaller.

The Roman Empire alone, was in Britain for 300 years the article says.


Antonine's wall was fortified all along the way with Forts, perhaps this meant, at one time or another rather than the whole time.  It really looks like Forts almost all along the way with of course, intervals but not that long of intervals.

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

Each Fort had around 500 men per :  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auchendavy

So, they must have feared an invasion from the land beyond, Scots, Barbarians, whatever there was.

[Sanguine]

Interesting read.

Yes, at one time, the Scots were dangerous.

[Cyber Liberty]

Interesting read.

Yes, at one time, the Scots were dangerous.

They still are.  Try telling a Scotsman he's wearing a "skirt." 

[catfish1957]

Interesting read.

Yes, at one time, the Scots were dangerous.

The Ulster Scots....Scotch Irish are a people who along with the Turks are considered the most bad ass warriors on earth.

Many of us here have that blood.

And on the matter of the Romans and the ancient Scots......   Hadrian's wall was built for a reason.  They wanted nothing to to with the crazy bastards who painted themselves up, and fought like wolverines. 

[sneakypete]

Interesting read.

Yes, at one time, the Scots were dangerous.

@Sanguine

It was the Picts,not the Scots that ruled that area when the walls were built,and they were built by the Romans to keep the Picts out,because once they found out the Romans were there,they wanted to keep attacking them. It was the Picts that convinced the Roman Empire that "this is where we stop. No further!"

There are no pictures of what the Picts looked like,but a Roman historian described them as "giants with red hair that liked to paint their bodies blue and charge into battle naked". These people were unbelievably clannish and violent,and there is at least one story of two different clans camped out on a hilltop the night before a battle with the Romans,fighting each other.

Nobody really knows what happened to the Picts,but it is MY theory that the wilder newcomers to this area from northern Spain that later became the Irish bred with them (voluntarily or involuntary) and the result is what is known as "The Highland Scots" of today.

BTW,it is said that the Highland Scots of today still don't care much for the lowland Scots of today,who are basically British or Irish. Seems like some things never change.