Who were the Picts?

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 5:00: AD 122, Pythus, Roman, Britons
2. 5:00 – 10:00: Picti, Picts, Pictish, AD 297
3. 10:00 – 15:00: Britons, Romanization, brethonic language, Celtic languages
4. 15:00 – 20:00: Roman Britain, Roman Empire, Britons, Saxons
5. 20:00 – 25:00: Roman Empire, Pictish, James Fraser, Atakotti
6. 25:00 – 30:00: Saxons, Roman Britain, Pictish, Pictland

Notable quotes from "Who were the Picts?"

• Invaded and conquered large parts of this island. Now famously the Romans didn't conquer all of Britain and in AD 122 they built a wall to seal off the northern part of…

  about Hadrian's Wall · at 3:57

• But we'd never get any mention of the picss at all. In fact, the first time that we read about pics in any account is in AD 297 when it's mentioned offhand in a praise poem about a Roman general that went north of the wall to defeat.

  about Picts · at 5:14

• Own languages, their own systems of government slowly became more like that being practiced in Rome. The Romans then in the 3rd century start to describe the inhabitants of…

  about Roman Britain · at 15:10

• 211 among the Mayai and the Calidoness persisted possibly as late as the 7th century. This is from Calonia to Pickland, a great study about this period in history by James…

  about James Fraser · at 16:57

• Various Germanic peoples from across the sea, the Saxons and the Franks and finally also the picss all attacked Britain at the same time probably with the collusion of various individuals in the Roman army which led to an.

  about Great Barbarian Conspiracy · at 18:58

• Verionus. This is an incredibly old name that has a lot of staying power and this might be significant. James Fraser thinks the fact that their identity was spared obliteration…

  about Pictish · at 21:44

• The Roman Empire but that was actively targeted by Roman diplomatic missions in this way. The trouble is that by the 3rd century Rome was in an economic crisis.

  about Roman · at 24:45

• Like Wales in western England in Scotland of course it all starts to happen and now that less has gone we need to see what will happen next with the picss and the Britain and…

  about Dark Ages Britain · at 29:18

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• James Fraser — Person · Referenced expert · 2 mentions · first at 17:08
  Provides scholarly insights into the history and identity of the Picts.
• Pythus — Person · Referenced expert · 2 mentions · first at 1:31
  An ancient Greek explorer who provided early descriptions of Britain.
  Now, his name is Pythus. And unfortunately, while he wrote an account of his voyages, that hasn't survived.
• Buddika — Person · Referenced historical figure · 1 mention · first at 4:31
  Led a famous rebellion against Roman rule in Britain.
  The Romans were able to conquer the Britons in the south. They defeated Buddika's rebellion, but the north was just too difficult. The picss were too militarily successful in…
• Venerable Bede — Person · Referenced historical figure · 1 mention · first at 11:03
  Provided historical accounts of the Picts and their origins.
  Monk who was writing in the early 8th century so long after the events being described and he writes in his ecclesiastical history of the English people that looks at Britain…

Concepts & topics

• Picts — Concept · Core topic · 1 mention · first at 7:29
  The Picts are central to the discussion as their history, identity, and interactions with the Romans are explored.
• Roman Britain — Concept · Core topic · 3 mentions · first at 18:26
  Describes the period and region of Britain under Roman rule.
• Roman — Concept · Core topic · 2 mentions · first at 4:00
  The Romans' interactions with Britain and the Picts are crucial to understanding the historical context.
• Roman Empire — Concept · Referenced concept · 7 mentions · first at 15:15
  The overarching power influencing Britain and the Picts during this period.
  Own languages, their own systems of government slowly became more like that being practiced in Rome. The Romans then in the 3rd century start to describe the inhabitants of…
• Pictish — Concept · Core topic · 3 mentions · first at 7:29
  Refers to the culture and language of the Picts, essential for understanding their identity.
• Britons — Concept · Referenced concept · 4 mentions · first at 4:31
  The native inhabitants of Britain before and during Roman occupation.
  Imagination of history, it's often said that this is because of the picss. So the Romans were able to conquer the Britons in the south. They defeated Buddika's rebellion, but…
• Picti — Concept · Referenced concept · 3 mentions · first at 5:47
  The Latin term for the Picts, meaning 'painted ones'.
  Own languages, their own systems of government slowly became more like that being practiced in Rome. The Romans then in the 3rd century start to describe the inhabitants of…
• Romanization — Concept · Referenced concept · 2 mentions · first at 14:19
  Describes the cultural assimilation of Britons into Roman customs and society.
  Own languages, their own systems of government slowly became more like that being practiced in Rome. The Romans then in the 3rd century start to describe the inhabitants of…
• Caledon — Concept · Referenced concept · 1 mention · first at 5:07
  Represents a major tribe in northern Britain, often associated with the Picts.
  Of different names for different tribes or ethnic groups in the north. The biggest being the Caledon, which of course is where we get words like Caledonia from, the Latin for Scotland.
• Dark Ages Britain — Concept · Referenced concept · 1 mention · first at 29:27
  The period following the Roman withdrawal, marked by the rise of the Picts and other groups.
• Saxons — Concept · Referenced concept · 4 mentions · first at 18:58
  One of the groups involved in the Great Barbarian Conspiracy against Roman Britain.
  Various Germanic peoples from across the sea, the Saxons and the Franks and finally also the picss all attacked Britain at the same time probably with the collusion of various individuals in the Roman army which led to an.
• Celtic languages — Concept · Referenced concept · 2 mentions · first at 8:37
  The linguistic family to which the languages of the Britons and Picts belong.
  To other places in Northern Europe, and based on the linguistic form it has, linguists have been able to tell that this isn't a Greek word, but rather a Celtic word. Obviously…
• Scots — Concept · Referenced concept · 2 mentions · first at 11:26
  The group that eventually replaced the Pictish identity in Scotland.
  Northern parts thereof for the Britons had possessed themselves of the southern. Now the picss had no wives and ask them of the Scots who would not consent to grant them upon…
• brethonic language — Concept · Referenced concept · 2 mentions · first at 14:49
  A Celtic language spoken by the Britons before Romanization.
  Who traded their thick mustaches for a clean shaven look, a short back and sides, who switched speaking their brethonic language perhaps for Latin. or maybe they continued…
• Franks — Concept · Referenced concept · 3 mentions · first at 19:01
  Participated in the Great Barbarian Conspiracy, attacking Roman territories.
  As well. Well, they must have had pretty good international connections given that the pigs were able to liaz and plan an attack together with the Franks and the Saxons and the…
• Atakotti — Concept · Referenced concept · 2 mentions · first at 19:30
  A mysterious group involved in the Great Barbarian Conspiracy.
  The Scots who obviously came from Ireland. The Picts who come from what is today modern day Scotland, another group called the Atakotti who are thought to have come from the…

Places & events

• Great Barbarian Conspiracy — Event · Core topic · 1 mention · first at 18:40
  A coordinated attack on Roman Britain by multiple groups, including the Picts.
• AD 397 — Event · Referenced event · 1 mention · first at 18:33
  The year of the Great Barbarian Conspiracy against Roman Britain.
  The wall, but they haven't really attacked Britain itself. That was until the year AD 397. And this was the year of what's known as the Great Barbarian Conspiracy.
• Hadrian's Wall — Place · Referenced location · 1 mention · first at 19:54
  A significant Roman fortification marking the boundary of Roman Britain.
• Pictland — Place · Core topic · 1 mention · first at 25:24
  The region inhabited by the Picts, central to their identity and history.
  Then led to less money being available for these diplomatic missions. Fraser notes, Settlement archaeology offers another more convincing explanation. It seems that Roman…
• AD 43 — Event · Referenced event · 1 mention
  Marks the Roman invasion and conquest of Britain.
  Describe the island of Britain or as it did then possibly multiple islands in the north. Now we find out a lot more about Britain and its inhabitants in AD43 which is when the Romans properly invaded and conquered large parts of.
• AD 122 — Event · Referenced event · 2 mentions · first at 4:03
  The year Hadrien's Wall was constructed to protect Roman Britain.
  Invaded and conquered large parts of this island. Now famously the Romans didn't conquer all of Britain and in AD 122 they built a wall to seal off the northern part of…
• AD 297 — Event · Referenced event · 1 mention · first at 5:21
  First recorded mention of the Picts in Roman accounts.
  That we read about pics in any account is in AD 297 when it's mentioned offhand in a praise poem about a Roman general that went north of the wall to defeat some of the tribes.…
• Masalia — Place · Referenced location · 1 mention · first at 1:39
  The origin of Pythus, a Greek colony in what is now Marseilles.
  There were a lot of Greek colonies spread around the Mediterranean in this period. So, it's unsurprising to find a Greek from the south of France. What is surprising is how far north he went.
• Marseille — Place · Referenced location · 1 mention · first at 1:42
  Modern name for Masalia, the origin of Pythus.
  There were a lot of Greek colonies spread around the Mediterranean in this period. So, it's unsurprising to find a Greek from the south of France. What is surprising is how far north he went.
• Cyia — Place · Referenced location · 1 mention · first at 11:03
  Mentioned as the origin of the Picts in Bede's account.
  Ecclesiastical history of the English people that looks at Britain as a whole as well. The nation of the picss putting to sea from Cyia as is reported in a few ships of war and…
• Fortree — Place · Referenced location · 1 mention · first at 21:30
  A Pictish kingdom mentioned in historical sources.
  Where they're called Weras which again comes from that same Latin root of Verionus. This is an incredibly old name that has a lot of staying power and this might be…
• Inverness — Place · Referenced location · 1 mention · first at 21:30
  Associated with the Pictish kingdom of Fortree.
  Where they're called Weras which again comes from that same Latin root of Verionus. This is an incredibly old name that has a lot of staying power and this might be…
• Moresia — Place · Referenced location · 1 mention · first at 21:30
  Part of the Pictish kingdom of Fortree.
  Where they're called Weras which again comes from that same Latin root of Verionus. This is an incredibly old name that has a lot of staying power and this might be…

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 The picss have got to be some of the most interesting people from the early Middle Ages and from antiquity. In fact, the fact that they continue from antiquity into the early Middle Ages where so many other peoples disappeared makes them interesting in and of themselves, as does the fact that they then proceed to disappear around the 10th century and are replaced by the Scottish identity instead. So, I've been interested in the pics for an awfully long time, and I think a lot of people are as well. It's that for that reason that I made a very early series around 8 years ago when this channel was still very young looking at the picss. But needless to say, I am two degrees in early medieval history further along.

0:45 I've studied archaeology. I've studied linguistics, paleography, and history. And so it's fair to say that I've got a few more insights and a few different approaches that perhaps I didn't have when I was a a wannabe historian making videos on my laptop in my bedroom when I began. And so I thought I'd revisit the picss and look at who they were, where they went, and their interesting history. And in this first episode, I want to look at their origins, where do the picss come from, these mysterious people, what were they doing? Um, and ultimately, we'll look at where they go to. But in today's video, we're going to go right back to 320 BC because this is the first time that we encounter a description of Britain and the name of Britain itself too. And the person that we have to thank for that is a Greek. At least he was culturally Greek, but he was from a place called Masalia, which today is Marseilles in the south of

1:45 France. There were a lot of Greek colonies spread around the Mediterranean in this period. So, it's unsurprising to find a Greek from the south of France. What is surprising is how far north he went. Now, his name is Pythus. And unfortunately, while he wrote an account of his voyages, that hasn't survived. But it is quoted in several later accounts by later Greek and Roman historians from which we can tell an awful lot. And in these accounts, we learn that he encountered a series of islands and archipelago in the north, which he labeled with the term preanik, which is this Greek word here. Now, interestingly enough, based on the description of where it is in relation to other places in Northern Europe, and based on the linguistic form it has, linguists have been able to tell that this isn't a Greek word, but rather a Celtic word. Obviously that also goes well with what we know about Britain in

2:42 this period as archaeologically and certainly later linguistically it is inhabited by people who speak a Celtic language that have various aspects of a culture that we see connected to other states in the time period that we know were Celtic speaking. What's interesting as well is that linguists have been able to reconstruct the form that was likely the one given to him when he was in Britain. And this is the form preani this reconstructed Celtic form which likely means the painted ones which is where he gets his adjective preani from.

3:19 So that was the British islands as he called them the British archipelago from a Celtic word pretani meaning the painted ones and again this seems to have been the adjective form but the noun for Britain that this comes from is thought to be preani and we can see that this is therefore a very old word to describe the island of Britain or as it did then possibly multiple islands in the north. Now we find out a lot more about Britain and its inhabitants in AD43 which is when the Romans properly invaded and conquered large parts of this island. Now famously the Romans didn't conquer all of Britain and in AD 122 they built a wall to seal off the northern part of Britain. The southern part then becomes the the Roman province of Britannia. So they take over that older Celtic name for the islands for their province. But the north remains unconquered. And in the popular imagination of history, it's often said

4:28 that this is because of the picss. So the Romans were able to conquer the Britons in the south. They defeated Buddika's rebellion, but the north was just too difficult. The picss were too militarily successful in their bogs. And the Romans thought, why bother? we'll build a wall and keep them out as a military fortification. However, the actual fact is that this appears to be a different story than the one that we read in Roman records because if we look at Roman accounts of what's happening in Britain at this point, nowhere does it mention the picss at all. We find lots of different names for different tribes or or ethnic groups in the north. The biggest being the Caledon, which of course is where we get words like Caledonia from, the Latin for Scotland.

5:14 But we'd never get any mention of the picss at all. In fact, the first time that we read about pics in any account is in AD 297 when it's mentioned offhand in a praise poem about a Roman general that went north of the wall to defeat some of the tribes. And there the picss are mentioned alongside other different groups like the Caledonians, for instance. So this is very late that we find the first account of the picked. So what's going on here? Where did the picss come from? What is the word picked? Well, the word picked in Latin comes from picti.

5:50 Um and this again points to an idea of painted one. Now unlike the previous terms of preani, this is a Latin word in most likelihood and it comes from a Latin term like pus which is painted. Um, we have survivals in English like picture or depicted have the same root word and it's thought that this probably is going back to a similar root as the word for Britain. There are some who believe that perhaps pity is an an ethnonym that was used by the picss themselves that this perhaps is a Celtic word related to another tribe of the ghouls so in northwestern France called the picones. But this hasn't been uh very well accepted. Most scholars are in agreement that pikti is a Latin term which makes it an ethnonym an exonym which makes it an exonym a term that is put on them by people from outside of that group. And with exonyms, we always need to be a bit careful and wonder was this a term that people uh the people

6:54 being described with this term used about themselves or is this a group that is invented in the minds of other people that look at them and lump them together in a similar way for instance that um someone from China may not really identify very much with someone from India as fellow Asians whereas perhaps someone from Europe Europe might think, "Oh yes, these people belong together in a group because they're Asians, even though actually they don't have an awful lot in common with one another." Or they might not identify very much with each other at all. Something similar might be the case for Pikti. Now, the explanation for why they're called Pikti, so this word of being uh painted again, it has often been sought in the idea that the picss were tattooed. And this is actually mentioned in several ancient sources that the the picss use tattoos of various forms. This is a a early modern depiction. So this isn't a Roman

7:52 depiction uh of the picss and their tattoos. We don't have any of those, but the sources do suggest so and that might be why the Romans called it that. But again, it's interesting that we have that overlap with the native term as well. And in fact, if we look at native terms from Britain and Ireland to describe the picss in this period, we find Irish kier and Welsh predine are both cognates of one another, which essentially means that they both come from the same original word that has changed into Irish and into Welsh, so in an older form of Celtic. And both of these terms again come from a similar root as preia, meaning painted ones. Um, and if you go back even further to the ancestor of all the Celtic languages, then we have a form like kuru, which isn't attested anywhere, but is reconstructed. And that seems to be where these two terms have come from.

8:47 And again, they all point to painted ones. They're related to the word for Britain as it was being used. And so, it's thought that this term for the picss originally probably means Britain. So, that's interesting. So we have a word being used by Latin speakers by Romans uh calling them painted ones. Then we have the other peoples from the surrounding areas that are also calling them painted ones which is the same word that is being used for the island at the same time suggesting someone from the island of Britain. So how did the picss get there? Why do they appear so late and why are they called Britain by others? Now initially when we have a new name emerging in the historical record certainly in modern times people want to see this as evidence for migration. The idea that this group had existed somewhere else that this identity of picked existed and then that they moved into Britain that they arrived and

9:49 that's why they appear in the source material because they're already a group that existed. However, in history, things are seldom so simple. And in actual fact, the same tendency to want nice clear lines between different groups and to say, well, in this year, this group arrived from this location was also a desire that people had in the past. And so, it's thought that the picss themselves might later in their history have told stories about their origins as coming from another place as a preformed group. This is often done especially to um reinstate the position of various kings or various clan groups that are powerful to say this clan is the the clan that came and led the first group of people here and that's why we have the right to rule now. So again we need to be a little careful and it's an account like this that we find about the picss that has certainly ga gained a lot of attention. It's recorded by the

10:47 venerable bead who is a North Umbrean so an Anglo-Saxon monk who was writing in the early 8th century so long after the events being described and he writes in his ecclesiastical history of the English people that looks at Britain as a whole as well. The nation of the picss putting to sea from Cyia as is reported in a few ships of war and being driven by the winds beyond the bounds of Britain came to Ireland and landed on its northern shores. The picss accordingly sailing over into Britain began to inhabit the northern parts thereof for the Britons had possessed themselves of the southern. Now the picss had no wives and ask them of the Scots who would not consent to grant them upon any other terms than that when any question should arise they should choose a king from the female royal race rather than from the male which custom as is well known has been observed among the picss to this day. So this is a particularly

11:48 interesting account because it suggests that the pigs did indeed arrive from somewhere else and it also includes within it this story of matrinal succession. So the idea that the picss uh could only inherit the kingship through the line of the mother which obviously is very different to most other societies in early medieval Europe at the time where it's through the father's line the son inherits through the father etc. Now, a lot of this count has been uh heavily debated in the past, but most historians today agree that this doesn't seem to accord with what we know about picish kingship. And likewise, uh it doesn't support what we find in the archaeological record that the picss arrived from somewhere else.

12:33 As already mentioned, we often have a tendency when looking at the past to want to uh put things down to migration. But with migration, we can tell when it happens archaeologically. For instance, we know that the Vikings came to England and that the Danes settled in parts of northern and eastern England because when we look at the archaeological record, we can see a new kind of material culture of brooches of sword pommels and many other things that are very similar to what we find in Denmark at the same time appearing all of a sudden in northern and eastern England.

13:07 We look at the language and we can see that English and particularly dialects in northern and eastern England have a lot of words that we know come from old Norse. We look at the way that the landscape was organized into different shires and hundreds and how they are reflected in charters from the time period and we can see that there is again a difference in the areas that were conquered. And we look at various written accounts of the period which describe the coming uh of the Danes. The difference being that they are contemporary to these events. While the descriptions of the picss arriving as a separate ethnic group come from hundreds of years after the events themselves. So that's how we can tell a migration happens. When we look at 4th century Scotland, we can't find any evidence of a new group coming in. There's no new archaeological signal. There's no evidence of displacement of previous

13:59 people. And as mentioned, the Romans certainly never wrote any accounts claiming that the picss had come in from anywhere else or that there had been a great disturbance north of the wall. So where then do we need to look for the uh the origin of the pics? Well, perhaps it's not in the area north of the wall we need to look, but the area south of the wall and a process known as romanization.

14:23 And what have they ever given us in return? The aqueduct. What? Of course, when the Romans arrived in Britain, the people there were entirely unromanized. In fact, that isn't even entirely true given that southern Britain in particular had trading relations with Gaul. There was quite a lot of twoing and throwing going across. And so, there were certainly Roman influences, but they weren't part of the empire. They spoke a breathonic language, a Celtic language, and they had their own customs. Of course, following the Roman conquest, what tends to happen is that people started to take on aspects of Roman life. And what we tend to call this the overarching term is Romanization, where people that had once had their own cultures, uh, their own languages, their own systems of government slowly became more like that being practiced in Rome. The Romans then in the 3rd century start to describe the

15:22 inhabitants of Britain using different terms. Whereas before they had all simply been Britons, they now made a distinction. One of these terms was brto. And this roughly is what we would call Romano Britain. So people that are living within the Roman province of Britannia. These are the kinds of people who traded their trousers for toggers, who traded their thick mustaches for a clean shaven look, a short back and sides, who switched speaking their brethonic language perhaps for Latin. or maybe they continued both, but they became citizens of the empire. And the second term that they had was picus, and this appears to have been the term for unromanized Britain, for people north of the wall who hadn't integrated into this uh Britannic province because they were beyond it. They were people who were barbarians. They were people that you couldn't deal with as civilized people.

16:15 So perhaps this term Pikti as it emerges emerges at a time when the part of Britannia south of the wall the Britons there were getting a new identity themselves and part of getting a new identity is saying we're not like these people over there we're more like these people here. So that's one of the ideas behind where this term picked comes from at this point. Neither in late antiquity then nor in the early historic period is there convincing evidence to suggest that pictishness meant anything to the peoples of inner Calonia before the end of the Roman Iron Age. Such evidence as we have suggests instead that the ethnic solidarities that were betting down in 211 among the Mayai and the Calidoness persisted possibly as late as the 7th century. This is from Calonia to Pickland, a great study about this period in history by James Fraser. And this is an important passage because it highlights the fact that while the

17:15 Romans are starting to use this term of picss and pictishness, very likely that didn't mean anything to the people that was that it was being used to describe in this period at all. This is something from a Roman historical perspective. And that means that the way that we look at the picss, at least in this period of history, in the the Roman period, the Roman Iron Age and into antiquity, needs to be shifted to adjust for this. So picss appear to be a term that is thrust onto people north of the wall as those south of the wall became increasingly Romanized. Part of the explanation for this has perhaps been sought in the Christianization as well that this was another factor that when Christianity spread throughout the empire and arrived in Britain that was another differentiating point between those who had converted south of the wall and those who were unconverted north of the wall. that idea of imperial belonging,

18:12 of belonging to a universal faith like Christianity um is very good at creating an an us and them kind of dichotomy. So perhaps that also played into it. It's interesting how this manifests following this period because while the Romans describe the picss north of the wall, they sometimes cause trouble north of the wall, but they haven't really attacked Britain itself. That was until the year AD 397. And this was the year of what's known as the Great Barbarian Conspiracy. What this boiled down to was basically Roman Britain's worst nightmare.

18:49 essentially the various peoples from around them. The Scotty which are the people living in Ireland whose name obviously goes to Scotland later on. Various Germanic peoples from across the sea, the Saxons and the Franks and finally also the picss all attacked Britain at the same time probably with the collusion of various individuals in the Roman army which led to an absolutely terrible time. In fact, my friend over at Alex Isles History has a great video on the subject that you can check out. A quick summary here. The idea is is that Britain was attacked by the Scots who obviously came from Ireland. The Picts who come from what is today modern day Scotland, another group called the Atakotti who are thought to have come from the Western Isles, but we are really unsure about that. They could be another Irish tribe and also at the same time the Saxons. So, because of that, Britain was attacked. At the same

19:42 time, northern Gaul is attacked by the Franks and Saxons, cutting Britain off for more support. This becomes an absolute nightmare because at the same time, the garrison rebels. There is even possibly a suggestion that some of the garrison were bribed and then also that possibly Hadrien's wall may have just let them through. This is a very interesting one because it's a bit hard to tell what is obviously Marentellius sitting in Antioch writing stuff down and showing a total breakdown of Roman society and what is actually the reality of what was occurring. So, it's a bit of an interesting one right there. But they say that the garrison of Britain become rebels and they are little better than bandits and there's also a slave rebellion at the same time. So slaves break free and they're running around the countryside killing people and destroying things. There is mass destruction of settlements. People are

20:22 killed, lots of mass death. Real issue issues going on. Now, one of the ways that the Romans at the time period described it is to say it will however be in place to say that at that time the pics divided into two tribes called the Calidoness and Verurion as well as the Atakotti a warlike race of men and the Scots were ranging wildly and causing great devastation. So this is an interesting account because again it shows that the way that picked is being used is different to how other uh labels are being used. So the picss are divided into two tribes suggesting this is a kind of multithnic identity that the Romans have created.

21:04 One of these names is interesting um the Verudioness because this is a name that we will come back to and see used again and that is unlike various other names like Caladones which completely disappears although it becomes the Latin word for Scotland in Calonia, New Calonia for instance. It's no longer used in the early Middle Ages but this term Verioness is still used all the way through Pictish history into the 10th century. We get the GIC name of the kingdom of Fortree which appears to be around Invenesse and Moresia. But we also find it in the old English sources where they're called Weras which again comes from that same Latin root of Verionus. This is an incredibly old name that has a lot of staying power and this might be significant. James Fraser thinks the fact that their identity was spared obliteration is an important clue that the wetteras played a key role indeed in embracing and promulgating

22:02 self-conscious picishness. So perhaps it's the case that this name survived of this particular what we might call subtribe later on kingdom survived because they were the ones that actually embraced being picked further down the line uh after the Romans had left in all likelihood to go back to the previous account the fact that we're talking about by Caledonians is interesting um because it again suggests there is a distinction it means dual Caledonians or two Caledonians. So perhaps this is a political differentiation between uh various Caledonian tribes. Maybe it's a geographic one, people to the north and south of a certain mountain range or or river. But again, without further sources, we simply don't know what this looked like. What is interesting about the barbarian conspiracy, as I already touched on, is the fact that this seems to be the first time that the pix really in earnest actually attack the Roman

23:02 Empire. Before that, it was usually the other way round with Romans coming north and sort of battering the picss north of the wall. And this has some interesting implications for state formation in northern Pikland at this point because around uh the middle of the 4th century, something major must have been changing, something that was likely already going on for a long time in order for this to happen. Part of this explanation, certainly as Fraser sees it, is the decline in the economic situation in the Roman Empire. It had got very large at this point. It was constantly fighting border wars against various peoples. But one of its main strategies was the idea of the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

23:48 So a large part of Roman foreign policy, if we can call it that, at this point, was to pay various tribes beyond their borders to fight with the ones directly on the border. So to keep them busy so that they wouldn't then attack the Roman Empire. Another part of this strategy was strategic giftgiving and diplomatic missions. So giving gold uh or more likely silver at this point actually and various other goods from the Roman Empire to chieftains beyond the border in order to keep them as allies in order to keep them on their side to fight against other tribes but also to support and promote pro- Roman factions within the tribes so that they always had a leader that was in favor of peace with the Romans so that they wouldn't have to deal with a faction that was warlike and wanted to raid the Romans instead. head and this was very successful. This is why we for instance find Roman goods in

24:43 Scandinavia which was never a part of the Roman Empire but that was actively targeted by Roman diplomatic missions in this way. The trouble is that by the 3rd century Rome was in an economic crisis. The coinage was debased and so they had a lot less money to spend as well as more crises actually at home. And this then led to less money being available for these diplomatic missions. Fraser notes, "Settlement archaeology offers another more convincing explanation. It seems that Roman subsidy was drying up in Pikland at a time when something very significant, perhaps dramatic, was happening to society. The most obvious consequence was the creation of a pictish military capacity and a willingness to threaten the Hadrienic lemus, that is the wall, beyond anything that the inner Caledonian peoples had shown in 300 years. And what he suggests this is is the creation of a new model of kingship. This idea of kings that not

25:46 only could call upon their people to raid once in the season, as had been the case before, people that otherwise were employed as artisans or as farmers and then became warriors for a season and went home. So unprofessional armies to a system of professional armies of people that were warriors all year round. This is called a retainer model where a lord has certain warriors that are professional warriors. It's often also referred to with the Latin term commitatus. And this became increasingly popular throughout the uh the 3rd century, certainly the 4th century uh and especially later as we go into the the migration period. It's one of the reasons why the migration period became so warlike because you had all these professional warriors sitting around that needed to be fed and to be given treasure which incentivized this kind of activity as as well. Well, they must have had pretty good international connections

26:45 given that the pigs were able to liaz and and plan an attack together with the Franks and the Saxons and the Irish uh all at the same time during the barbarian conspiracy. This again suggests that for these long range contacts, likely they would need a degree of centralization of powerful figures that were able to orchestrate these attacks and to organize societies in a way that they could function and support a professional military as it was. And in all likelihood, we're not looking at a single king of the picss as one nation. Again, at this point, it seems that they weren't identifying as one nation. we have all these various ethnic terms still being given to them by the Romans, but rather that we're looking at various kings uh of people north of the wall. Um possibly quite a large number initially and then fewer and fewer as as time goes on and wealth coaleses in power uh together. So this

27:39 is an interesting model that is quite different from the traditional way of describing history where the picss kind of existed perhaps migrated over from somewhere funky and then just started attacking the Romans cuz well that's what barbarians do. But instead, it seems that the uh the downturn in the Roman economy meant that they could no longer have as extensive a quote unquote foreign policy as they once had, which in turn came together with a period in history when professional armies were coming in. Uh retainer models were the the new norm, which incentivized these kings and their their war bands to to attack the Roman Empire together with others, which is precisely then what they did.

28:21 Now in 410, so not long after the barbarian conspiracy, uh we get the the famous withdrawal of Roman forces from Britain at this point back to the continent. This is usually seen as the end of Roman Britain. Now, it's unlikely uh or or it's unknown whether this actually is the end of Roman Britain, whether there aren't other attempts by the Romans to send uh soldiers uh back to Britain and to defend its shores. But this given the dir of other sources we have other written sources does appear to be the point when the civilized the brto the brattoness of Britannia were on their own to fight against various peoples and now the picts as they were called together with various other Germanic peoples of course will later get the Anglo-Saxons as well as the Irish coming over we have evidence for them uh raiding and settling in places like Wales in western England uh in Scotland of course it all starts

29:23 to happen and now that that less has gone we need to see what will happen next with the picss and the Britain and how things will shape up in dark ages Britain but for now that is enough from me about the picss. Let me know in the comments below. Do you have any questions about the picss? What have you always wondered about them? What would you like to ask historians that have studied it? Um, and I will be uh glad to do my best to address that in a following video. Thank you all so much for watching. Let me know uh what your favorite fact was that you learned about the picss in this video as well. And I will see you all in the comments. Until the next time, I've been Hilbert and this was the

Questions about this episode

What is discussed in "Who were the Picts?"?

In order: 0:00 AD 122, Pythus, Roman, Britons; 5:00 Picti, Picts, Pictish, AD 297; 10:00 Britons, Romanization, brethonic language, Celtic languages; 15:00 Roman Britain, Roman Empire, Britons, Saxons; 20:00 Roman Empire, Pictish, James Fraser, Atakotti; 25:00 Saxons, Roman Britain, Pictish, Pictland.

What is mentioned in this History With Hilbert episode?

33 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Picts, Roman Britain, Roman, Great Barbarian Conspiracy, Roman Empire, Pictish. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Who were the Picts?"?

The episode runs 30 min; the transcript is about 5,153 words in 35 timestamped sections.

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