Did the Roman army invade Scotland?

The Romans were keen to conquer the whole of Britain.

They successfully conquered England and Wales but never quite captured all of what we now call Scotland.

They tried several times with limited success, building walls and forts to secure what they had taken.

In AD122, the Emperor Hadrian (AD117 to 138) ordered his soldiers to build a wall between Roman Britain and Caledonia (the Roman name for Scotland).

Hadrian's Wall served as a military border but was also a hub of travel and trade (buying, selling and exchanging goods).

Important words on whether the Romans conquered Scotland.

By the end of the first century AD, Rome controlled most of southern Britain.

However, it was a different story in Scotland - it was still controlled by fierce warrior tribes (a group of people who share similar ideas or culture like language, food, clothing and religion), who refused to bow to the Roman Empire.

The Romans were interested in Scotland for several reasons:

• Scotland had valuable natural resources, like lead, silver and gold.

• The Romans could also get rich by charging the people they conquered taxes (payment given to a leader or country to cover general costs) and forcing them to become enslaved (to be captured by someone and forced to work).

• The Romans came for ‘the glory of Rome’ too. They wanted to conquer new lands and make their empire even bigger and better.

In Roman times, there was no such country as Scotland. What we now know as Scotland was called ‘Caledonia’.

Caledonia was made up of groups of people or tribes. The people were known as the ‘Caledonians’.

The tribes included the Caledones, Damnoni, Taexali, Votadini and Venicones.

Some got on peacefully with the Romans, but others fought back.

The Romans had trouble with the Picts. The Picts were a tribe from the north of Scotland.

‘Picti’ means ‘painted ones’ in Latin, because the Picts were known for painting their bodies with tattoos.

The Caledonian attacks were costing the Romans time and money.

In AD122, the Emperor Hadrian (AD117 to 138) ordered his soldiers to build a wall between Roman Britain and Caledonia.

The Romans also built forts and stationed soldiers along the wall to keep watch and fend off any attacks.

Soldiers on the wall came from all over the Roman Empire, from Spain to North Africa.

Hadrian's Wall was built for defense but it was also home to different cultures, travel hubs and trading posts.

In AD140 the Romans added another wall further north, called the Antonine Wall.

The Romans abandoned this wall and made Hadrian’s Wall the border.

Watch the video to learn more about what happened to the Romans in Scotland.

Around AD 208, Roman Emperor Septimius Severus (AD193 to 211) and his son Caracalla marched into Scotland with a large army, around 40,000 men.

He managed to defeat some of the groups and rebuild some of the forts along Hadrian’s Wall.

However, Severus himself became ill and left Caracalla in charge while he headed back to York where he died in AD211.

Now Roman Emperor, Caracalla (AD198 to 217) abandoned the invasion, and Caledonia, and returned to Rome.

Attacks continued and in AD300 to 400 and the Roman army finally packed up and left in AD410.

Barbarian (what the Romans and Greeks called someone who was not Roman and Greek) tribes were attacking the city of Rome and the Emperor Honorius (AD393 to 423) decided that the Roman legions in Britain were needed elsewhere.

Have a look at the thinking points below and think about your answer to each question. You could even write them down on a piece of paper or discuss them with somebody else if you want to.

• Why might the Romans have wanted to conquer Scotland?

• Why might the Romans have found it so difficult to conquer Scotland?

• Why might it be significant that the Romans DIDN’T did not conquer all of Scotland?

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