In Roman times, there was no such country as Scotland. What we now know as Scotland was called '
Caledonia (/ˌkælɪˈdoʊniə/; Latin: Calēdonia [kaleːˈdonia]) was the Latin name used by the Roman Empire to refer to the part of Great Britain (Latin: Britannia) that lies north of the River Forth, which includes most of the land area of Scotland.
The name Scotland derives from the Latin Scotia, land of the Scots, a Celtic people from Ireland who settled on the west coast of Great Britain about the 5th century ce. The name Caledonia has often been applied to Scotland, especially in poetry.
There are different theories as to why the Romans called Scotland Caledonia during their period of conquest and control, which began in the first century A.D. Some historians and etymologists believe the land was named after the people who inhabited the area prior to the Roman conquest of the early Celts, known as the ...
2,000 years ago, the Romans thought of Scotland (or Caledonia, as they called the region) as a wild and unruly place lying beyond the most northerly limits of their empire – indeed to them, Scotland must have seemed like the very edge of the world.
history. Viking Scotland, known as Lothlend, Laithlinn, Lochlainn and comprising the Northern and Western Isles and parts of the mainland, especially Caithness, Sutherland and Inverness, was settled by Norwegian Vikings in the early ninth century.
Why had the Romans struggled to take Scotland? Terrain and weather always counted against the Romans, as did the native knowledge of their own battle space. Also, a lack of political will to commit the forces needed.
Scotland's connection to the ancient civilisation is visible in Scotland's ancient name, "Caledonia", which may have come from Caledon, an ancient city-state in Ancient Greece which experienced migrations to the place that we now call Scotland.
The Gaels gave Scotland its name from 'Scoti', a racially derogatory term used by the Romans to describe the Gaelic-speaking 'pirates' who raided Britannia in the 3rd and 4th centuries. They called themselves 'Goidi l', modernised today as Gaels, and later called Scotland 'Alba'.
Christianity was adopted gradually by the people of Scotland. At first it was incorporated into the pagan traditions of the Celts and Pictish tribes but, eventually, it almost entirely replaced them. The transition from Pictish to Christian narratives is fascinatingly evident in the cross-slabs carved by the Picts.
The term Scotia was increasingly used to describe the kingdom between North of the Forth and Clyde and eventually the entire area controlled by its kings was referred to as Scotland.
The Roman armies won a major battle at Mons Graupius, somewhere in north-east Scotland, but within a few years demands for soldiers elsewhere meant they abandoned their conquests and pulled back.
The Romans called the conquered province Britannia, Scotland Caledonia and Ireland Hibernia on the basis of existing "Celtic" terminology.
Roman Wales was an area of south western Britannia under Roman Empire control from the first to the fifth century AD. Romans called it Cambria but later considered it to be part of "Roman Britain" along with England.
CELTS, PICTS AND ROMANS
The Romans called the tribes of the north 'Caledoni' and named their land Caledonia. The Picts, known as the 'painted people' were one of the Celtic tribes who inhabited Scotland.
Scotland – The oldest monarchy in Europe, the second oldest country in Europe and is the fifth oldest country in the world, preceding France, England and Denmark.
The settlement probably had an earlier Cumbric name, Cathures; the modern name appears for the first time in the Gaelic period (1116), as Glasgu. It is also recorded that the King of Strathclyde, Rhydderch Hael, welcomed Saint Kentigern (also known as Saint Mungo), and procured his consecration as bishop about 540.
Écosse is the French-language word for Scotland.
Hibernia is the Classical Latin name for the island of Ireland. The name Hibernia was taken from Greek geographical accounts. During his exploration of northwest Europe (c. 320 BC), Pytheas of Massilia called the island Ierne (written Ἰέρνη).
Despite grandiose claims made by an 18th-century forged manuscript, it is now believed that the Romans at no point controlled even half of present-day Scotland and that Roman legions ceased to affect the area after around 211.
The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia (Scotland).
Commerce, not conquest
Comments by a first-century Greek geographer named Strabo might explain why the Roman Empire made no further attempt to conquer Ireland.
What is the oldest clan in Scotland? Clan Donnachaidh, also known as Clan Robertson, is one of the oldest clans in Scotland with an ancestry dating back to the Royal House of Atholl. Members of this House held the Scottish throne during the 11th and 12th centuries.