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Caledonians
The Caledonians (/ˌkælɪˈdoʊniənz/; Latin: Caledones or Caledonii; Ancient Greek: Καληδῶνες, Kalēdōnes) or the Caledonian Confederacy are believed to be a Brittonic-speaking (Celtic) tribal confederacy in what is now Scotland during the Iron Age and Roman eras. The Greek form of the tribal name gave rise to the name Caledonia for their territory. The Caledonians were considered to be a group of Britons, but later, after the Roman conquest of the southern half of Britain, the northern inhabitants were distinguished as Picts, thought to be a related people who would have also spoken a Brittonic language. The Caledonian Britons were thus enemies of the Roman Empire, which was the state then administering most of Great Britain as the Roman province of Britannia.
The Caledonians, like many Celtic tribes in Britain, were hillfort builders and farmers who defeated and were defeated by the Romans on several occasions. The Romans never fully occupied Caledonia, though several attempts were made. Nearly all of the information available about the Caledonians is based on predominantly Roman sources, which may be biased.
Peter Salway assumes that the Caledonians would have been Pictish tribes speaking a language closely related to Common Brittonic, or a branch of it augmented by fugitive Brythonic resistance fighters fleeing from Roman-occupied Britannia. The Caledonian tribe, after which the historical Caledonian Confederacy is named, may have been joined in conflict with Rome by tribes in northern central Scotland by this time, such as the Vacomagi, Taexali and Venicones recorded by Ptolemy. The Romans reached an accommodation with Brythonic tribes such as the Votadini as effective buffer states.
Some 19th‑century antiquarians suggested a Gaelic origin, Coille‑daoine (‘forest‑people’), but this derivation is speculative and not accepted by modern scholarship, which bases its analysis on comparative Celtic methods and does not use Gaelic‑derivative proposals when reconstructing the name’s etymology. In 1824, Scottish antiquarian George Chalmers, who sought to establish a Brittonic (Cymric) identity, posited that the Caledonians were named after their homeland of Caledonia. He hypothesized that the geographic name was derived from Cal-ydon, the name of a Greek province famous for its forests, and that classical writers such as Tacitus later applied this name to the Scottish Highlands as another area of woods. This derivation is no longer accepted by modern linguists.
According to linguist Stefan Zimmer, the land of Caledonia is instead derived from the tribal name Caledones (a Latinization of a Brittonic nominative plural n-stem Calēdones or Calīdones, from earlier *Kalē=Black River=don/Danue Goddess[i]oi). He etymologises this name as perhaps 'possessing hard feet' ("alluding to standfastness or endurance"), from the Proto-Celtic roots *kal- 'hard' and *pēd- 'foot', with *pēd- contracting to -ed-. The singular form of the ethnic name is attested as Caledo (a Latinization of the Brittonic nominative singular n-stem *Calidū) on a Romano-British inscription from Colchester. However, some authors have doubted the link between Calidones and kalet- 'hard', especially in light of the widely rejected theory that the Caledonians and Picts might not have been Celtic speakers.
In AD 83 or 84, the Caledonians, led by Calgacus, were defeated at the hands of Gnaeus Julius Agricola at Mons Graupius, as recorded by Tacitus. Tacitus avoids using terms such as king to describe Calgacus and it is uncertain as to whether the Caledonians had single leaders or whether they were more disparate and that Calgacus was an elected war-leader only. Tacitus records the physical characteristics of the Caledonians as red hair and long limbs.
In 122 AD construction began on Hadrian's Wall, creating a physical boundary between Roman controlled territory, and the land the Romans deemed as Caledonia.
An effort by the Romans to invade and conquer Caledonia was likely made sometime during or shortly after 139 AD. In 142 AD, construction began on the Antonine Wall roughly 100 km North of Hadrian's Wall in order to aid in the Roman push into Caledonian territory and to consolidate their conquest of southern Caledonian territory. The Romans later abandoned this wall (around 158) to return to Hadrian's Wall to the south.
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Caledonians
The Caledonians (/ˌkælɪˈdoʊniənz/; Latin: Caledones or Caledonii; Ancient Greek: Καληδῶνες, Kalēdōnes) or the Caledonian Confederacy are believed to be a Brittonic-speaking (Celtic) tribal confederacy in what is now Scotland during the Iron Age and Roman eras. The Greek form of the tribal name gave rise to the name Caledonia for their territory. The Caledonians were considered to be a group of Britons, but later, after the Roman conquest of the southern half of Britain, the northern inhabitants were distinguished as Picts, thought to be a related people who would have also spoken a Brittonic language. The Caledonian Britons were thus enemies of the Roman Empire, which was the state then administering most of Great Britain as the Roman province of Britannia.
The Caledonians, like many Celtic tribes in Britain, were hillfort builders and farmers who defeated and were defeated by the Romans on several occasions. The Romans never fully occupied Caledonia, though several attempts were made. Nearly all of the information available about the Caledonians is based on predominantly Roman sources, which may be biased.
Peter Salway assumes that the Caledonians would have been Pictish tribes speaking a language closely related to Common Brittonic, or a branch of it augmented by fugitive Brythonic resistance fighters fleeing from Roman-occupied Britannia. The Caledonian tribe, after which the historical Caledonian Confederacy is named, may have been joined in conflict with Rome by tribes in northern central Scotland by this time, such as the Vacomagi, Taexali and Venicones recorded by Ptolemy. The Romans reached an accommodation with Brythonic tribes such as the Votadini as effective buffer states.
Some 19th‑century antiquarians suggested a Gaelic origin, Coille‑daoine (‘forest‑people’), but this derivation is speculative and not accepted by modern scholarship, which bases its analysis on comparative Celtic methods and does not use Gaelic‑derivative proposals when reconstructing the name’s etymology. In 1824, Scottish antiquarian George Chalmers, who sought to establish a Brittonic (Cymric) identity, posited that the Caledonians were named after their homeland of Caledonia. He hypothesized that the geographic name was derived from Cal-ydon, the name of a Greek province famous for its forests, and that classical writers such as Tacitus later applied this name to the Scottish Highlands as another area of woods. This derivation is no longer accepted by modern linguists.
According to linguist Stefan Zimmer, the land of Caledonia is instead derived from the tribal name Caledones (a Latinization of a Brittonic nominative plural n-stem Calēdones or Calīdones, from earlier *Kalē=Black River=don/Danue Goddess[i]oi). He etymologises this name as perhaps 'possessing hard feet' ("alluding to standfastness or endurance"), from the Proto-Celtic roots *kal- 'hard' and *pēd- 'foot', with *pēd- contracting to -ed-. The singular form of the ethnic name is attested as Caledo (a Latinization of the Brittonic nominative singular n-stem *Calidū) on a Romano-British inscription from Colchester. However, some authors have doubted the link between Calidones and kalet- 'hard', especially in light of the widely rejected theory that the Caledonians and Picts might not have been Celtic speakers.
In AD 83 or 84, the Caledonians, led by Calgacus, were defeated at the hands of Gnaeus Julius Agricola at Mons Graupius, as recorded by Tacitus. Tacitus avoids using terms such as king to describe Calgacus and it is uncertain as to whether the Caledonians had single leaders or whether they were more disparate and that Calgacus was an elected war-leader only. Tacitus records the physical characteristics of the Caledonians as red hair and long limbs.
In 122 AD construction began on Hadrian's Wall, creating a physical boundary between Roman controlled territory, and the land the Romans deemed as Caledonia.
An effort by the Romans to invade and conquer Caledonia was likely made sometime during or shortly after 139 AD. In 142 AD, construction began on the Antonine Wall roughly 100 km North of Hadrian's Wall in order to aid in the Roman push into Caledonian territory and to consolidate their conquest of southern Caledonian territory. The Romans later abandoned this wall (around 158) to return to Hadrian's Wall to the south.
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