DBA Armies

When Septimius Severus broke the power of the Caledones, the political vacuum created was filled by a new confederacy of coastal peoples, initially spreading out from the Orkneys into the north and north-western parts of modern Scotland and building the coastal round-towers called brochs. Although it is sometimes stated that broch-building belonged to an earlier period, excavation shows that they were still lived in throughout the Roman period and that the inhabitants possessed Roman loot. Their name for themselves was Cruithni, but the Romans called them Picti “painted people”, from which they get their modern name. They left depictions of themselves on numerous symbol stones, bare-headed, straggly bearded and bare legged, wearing a long shirt and cloak, armed with a long spear grasped in 2-hands and about half with a small shield, usually rectangular and grasped at the intersection of 2 diagonal sticks connecting the corner, slung behind. A few are shown instead with javelins or light axe, and there are depictions of crouching archers with hooded cloak pulled up for concealment. Our own Pictish figures are painted with faded saffron shirts, blue-green woad patterns on exposed flesh, tartan-pattern cloaks dyed in natural colours and include many redheads. The culture was metal-poor, so only chiefs could have armour or swords. Chariots were used before 500, then being replaced by horsemen.. The Picts raided Roman Britain extensively, often outflanking Hadrian’s Wall by sea, but were invaded in turn by Scots from the north of Ireland. The list ends with the union of the two peoples under Kenneth Mac Alpin, who then ruled as the first king of Scotland. The “Barbarian Conspiracy” which raided Britannia in 365-368 consisted of Picts, Atecotti, Saxons and Scots-Irish. Whether this was collusion or fortuitous opportunism is debated. The Atecotti (Tu-ata-cottye “people of Cat/the cat” in an Ulster dialect), one of the tribes of the Firbolg in Irish legend, were especially savage raiders and mercenaries (accused by St. Jerome of cannibalism) said to have emigrated from Ireland to Caithness, Man and the Hebrides, but insufficient is known for a separate list. References: Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome P. Barker, Armies of the Dark Ages 1. Heath, The Painted Men T.C. Lethbridge, The Age of the Picts W.A Cummins, Slingshot 243.