Peoples and communities

Caledonians and Maeatae

Explore the northern peoples named in accounts of Roman campaigns, and the limits of those descriptions.

Names from different campaigns

Caledonia was a Roman name associated with northern Britain. Tacitus’s account of Agricola’s campaigns presents northern resistance and introduces Calgacus before the battle called Mons Graupius. The precise battlefield remains uncertain, and the narrative offers a Roman literary account rather than a local chronicle.

The Maeatae in Cassius Dio

Writing about Septimius Severus’s northern campaign in the early third century, Cassius Dio groups the peoples into Caledonians and Maeatae. He places the Maeatae nearer a cross-wall and the Caledonians farther beyond. This is evidence for the way a Roman author organised his description, not a surveyed map of fixed tribal borders.

Read descriptions critically

Dio’s portrayal of northern life uses sweeping claims about landscape, food and customs. Such passages belong to a tradition of writing about distant peoples. Settlements and objects need to be examined independently rather than forced to match every colourful statement in the text.

How do they relate to the Picts?

Picts appears as a name in later surviving Roman sources. There are connections across the history of northern communities, but that does not make all the labels identical. Date the name and the event before deciding how to describe a group.

Context and evidence

Distinguish Agricola’s late first-century campaigns from Severus’s early third-century invasion and from later references to Picts. A Roman army winning a battle did not automatically produce lasting occupation. Northern relations included military pressure, withdrawal and continuing contact.

Sources and further reading

Romans in Britain · People · Places · Learning resources