Caledonians
Encyclopedia
The Caledonians or Caledonian Confederacy, is a name given by historians to a group of indigenous peoples of what is now Scotland
during the Iron Age and Roman
eras. The Romans
referred to their territory as Caledonia
and initially included them as Britons
, but later distinguished as the Picts
. The Caledonians were enemies of the Roman Empire
, which was the occupying force then administering most of Great Britain
as the Roman province
called Britannia
. The term Caledones may derive from the Brythonic elements caled "hard, tough" plus the Celtic 'great' suffix, thus *caledonos "great, hard/tough person", *caledoni "great, hard/tough people". Alternatively, it may be derived from the Brythonic calet-donia, again meaning "hard/tough people". It could also derive from the Goidelic element "coille" "forest", i.e. "people of the forest".
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 that we have about the Caledonians comes from their Roman enemy, and therefore unbiased information may be difficult to obtain.
Peter Salway
considers the Caledonians to have consisted of indigenous Pictish tribes augmented by fugitive Brythonic
resistance fighters fleeing from 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 state
s.
, the Caledonians' defeat at the hands of Gnaeus Julius Agricola
at Mons Graupius is 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 AD 180 they took part in an invasion of Britannia, breached Hadrian's Wall
and were not brought under control for several years, eventually signing peace treaties with the governor Ulpius Marcellus
. This suggests that they were capable of making formal agreements in unison despite supposedly having many different chieftains. However, Roman historians used the word "Caledonius" not only to refer to the Caledones themselves, but also to any of the other tribes (both Pictish or Brythonic) living north of Hadrian's Wall
, and it is uncertain whether these later were limited to individual groups or wider unions of tribes.
In 197 AD Dio Cassius
records that the Caledonians aided in a further attack on the Roman frontier being led by the Maeatae
and the Brigantes
and probably inspired by the removal of garrisons on Hadrian's Wall by Clodius Albinus
. He says the Caledonians broke the treaties they had made with Marcellus a few years earlier (Dio lxxvii, 12).
The governor who arrived to oversee the regaining of control over Britannia
after Albinus' defeat, Virius Lupus
, was obliged to buy peace from the Maeatae rather than fight them.
The Caledonians are next mentioned in 209, when they are said to have surrendered to the emperor Septimius Severus
after he personally led a military expedition north of Hadrian's Wall, in search of a glorious military victory. Herodian
and Dio wrote only in passing of the campaign but describe the Caledonians ceding territory to Rome as being the result. Cassius Dio records that the Caledonians inflicted 50,000 roman casualties due to attrition and unconventional tactics such as guerrilla warfare. Dr. Colin Martin has suggested that the Severan campaigns did not seek a battle but instead sought to destroy the fertile agricultural land of eastern Scotland and thereby bring about genocide
of the Caledonians through starvation.
By 210 however, the Caledonians had re-formed their alliance with the Maeatae and joined their fresh offensive. A punitive expedition
led by Severus' son, Caracalla
, was sent out with the purpose of slaughtering everyone it encountered from any of the northern tribes. Severus meanwhile prepared for total conquest but was already ill; he died at Eboracum
(modern day York
) in Britannia in 211. Caracalla attempted to take over command but when his troops refused to recognise him as emperor, he made peace with the Caledonians and retreated south of Hadrian's Wall to press his claim for the throne. Sheppard Frere
suggests that Caracalla briefly continued the campaign after his father's death rather than immediately leaving, citing an apparent delay in his arrival in Rome and indirect numismatic and epigraphic factors that suggest he may instead have fully concluded the war but that Dio's hostility towards his subject led him to record the campaign as ending in a truce. Malcolm Todd
however considers there to be no evidence to support this. None the less the Caledonians did retake their territory and push the romans back to hadrians wall.
In any event, there is no further historical mention of the Caledonians for a century save for a c. AD 230 inscription from Colchester
which records a dedication by a man calling himself the nephew (or grandson) of "Uepogenus, [a] Caledonian". This may be because Severus' campaigns were so successful that the Caledonians were wiped out, however this is highly unlikely.
In 305, Constantius Chlorus
re-invaded the northern lands of Britain although the sources are vague over their claims of penetration into the far north and a great victory over the "Caledones and others" (Panegyrici Latini
Vetares, VI (VII) vii 2). The event is notable in that it includes the first recorded use of the term 'Pict' to describe the tribes of the area.
in his Agricola, chapter XI (c. 98 AD) described the Caledonians as red haired and large limbed, which he considered were features of a Germanic origin: “The reddish (rutilae) hair and large limbs of the Caledonians pro-claim a German origin”. Jordanes
in his Getica also wrote something similar:
Eumenius
, the panegyrist of Constantine Chlorus, wrote that both the Picts and Caledonians were red haired (rutilantia). Scholars such as William Forbes Skene
noted that this description matches with Tacitus
' description of the Caledonians as red haired in his Agricola
.
but it is possible to describe the settlements in their territory during their existence.
The hillforts
that stretched from the North York Moors
to the Scottish highlands
are evidence of a distinctive character emerging in northern Great Britain from the Middle Iron Age onwards. They were much smaller than the hillforts further south, often less than 10,000 square metres in area, and there is no evidence that they were extensively occupied or defended by the Caledonians, who appear to generally have had a dispersed settlement pattern. Suggestions of widespread warfare in Scotland at this period have been made.
By the time of the Roman invasion there had been a move towards less heavily fortified but better sheltered farmsteads surrounded by earthwork enclosures. Individual family groups likely inhabited these new fortified farmsteads, linked together with their neighbours through intermarriage.
The reason for this change from hilltop fortresses to farms amongst the Caledonians and their neighbours is unknown. Barry Cunliffe
considers that the importance of demonstrating an impressive residence became less significant by the second century because of falling competition for resources due to advances in food production or a population decline. Alternatively, finds of Roman material may mean that social display became more of a matter of personal adornment with imported exotica
rather than building an impressive dwelling.
's 1965 novel The Mark of the Horse Lord
the Dal Riata
undergo an internal struggle for control of royal succession, and an external conflict to defend their frontiers against the Caledones.
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
during the Iron Age and Roman
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.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...
eras. The Romans
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
referred to their territory as Caledonia
Caledonia
Caledonia is the Latinised form and name given by the Romans to the land in today's Scotland north of their province of Britannia, beyond the frontier of their empire...
and initially included them as Britons
Britons (historical)
The Britons were the Celtic people culturally dominating Great Britain from the Iron Age through the Early Middle Ages. They spoke the Insular Celtic language known as British or Brythonic...
, but later distinguished as the Picts
Picts
The Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. There is an association with the distribution of brochs, place names beginning 'Pit-', for instance Pitlochry, and Pictish stones. They are recorded from before the Roman conquest...
. The Caledonians were enemies of the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, which was the occupying force then administering most of Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
as the Roman province
Roman province
In Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and, until the Tetrarchy , largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of Italy...
called Britannia
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.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...
. The term Caledones may derive from the Brythonic elements caled "hard, tough" plus the Celtic 'great' suffix, thus *caledonos "great, hard/tough person", *caledoni "great, hard/tough people". Alternatively, it may be derived from the Brythonic calet-donia, again meaning "hard/tough people". It could also derive from the Goidelic element "coille" "forest", i.e. "people of the forest".
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 that we have about the Caledonians comes from their Roman enemy, and therefore unbiased information may be difficult to obtain.
Peter Salway
Peter Salway
Peter Salway is a British historian, who specialises in Roman Britain. He was a tutor for the Open University and later a fellow of Sidney Sussex College Cambridge and later at All Souls College Oxford. He is the author of Roman Britain , a volume in the Oxford History of England series.-References:...
considers the Caledonians to have consisted of indigenous Pictish tribes augmented by fugitive Brythonic
Britons (historical)
The Britons were the Celtic people culturally dominating Great Britain from the Iron Age through the Early Middle Ages. They spoke the Insular Celtic language known as British or Brythonic...
resistance fighters fleeing from 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
Vacomagi
The Vacomagi were a people of ancient Britain, known only from a single mention of them by the geographer Ptolemy c. 150. From his general description and the approximate locations of their neighbors, their territory was the region of Strathspey, including that part of the northern coast of Scotland...
, Taexali
Taexali
The Taexali were a people of ancient Scotland, known only from a single mention of them by the geographer Ptolemy c. 150. From his general description and the approximate location of their town or principal place that he called 'Devana', their territory was along the northeastern coast of Scotland...
and Venicones
Venicones
The Venicones were a people of ancient Britain, known only from a single mention of them by the geographer Ptolemy c. 150 AD. He recorded that their town was 'Orrea'. This has been identified as the Roman fort of Horrea Classis, located by Rivet and Smith as Monifieth, six miles east of Dundee....
recorded by Ptolemy
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...
. The Romans reached an accommodation with Brythonic tribes such as the Votadini
Votadini
The Votadini were a people of the Iron Age in Great Britain, and their territory was briefly part of the Roman province Britannia...
as effective buffer state
Buffer state
A buffer state is a country lying between two rival or potentially hostile greater powers, which by its sheer existence is thought to prevent conflict between them. Buffer states, when authentically independent, typically pursue a neutralist foreign policy, which distinguishes them from satellite...
s.
History from the Roman perspective
In AD 83 or 84, led by CalgacusCalgacus
According to Tacitus, Calgacus was a chieftain of the Caledonian Confederacy who fought the Roman army of Gnaeus Julius Agricola at the Battle of Mons Graupius in northern Scotland in AD 83 or 84...
, the Caledonians' defeat at the hands of Gnaeus Julius Agricola
Gnaeus Julius Agricola
Gnaeus Julius Agricola was a Roman general responsible for much of the Roman conquest of Britain. His biography, the De vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae, was the first published work of his son-in-law, the historian Tacitus, and is the source for most of what is known about him.Born to a noted...
at Mons Graupius is recorded by Tacitus. Tacitus avoids using terms such as king
Monarch
A monarch is the person who heads a monarchy. This is a form of government in which a state or polity is ruled or controlled by an individual who typically inherits the throne by birth and occasionally rules for life or until abdication...
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 AD 180 they took part in an invasion of Britannia, breached Hadrian's Wall
Hadrian's Wall
Hadrian's Wall was a defensive fortification in Roman Britain. Begun in AD 122, during the rule of emperor Hadrian, it was the first of two fortifications built across Great Britain, the second being the Antonine Wall, lesser known of the two because its physical remains are less evident today.The...
and were not brought under control for several years, eventually signing peace treaties with the governor Ulpius Marcellus
Ulpius Marcellus
Ulpius Marcellus was a Roman consular governor of Britannia who returned there as general of the later 2nd century.Ulpius Marcellus is recorded as governor of Roman Britain in an inscription of 176-80, and apparently returned to Rome after a tenure without serious incident...
. This suggests that they were capable of making formal agreements in unison despite supposedly having many different chieftains. However, Roman historians used the word "Caledonius" not only to refer to the Caledones themselves, but also to any of the other tribes (both Pictish or Brythonic) living north of Hadrian's Wall
Hadrian's Wall
Hadrian's Wall was a defensive fortification in Roman Britain. Begun in AD 122, during the rule of emperor Hadrian, it was the first of two fortifications built across Great Britain, the second being the Antonine Wall, lesser known of the two because its physical remains are less evident today.The...
, and it is uncertain whether these later were limited to individual groups or wider unions of tribes.
In 197 AD Dio Cassius
Dio Cassius
Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus , known in English as Cassius Dio, Dio Cassius, or Dio was a Roman consul and a noted historian writing in Greek...
records that the Caledonians aided in a further attack on the Roman frontier being led by the Maeatae
Maeatae
The Maeatae were a confederation of tribes who lived probably beyond the Antonine Wall in Roman Britain. The historical sources are vague as to the exact region they inhabited....
and the Brigantes
Brigantes
The Brigantes were a Celtic tribe who in pre-Roman times controlled the largest section of what would become Northern England, and a significant part of the Midlands. Their kingdom is sometimes called Brigantia, and it was centred in what was later known as Yorkshire...
and probably inspired by the removal of garrisons on Hadrian's Wall by Clodius Albinus
Clodius Albinus
Clodius Albinus was a Roman usurper proclaimed emperor by the legions in Britain and Hispania upon the murder of Pertinax in 193.-Life:...
. He says the Caledonians broke the treaties they had made with Marcellus a few years earlier (Dio lxxvii, 12).
The governor who arrived to oversee the regaining of control over Britannia
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.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...
after Albinus' defeat, Virius Lupus
Virius Lupus
Virius Lupus was a Roman soldier and politician of the late second and early 3rd century.His parents were Lucius Virius, born c. 140, and wife Antonia, also born c. 140 and daughter of Marcus Antonius Zeno. His paternal grandparents were Quintus Virius, born c. 110, and wife Larcia, born c...
, was obliged to buy peace from the Maeatae rather than fight them.
The Caledonians are next mentioned in 209, when they are said to have surrendered to the emperor Septimius Severus
Septimius Severus
Septimius Severus , also known as Severus, was Roman Emperor from 193 to 211. Severus was born in Leptis Magna in the province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through the customary succession of offices under the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. Severus seized power after the death of...
after he personally led a military expedition north of Hadrian's Wall, in search of a glorious military victory. Herodian
Herodian
Herodian or Herodianus of Syria was a minor Roman civil servant who wrote a colourful history in Greek titled History of the Empire from the Death of Marcus in eight books covering the years 180 to 238. His work is not entirely reliable although his relatively unbiased account of Elagabalus is...
and Dio wrote only in passing of the campaign but describe the Caledonians ceding territory to Rome as being the result. Cassius Dio records that the Caledonians inflicted 50,000 roman casualties due to attrition and unconventional tactics such as guerrilla warfare. Dr. Colin Martin has suggested that the Severan campaigns did not seek a battle but instead sought to destroy the fertile agricultural land of eastern Scotland and thereby bring about genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
of the Caledonians through starvation.
By 210 however, the Caledonians had re-formed their alliance with the Maeatae and joined their fresh offensive. A punitive expedition
Punitive expedition
A punitive expedition is a military journey undertaken to punish a state or any group of persons outside the borders of the punishing state. It is usually undertaken in response to perceived disobedient or morally wrong behavior, but may be also be a covered revenge...
led by Severus' son, Caracalla
Caracalla
Caracalla , was Roman emperor from 198 to 217. The eldest son of Septimius Severus, he ruled jointly with his younger brother Geta until he murdered the latter in 211...
, was sent out with the purpose of slaughtering everyone it encountered from any of the northern tribes. Severus meanwhile prepared for total conquest but was already ill; he died at Eboracum
Eboracum
Eboracum was a fort and city in Roman Britain. The settlement evolved into York, located in North Yorkshire, England.-Etymology:The first known recorded mention of Eboracum by name is dated circa 95-104 AD and is an address containing the Latin form of the settlement's name, "Eburaci", on a wooden...
(modern day York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
) in Britannia in 211. Caracalla attempted to take over command but when his troops refused to recognise him as emperor, he made peace with the Caledonians and retreated south of Hadrian's Wall to press his claim for the throne. Sheppard Frere
Sheppard Frere
Professor Sheppard Sunderland Frere, CBE, FSA, FBA is a former British historian and archaeologist who studied the Roman Empire.-Biography:...
suggests that Caracalla briefly continued the campaign after his father's death rather than immediately leaving, citing an apparent delay in his arrival in Rome and indirect numismatic and epigraphic factors that suggest he may instead have fully concluded the war but that Dio's hostility towards his subject led him to record the campaign as ending in a truce. Malcolm Todd
Malcolm Todd
Malcolm Todd FSA is a British historian and archaeologist with an interest in the interaction between the Roman Empire and Western Europe....
however considers there to be no evidence to support this. None the less the Caledonians did retake their territory and push the romans back to hadrians wall.
In any event, there is no further historical mention of the Caledonians for a century save for a c. AD 230 inscription from Colchester
Colchester
Colchester is an historic town and the largest settlement within the borough of Colchester in Essex, England.At the time of the census in 2001, it had a population of 104,390. However, the population is rapidly increasing, and has been named as one of Britain's fastest growing towns. As the...
which records a dedication by a man calling himself the nephew (or grandson) of "Uepogenus, [a] Caledonian". This may be because Severus' campaigns were so successful that the Caledonians were wiped out, however this is highly unlikely.
In 305, Constantius Chlorus
Constantius Chlorus
Constantius I , commonly known as Constantius Chlorus, was Roman Emperor from 293 to 306. He was the father of Constantine the Great and founder of the Constantinian dynasty. As Caesar he defeated the usurper Allectus in Britain and campaigned extensively along the Rhine frontier, defeating the...
re-invaded the northern lands of Britain although the sources are vague over their claims of penetration into the far north and a great victory over the "Caledones and others" (Panegyrici Latini
Panegyrici Latini
The Panegyrici Latini or Latin Panegyrics is a collection of twelve ancient Roman panegyric orations. The authors of most of the speeches in the collection are anonymous, but appear to have been Gallic in origin. Aside from the first panegyric, composed by Pliny the Younger in 100 CE, the other...
Vetares, VI (VII) vii 2). The event is notable in that it includes the first recorded use of the term 'Pict' to describe the tribes of the area.
Physical Appearance
TacitusTacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors...
in his Agricola, chapter XI (c. 98 AD) described the Caledonians as red haired and large limbed, which he considered were features of a Germanic origin: “The reddish (rutilae) hair and large limbs of the Caledonians pro-claim a German origin”. Jordanes
Jordanes
Jordanes, also written Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th century Roman bureaucrat, who turned his hand to history later in life....
in his Getica also wrote something similar:
Eumenius
Eumenius
Eumenius , was one of the Roman panegyrists and author of a speech transmitted in the collection of the Panegyrici Latini .-Life:...
, the panegyrist of Constantine Chlorus, wrote that both the Picts and Caledonians were red haired (rutilantia). Scholars such as William Forbes Skene
William Forbes Skene
William Forbes Skene , Scottish historian and antiquary, was the second son of Sir Walter Scott's friend, James Skene , of Rubislaw, near Aberdeen....
noted that this description matches with Tacitus
Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors...
' description of the Caledonians as red haired in his Agricola
Agricola (book)
The Agricola is a book by the Roman historian Tacitus, written c 98, which recounts the life of his father-in-law Gnaeus Julius Agricola, an eminent Roman general. It also covers, briefly, the geography and ethnography of ancient Britain...
.
Archaeological evidence
There is little direct evidence of a Caledonian archaeological cultureArchaeological culture
An archaeological culture is a recurring assemblage of artifacts from a specific time and place, which are thought to constitute the material culture remains of a particular past human society. The connection between the artifacts is based on archaeologists' understanding and interpretation and...
but it is possible to describe the settlements in their territory during their existence.
The hillforts
Hill fort
A hill fort is a type of earthworks used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze and Iron Ages. Some were used in the post-Roman period...
that stretched from the North York Moors
North York Moors
The North York Moors is a national park in North Yorkshire, England. The moors are one of the largest expanses of heather moorland in the United Kingdom. It covers an area of , and it has a population of about 25,000...
to the Scottish highlands
Scottish Highlands
The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...
are evidence of a distinctive character emerging in northern Great Britain from the Middle Iron Age onwards. They were much smaller than the hillforts further south, often less than 10,000 square metres in area, and there is no evidence that they were extensively occupied or defended by the Caledonians, who appear to generally have had a dispersed settlement pattern. Suggestions of widespread warfare in Scotland at this period have been made.
By the time of the Roman invasion there had been a move towards less heavily fortified but better sheltered farmsteads surrounded by earthwork enclosures. Individual family groups likely inhabited these new fortified farmsteads, linked together with their neighbours through intermarriage.
The reason for this change from hilltop fortresses to farms amongst the Caledonians and their neighbours is unknown. Barry Cunliffe
Barry Cunliffe
Sir Barrington Windsor Cunliffe, CBE, known professionally as Barry Cunliffe is a former Professor of European Archaeology at the University of Oxford, a position held from 1972 to 2007...
considers that the importance of demonstrating an impressive residence became less significant by the second century because of falling competition for resources due to advances in food production or a population decline. Alternatively, finds of Roman material may mean that social display became more of a matter of personal adornment with imported exotica
Exotica
Exotica is a musical genre, named after the 1957 Martin Denny album of the same title, popular during the 1950s to mid-1960s, typically with the suburban set who came of age during World War II. The musical colloquialism, exotica, means tropical ersatz: the non-native, pseudo experience of Oceania...
rather than building an impressive dwelling.
In fiction
In Rosemary SutcliffRosemary Sutcliff
Rosemary Sutcliff CBE was a British novelist, and writer for children, best known as a writer of historical fiction and children's literature. Although she was primarily a children's author, the quality and depth of her writing also appeals to adults; Sutcliff herself once commented that she wrote...
's 1965 novel The Mark of the Horse Lord
The Mark of the Horse Lord
The Mark of the Horse Lord is a historical novel for children written by Rosemary Sutcliff and published in 1965. It won the first Phoenix Award in 1985....
the Dal Riata
Dál Riata
Dál Riata was a Gaelic overkingdom on the western coast of Scotland with some territory on the northeast coast of Ireland...
undergo an internal struggle for control of royal succession, and an external conflict to defend their frontiers against the Caledones.
See also
- Antonine WallAntonine WallThe Antonine Wall is a stone and turf fortification built by the Romans across what is now the Central Belt of Scotland, between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde. Representing the northernmost frontier barrier of the Roman Empire, it spanned approximately 39 miles and was about ten feet ...
- CruthinCruthinThe Cruthin were a people of early Ireland, who occupied parts of Counties Down, Antrim and Londonderry in the early medieval period....
(In Ireland; possible descendants, predecessors or relatives of the Caledonians) - DicalydonesDicalydonesThe Dicalydones were mentioned by the 4th century writer Ammianus Marcellinus as one of the two branches of the Picti, the Picts, the inhabitants of modern-day Scotland ....
- Hadrian's WallHadrian's WallHadrian's Wall was a defensive fortification in Roman Britain. Begun in AD 122, during the rule of emperor Hadrian, it was the first of two fortifications built across Great Britain, the second being the Antonine Wall, lesser known of the two because its physical remains are less evident today.The...
- Mons Graupius
- PictsPictsThe Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. There is an association with the distribution of brochs, place names beginning 'Pit-', for instance Pitlochry, and Pictish stones. They are recorded from before the Roman conquest...
(Likely related to or descended from the Caledonians)