Rome DID Conquer Scotland
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- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
- We are often told that the Romans couldn't conquer Scotland. - that's why Hadrian's Wall had to be built. Not only did the Romans invade Scotland multiple times, they built roads, forts and walls in their newly conquered territory. This video examines the evidence for the Roman invasion, occupation, and conquests of Scotland. I hope you enjoy! If you would like some more information about anything I mention in the video, please leave a comment and I'd be happy to share my sources.
Music: Celtic Impulse by Kevin MacLeod.
As any non devalued Oxbridge Degree should tutor one Non Roman Citizens attaining 25yrs Loyal Service were granted Citizenship not only Auxiliaries as the Empire expanded till the last of the Good Emperor's after that there was a series of Border Incursions and Civil Wars more and more foreigners were recruited in fact most of the 3 Legions in Britannia were composed actually of Britons from the 240's onward and it is a puzzle how quickly the Britons reverted to their ancient traditions and customs after Rome evacuated Britannia.
Your script is quite difficult to read due to the lack of punctuation. However, I think you've failed to grasp that to be a legionary (exceptional circumstances excluded), one had to be a Roman citizen. You cannot grant citizenship after 25 years to a person that already has citizenship
Also tbh I'm surprised the Romans, of all peoples, thought Antonine's wall would be at ALL useful. Any wall can be scaled, which is why the Great Wall of China had so many forts on it. A wall is useless if unparalleled. And I've SEEN Antonine's wall- that shit is ridiculous. It's literally just a mound of dirt. I'm surprised they could even hold it for 16 years. Considering the Romans already had a history of moving stones in old fortifications, I'm not sure why they didn't just start moving Hadrian's wall North, brick by brick. I mean really. If you haven't ever seen a picture of Antonine's "wall", it's truly absurd it was even ever CALLED a wall. It's literally. Just. Dirt.
There are forts and other smaller outposts along the Antonine Wall. It's the same with other Roman border fortifications... These weren't supposed to stop large invading army. Their goal was to prevent raiding (even simple earthen rampart is pain in the a*s, when you need to go over it with herd of cattle) and to slow down larger forces, to give Roman military some time to respond properly.
You raise a fair point, but @tonceck9981 has replied with exactly what I was gonna say 🙌🙌
Yep, great comment thank you. The Romans also used these linear barriers as customs barriers to tax anything coming in or out
Walls aren't just to keep people out, they are also to keep people in. For "Hadrian's Wall" read "Berlin Wall". The Stalinists claimed that was to keep Westerners out.
@@KaiColloquoun-gt7kw now who's being anachronistic 🧐
For many reasons the Romans didnt conquer Scotland. They had some control in the lowlands, and up the north east coast for a short time. They built a wall across the lowlands called the Antoinine Wall, but it was abandoned after less than 20 years. The highlands and islands were never controlled. There have been no roman forts or other buildings found there. It must have been hard for the Romans to control these areas, considering the mountainous and heavily forested terrain. Plus the often unpleasant weather and the guerrilla tactics of the locals. After raiding the Romans, the Caledonians, could easily vanish into the mountains and forests. Then the Romans retreated back behind Hadrians wall. It was important for the prestige of Emperors like Antoninus Pius, to claim to the Roman senate, they had now conquered the whole of Britannia. And how was the average Roman citizen to know any different. But in reality, the truth was they didnt succeed in it. Why would they retreat behind Hadrians Wall if they had? Several Emperors tried to conquer what is today Scotland, but all failed. Their attempts had cost them so much money, time and resources. In the end it probably didnt seem worth expending any more. There was nothing to be gained.
I have a feeling you didn't watch the video? I addressed all of your points
@@TopRomanFacts I watched all your video and you conclude the Romans did conquer Scotland. Which is wrong and thats why I felt I had to post those comments. Did you even bother to read them?
Hi@@TheEggmaniac Emperor Severus had 40.000 men with him in Scotland. That's where he landed. That is one hell of a war machine.
@@badfairy9554 That indeed, would be. I read it was even more, maybe 50, 000. They didnt all land in what is today Scotland, most are recorded marching up from the south and through Hadrians Wall. They would be ultimately unsuccessful conquering the Caledonian and Maeatae tribes, in what is today Scotland. The Romans set up forts along the eastern coast. The Caledonians and Maeatae tribes would not take them on in pitched battles. They knew from past experiences they couldnt beat the Romans that way. They preferred to use, what we would call guerrilla tactics. Which were very effective. The Romans apparently had huge losses for very little gain. Emperor Severus, who became seriously ill on this campaign, died in York, a year after his last attempt. Which also seemed to be the end of the Romans attempt to subdue the tribes of northern part of Scotland. The Romans ultimately abandoned their forts there and retreated back behind Hadrians Wall.
thank you@@TheEggmaniac I think now the two unfinish stone heads found in Carlisle where the baths have been found are MR & MRS Severus. They are unfinish because he died. Don't quote me on that.🙂
Assumptions,Assumptions! The Romans did NOT fully conquer Caledonia/Alba the furthest known Marching Camp is midway between Nairn and Inverness despite many air surveys no more have been detected.Mons Graupius was most likely fought at Duncrub nr Dunning,Perthshire a prominent hill with a Roman Camp below Calgacus marched is Army there from NE Caledonia and the Mearns where as Tacitus indicates Agricola was harrying the rich fertile lands of Aberdeenshire to lure the Romans further south plus there is the name Victoria marked adjacent to Duncrub in a 3rd C Roman Map and Calgacus chose the Battleground too.
I appreciate your comment, but I do address these points in the video
Mon graupius was bennachie in Aberdeenshire and the CE picts of Dunnicaurn did not lose lol hence why the Romans left but the 9th legion stayed 😅 ancient propaganda
@@StuartAnderson-xl4bo The nearest Roman Camp to Bennachie is on Durno Farm but is usually attributed to Severus C208 AD due to its size but it makes sense to draw the Roman Army away from harrying Aberdeenshire down to Dunning, Perthshire and bringing the Romans to battle on ground chosen by Calgacus.However we cannot be entirely sure until battlefield graves are found but another piece of evidence is the thIrd C Roman Map showing towns and cities in Britannia one of which is named Victoria north of Stirling commemorating Agricola's Victory perhaps at Duncrub/Mons Graupius.
Major beat-up! The Romans came, won most of the larger battles, worked out the value of the province was not worth the cost of occupation and left. Unlike further South, the locals were seriously anti-occupation. But the primary driver was value - nothing worth mining and nothing worth farming.
did you know they had a full corps 50000 in Scotland based on the Archeology still lost tho'
Yeah not much up in northern Scotland for the Mediterranean Romans. However they did occupy the lowlands for a significant amount of time, which was the most fertile/productive part of Scotland
Read "against the grain" by James C Scott. It is not that what is now Scotland is poor agriculturally, ( a common Anglo-chauvinist fallacy) it is that its produce was difficult for state authorities to tax. The Roman Empire set taxes as wheat levies & in their domains would set levels of returns they expected from the land, so many bushels per acre etc. which had to be delivered yearly regardless of actual overall crop.They could not do this in the Scottish diverse landscape the way could in flat settled plains. Scotland has highland land that was previously utilised and supported a thriving, energetic population but is now wasted on useless sport such as grouse shooting or deer stalking for the benefit of chinless parasites.
They had for around 20 years a series of forts surrounding the highlands, by the coastal areas but not going past modern day Inverness. There's a map of their forts somewhere, but seeing as how the forts were only manned for 20 years out of the hundreds of years of Romans in Britain, they had little affect on the people compared to those south of Hadrians wall
"Theres a map of their forts somewhere" yeah I included it in my video and talk extensively about it. Who lived in the Scottish mountains past Inverness exactly? Check out a distribution map of Iron Age settlements in Highland Scotland, you'll find less than a handful of sites. The Romans conquered Scotland and occupied the most productive part of it (the Forth-Clyde isthmus area) for decades. Even the forts that were only occupied for 20 years is a long time. As I say in the video, the Nazis only occupied northern France (they had a client state in the south) for 4 years, yet people don't claim the Nazis never conquered France.
@@TopRomanFacts The Antonine Wall is quite well known.
And the Nazis are much closer to our own time. Living people have actual memories of them.
@@paulleverton9569 you are right of course but what's your point?
@@TopRomanFacts I don't have one.
If Scotland leaves the Union we LW working class folk in the North of England will be condemned to Tory rule in
This is a video about the Romans in Scotland not politics@@paulleverton9569
Antonine wall doesn’t run from Glasgow to Edinburgh
As a rough approximation for someone who hasnt heard of it yes does
@@TopRomanFacts Another ignorant assumption you've come up with again. yet
@@geoffhunter7704 no need to be so rude
Good video, glad I came across your channel.
Thank you Damian
Hi just subscibed. The Roman bath that has been found in Carlisle. You know the one ordered by Severus. The people that found it got a granted for more money to keep digging😁 this summer.
Welcome! I've been to Carlisle but haven't seen the bath yet, amazing news 👏
The more they dig@@TopRomanFactsthe bigger it is. It has two floors. Africans made the roof, I am sure they made more.It's sounds like a rock star's crib😁 so far. They are finding so much more up north now.
Previously a Roman Lead Water Pipe was found at Carlisle stamped Imp Titus/Gov Agricola.
wow@@geoffhunter7704 I mist that. I saw the stones from rings on last years finds.The 2 big heads confuser me.😃
Found it@@geoffhunter7704on Digging For Britain. They found a Roman colin with Seveus on it. One can see, he is black.
No they didn't.
Yes they did!
That why we have tally vans everywhere?
Yes I can confirm
No disrespect intended I was brought up amongst a lot if Italians in Scotland loved the culture and the people their influence has stayed with me all my life in my travels
@@canugizabit2810 I have no idea what a tally van is
@TopRomanFacts 🤣 I know Tally was slang in Glaswegan for Italian and most ice cream vendors were Italian then used ice cream vans they were an intergal part of our community, fond memories
@@canugizabit2810 haha okay that makes more sense then. The more you know!
They didn’t build a wall to keep out the Scots there were no scots there Scotti was a derogatory name given by the Romans to a group of ulster based pirates who later settled on the west coast of northern Britain.
My friend, did you not watch the video?
Indeed i am referring to the Cruithin, by which the Gaels referred to all non Gaels. Could well be thatthis is q celtic for Briton. Many of the original tribes of Ireland are found in Britain and Europe, Brigantes, Dumnoni, Belgae (fir Bolg), Monapi etc
They didn't conquer the entirety of scotland
They did though. Basically no one lived in the mountains full time, hence why there's so little native settlement there
@TopRomanFacts your statement makes no sense. They either conquered the entire landmass of scotland or they didn't.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland_during_the_Roman_Empire#:~:text=Despite%20grandiose%20claims%20made%20by,the%20area%20after%20around%20211.
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
conquer
(kɒŋkəʳ )
Word forms: 3rd person singular present tense conquers, present participle conquering, past tense, past participle conquered
1. VERB
If one country or group of people conquers another, they take COMPLETE control of their land.
@m_g_7907 what was there to conquer in Highland Scotland? The people who lived there practiced a transhumance lifestyle. They encountered the Roman authorities when they went into the lowlands
@TopRomanFacts im not debating that but they never still never conquered the entirely of the scottish landmass 😜
And then they all left end of story
Yeah but the Romans left everywhere they conquered eventually
The premise that the battle of Mons Graupius happened is false. That is why the battle site has never been found. Tacitus was writing about his father in law. In his defence I think that he believed the official version of events in Scotland. However if you read his account you will find details that do not make sense unless you consider an alternate series of events.
I have read the entirety of the Agricola. What doesn't make sense to you that makes you so confident to dismiss the entire account?
Why did the Scots engage in a pitched battle when in the previous year they had launched a night attack against the nineth Legion. In later years the Scots prevailed by using guerrilla warefare. The Scots were not idiots they had a clear understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. The sensible thing would have been to retreat and let the onset of winter do their work for them. @@TopRomanFacts
Why did the Romans not take prisoners. The normal Roman military stretagy was to take prisoners to defray the costs of the expidition. They did think much of the scots but they could have been used in the arena or mines.
Why did Agricola thin the line of his troops when they were about to engage in battle.
Why did Agricola get off his horse and walk with the troops if a major battle was looming.
nothing new here
How do you mean?
That's why it's called history!
Who said they didnt?I think your suffering from a london centric(bbc)view of ancient British history,for anyone from other countries the UK has suffered from biased history,politics, economics etc for decades,due to the seat of power being based in southern England ,the bbc is the prime propenent of this ,this vid is simply another example of this ,this is due to research stopping at Wikipedia
Who said they didn't? Read the other commenters on this video, or look at a map of the roman empire, or read any history textbook.
Research stopping at Wikipedia? I have a master's degree in Classical Archaeology from the University of Oxford. It is you who has a weirdly biased view of history. Watch the video and learn!
Mr TRF is rather full of himself assuming and generalising how wonderful the Romans were when we only know at best 6% of actual roman history.
@@geoffhunter7704 you sound incredibly jaded
This all sounds like excuses for an entire legion DISAPPEARING. Not destroyed, like in Teutoberg, but just. Gone. No remains. None. I think you underestimate how much that scared the shit out of the Romans, who were used to losing battles, even losing multiple legions, but not simply disappearing. That must have looked like fucking real ass magic to them. Not a magic they wanted to keep fucking with.
You raise a fair point. I'm not making excuses for anything, I'm simply using archaeology to counter a popular argument that the Romans never conquered Scotland.
Your interpretation of the missing Ninth Legion is the most interesting interpretation for sure, but that's not necessarily why it is missing. It's more likely (in my view) that the legion was disbanded for a variety of reasons (poor discipline or failed mutinity) rather than destroyed and lost. We only know where legions are because of the inscriptions they leave when they build stuff like forts, walls, or terracotta products. If the legion was rebranded or disbanded, it would look like a catastrophic defeat, when there's a more likely and more boring explanation.
Finally, the Romans always mythologised their neighbours whom they couldn't tame. Originally they thought the Britons in the south were these druid dark magic people, until they conquered them. It's the same with the northern Britons in modern day Scotland
It was on Doctor Who. 'The Eaters Of Light'. The 9th legion gone.
keep annoyying people,this is a good thing
Haha I think this is a compliment so thank you
England did not exist when the Romans invaded and occupied Britain. "Scotia", or "Scotland" , then, was what is now the island of Ireland. If you are going to give lectures on history then it is best not to be anachronistic. The Romans did conquer part of Caledonia, in what is now Scotland, evidenced by the Antonine wall, but did not succeed in holding it successfully, evidenced by the abandonment of the Antonine Wall & retreat to Hadrian's Wall.
You clearly did not watch the video
@@TopRomanFacts start on the wrong foot & turn people off.
@KaiColloquoun-gt7kw you just misinterpreted the beginning of the video and couldn't be bothered to watch any more of it before leaving a lengthy comment. This is on you
Another silly remark from a stuck up Oxbridge Academic know all, smug and self satisfied in his degree well thanks to Bliar(sic) & co Oxbridge Degrees do not hold the awe they once enjoyed as Woke and PC have taken hold.Legionaries only became Roman Citizens after completing 25yrs loyal service and of course seeing you rely on assumptions a roman citizen joining a legion stayed a citizen and certain privileges were enacted
As any Oxbridge degree will teach you, it's the auxilia that grants soldiers citizen after 25 years service, not the legion. Under normal circumstances, legionaries already had to be Roman citizens to join the legion.
Funny told by and English man were is the proof
Where is the proof? Did you not watch the video? English and Scottish didn't even exist as identities then, so there is no need to get offended about your perceived history
Caledonia*
The Roman name for Scotland. I of course address this in the video that you clearly didn't watch. Why comment on a video that you didn't even watch?
Lol I did actually 😂
@@ShadowWarrior496 so you'll know why I used Scotland then and why your attempted correction is pointless
@@TopRomanFacts you okay mate?
@ShadowWarrior496 yeah trying hard to increase engagement 😔
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