168 



PICTS 



themselves, ami tin- limit 1 easterly ten of these may 

 be .-lainicd as I'icts. So troublesome were these 

 inn i In-ill triltex to the Hoinan province that in 

 JOM tlie Kin|ienir Severn* came to Britain anil 

 \ainly attempted their subjugation. The contem- 

 IMHHIV historian- ini-iitioii only two tribes north of 

 tin- Forth iiinl Clyde wall the Micata- ami the 

 C-aledonii and Tacitus' noble larbarians ap|>ear in 

 their pages but squalid savages, having no cities, 

 knowing no apiculture, po-.es -ing wives in com- 

 mon, and tattooing their bodies with picture* of 

 all kinds, to show which 'they wear no clothing,' 

 May* llerodian. Yet they "have chariots and 

 weajMins as desciilx-d by Tacitus, with dagger and 

 peculiarly knohlied sjiear. One hundred years 

 later the" Caledonian* and other Picta, as already 

 *aid, are encountered by Cotistantius, and Mill 

 fifty year* later they are harassing the Hoinan 

 province (360) now in company with the Scote, 

 who are tii-t mentioned at this date, and who 

 apjiear a* (treat sea- wanderers, starting from 

 Ireland ami Scot html Uith. it would seem, and 

 attacking the whole sealioard of the provim-i-, 

 <-|>ecially \ValeH. The l*ict and Scots are helped 

 in I Ms continual vexing' of the Britons by the 

 Saxon* and Atecotti. The Picts are represented 

 at this time a* divided into two nations called 

 Diealidomc and Vi-ctiiriones, or rather Verturioiies, 

 to aeeept Professor Khys's happy emendation of 

 AiMini.iiius' text, for this latter form may l>e 

 identified with the historic Fnrtrenn (Ktrathearn 

 and Menteith). Theodosjus the elder in :iii!i 

 cuisine)) these northern foes anil restored the 

 ili-trict between the walls to Roman Britain, and 

 the usurper Maxinms signalised hi- assumption of 

 power in 383 by an energetic campaign against the 

 Fids ami Scut-. During the next (|imrter of a 

 ci-nlnry the Komans were losing their hold on 

 Britain, and their northern foes pressed on the 

 province with great persistence. First the northern 

 wall was rebuilt, then abandoned ; and lastly the 

 southern wall was repaired by the last legion sent. 

 In vain did the brave Stilicho gaze on the 'figures 

 fading on the dying Pict,' as Clamlian says, for 

 they burst on the Ifomanised Britons with more 

 fury than ever, and the calling in of the Saxons 

 against the I'icts ami Scots made the last state of 

 the Britons worse than their first. 



At this point the light of Koman history is 

 withdrawn from us, and we have to dapena on 

 vague references in native writers- on (Jildas of 

 Wales Mlth century), on Adainnan (704), on Bede 

 (731), on Nenniu* (9th century ), and on the Irish 

 and other annalists of the middle age*, the liest of 

 whom is Tigeniach (IOH8). There is a Picti-h 

 Chronicle, perhaps com posed in the 10th century, 

 but preseived only in a MS. four hundred years 

 later in date, (iildas descrilie* the Picts and Scot* 

 a* ' differing somewhat in manners.' and ' shroud - 

 ing their villainous faces in biishv hair rather than 

 clothing ' their lower limbs. Bede point* out that 

 the Pict* are divided into a southern and a noil hern 

 division by the Crampians. The sonthem Pin- 

 wen- converted to Christianity by St Ninian (firm 

 400), and the northern Pict* over a century and a 

 half later by St ('nlnmba. Bede also mites and 

 mythically explains the system of succession among 

 tin- Picts, hereby the reigning monarch was SHI- 

 ceeded not by his son but by either his brother or 



hi* sister's son, descent In-ing inted through the 



femab-. This curious rule i* amply continued by 

 tin- Pict ish list of kings. Scotland in Bede's time. 

 and for more than a century picvioiisly. was divided 

 among four nations: (he Saxons ami Britons were 

 smith of the Firths, and north of them were the 

 Pi. is east of Druniallmn. and the Scots to the 

 went with Dalriada or Argyllshire as their head 

 centre. The annals say little of the Isles and north- 



west coast, whether they were held by Scots or 

 Picts, though subsequent history makes it clear 

 that the Scots had long colonised them, for the sons 

 of Krc in 501 were but the last of many Scott ic 

 invaders and colonisers. That the four nations of 

 Bede's day spoke four different languages is clear 

 from his oft-repeated statement to that effect, and 

 his handing down a word in this Pictish tongue 

 (l>ni>ifi<hcl). Colnmha, according to Adamnan, 

 had to employ an interpreter twice in dealing with 

 the Picts, while Cm mac of Cashel mentions a word 

 (rtirlit) belonging to the berla crnitlntfli or Pictish 

 language. 



In the ninth year of the reign of Brude Ma.- 

 Mailchon. the \i-ar W.\. Colnmba landed in Scot- 

 laud to convert the Picts. Brude hail his royal 

 residence near Inverness, and was 'a most powcifnl 

 king.' Bede says, for he represent* him as granting 

 lmia to Columba, though Tigernach savs thai 

 Conall of Dalriada made the gift. But tlie Pi. 't- 

 were carrying on war among the Isles at the lime, 

 as the life of St Comgall shows, and Brude had 

 hostages from the king of the Orkney-. Bimle's 

 successor, (iartnait. seems to have lixed his capital 

 at Aliernetliy, the church of which he founded. 

 The Pict were subjugated by Oswald, king of 

 Northiimbria. and made tributary by his brother 

 ( ls\\ in after (i.">4. They remained under the 

 Anglian yoke for thirty years; but Brude, son of 

 Bile, as-ei -ted his rule among the noilheni Picts, 

 and meeting the Anglian king Ecgfrid at Diinnichen 

 in 68"> defeated and slew him, and thus ended the 

 Anglian rule over the Picts. About Tin Naiton or 

 N'ectan. son of Derile, was king of the Picts, and, 

 as Bede tells us, he conformed under Anglic in- 

 fluence to the Koman Church in regard to the 

 celebration of Faster, going indeed so far as to 

 expel recalcitrant Columban clerics across Drum- 

 alban. Following a custom not unfre<|uent at tin- 

 time, Nectan resigned his throne and liecame a 

 cleric. A fierce struggle ensued for the throne, 

 during which Nectan emerged from his monastery, 

 but eventually Angus, son of Fergus, petty king of 

 Fortrenn, crushed all his rivals and reigned for 

 thirty years, when this sanguinary tyrant' died 

 in 761. His brother Brude died king of Fortrenn 

 in 763, for evidently Angus' monarchy had collapsed 

 and the provincial kings again came to the front. 

 Unfortunately the next eighty years of Pictish anil 

 Scottish history is exceedingly difficult to unravel, 

 for only lists of kings and a reference or two in tin- 

 Annals of t'lster are all the material which is to 

 hand. Ciniod was king after Brude. but his lights 

 were disputed by Ai-d of Dalriada: and after his 

 death in 774 there is much confusion in the 

 Chronicles, as there must have len in the facts. 

 Dalriadic princes st i uggle with Pictish princes and 

 uith one another for the throne, till Constantine of 

 Dalriada established himself about 815 as king 

 over Imth. His and his brother's reign ended in 

 s:t). and a time of confusion followed, native 

 Pictish princes striving against Foganan of !>al 

 riada. and he ultimately succeeding. 'fhe year 

 839, which ended his reign, saw a great defeat and 

 slaughter of the I'icts by the Danes, with confusion 

 once again, from which emerged in 844 Kenneth 

 Mac. \lpin, the Scot, as king over both nations, 

 henceforward not to I*- disunited. Many things 

 contributed to tlie overthrow of the Pictish king 

 dom, such as it was, and of the Pictish language : 

 the disunion, physical and otherwise, IwtWMD 

 northern and southern Picts: the rule of female 

 -in -ce ion which allowed Anglic. Briton, and 

 Scottic princes to rule in right of their mothers, 

 with tin- consc<|ucnt degradation of marriage which 

 matriarchy implies ; and the superior culture of 

 the Scots, Christian and literary. Nor must it be 

 forgotten that we really do not know much about 



