Crom Cruach
Both the Hiberni and the Britons were of Celtic origin. In Scotland the northern Picts were converted to Christianity probably in the 4th century, and the southern Picts were converted probably in the 5th century. At first the Saxons kept clear of the Picts, but as the former pushed farther northward, they too encountered these northern people and were defeated by them in 685. In 850 Kenneth I, king of Scotland defeated the Picts. Kenneth united the domains of the two rival tribes and thus founded the kingdom of Scotland. The names of the seven Pictish sons were Fib, Fidach, Foltlaig, Fortrenn, Caitt, Ce and Circinn. Fib is equated with Fife, the site of Fidach is uncertain, the others being Athfotla, Fortriu, Caithness, Aberdeenshire and Angus.
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While the Caledonians were the power in the north, the Romans called the country Caledonia. So when the Picts came into power they likewise called the country Pictavia. The people were also then called Picts. At the same time the Irish were still calling them Cruithne, although all Picts were Cruithne, all Cruithne were not Picts. Other tribal names of early Scotland, of Celtic root, include Caereni, (people of the sheep) Lugi, (of the raven) Smertae (the smeared ones') and Decantae (nobles). Besides the Caledonii (the 'hard ones'?) were the Vacomagi and Venicones. Other tribes included the Epidii on the West Coast and the Damnonii, Novantae and Selgovae further south. In later times a number of these tribes merged to form what became the 'Pictish kingdom'. At a time when the Dalriada kingdom was already in place in the Argyll area. There is also a possibility that the Picts were of Gaulish descent. The Celtiberians dwelt in the Iberian Peninsula, a costal area in what is now north central Spain. The Pictones, sometimes given as Pectones, were a Gaulish tribe to be found on the Bay of Biscay south of the Loire. The dirk and targe originated during their Bronze Age. Although Pictish kings could rule anywhere between Moray and Argyll, the royal seate was established at Scone from the earliest times and named places such as Skye, Lewis and Caithness. |
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Whether all tribes were familiar with the Q-Celtic such as Goidelic which is dissimilar to P-Celtic like Gaulish, the relationship between Brythonic and Gaulish come together as P-Celtic. Its placenames written in Greek and Roman sources place spoken Dacian from the Satem branch as opposed to a dialect of Indo-European. The Visigothic peoples who moved to Thrace after a famine settled and finally made peace with the Roma and the northwest ptolemaic Dacia region of Wallonia. In the 3rd century, Diocletian created an administrative division which included the conventus of Gallaecia, Asturica and perhaps Cluniense. Alesia proved to be the end of generalized and organized resistance to the Roman invasion of Gaul. The name Colne is of Celtic origin, for a river in Kent.
In 73 AD the governor Petillius Cerialis invaded, and defeated Venutius, but continued unrest led to Agricola finally annexing Brigantine territory for good in 79 AD. When Caesar invaded Britain he had learned that British supplies were reaching the Veneti who were leading the Amorican (Britannia Minor) resistance to the Romans. In Breton (which with Welsh and Cornish are the living representatives of Gaulish, though the older form 'arvor' is used to refer to the coastal regions of Brittany, in contrast to 'argoad' (ar 'on/at', coad 'forest' [Welsh 'ar goed' ('coed' forest)] for the inland regions. The Romans divided the country into self governing areas known as Civitates, two of which covered our area. Whether the churches of Galatia to which Paul wrote an important epistle about 50 AD were situated in the Celtic northern area or in the southern cities of that wide province is still one unsettled in the New Testament.
The Picts defied and eventually defeated Rome and at populous coastal sites, where hill-forts (e.g.- Cnoc an Duin near Scotsburn west of Tain) and drystone towers or brochs (e.g.- Dun Alascaig near Easter Ross overlooking the Dornoch Firth) may be found. A warrior-aristocracy dominated and the Romans feared the Pictish Navy. An early King Bridei of the Picts (554-584 AD) defeated King Gabran of the Scots and lay waste to Scottish holdings in Dalraida. Had he pressed on and expelled the Scots from Argyll, the country of Scotland might still be Pictland or Alba today. As the kingdom of Alba developed during the transition from Pictland to Scotland, the concept of the seven Pictish provinces or sub-kingdoms persisted, and each sub-king (Righ and Mormaer or "steward of the sea") was responsible to the high king (Ard-Righ). Between the mid-ninth century and the mid-twelfth century the seven ancient sub-kingdoms survived as Angus, Athol (derived from "Foltaig"), Strathearn, Fife (from "Fib"), Mar, Moray and Caithness (from "Cait"). Rebellious Moray was forfeited to the crown in 1134 and its territory of Ross was established in 1160 as a separate earldom under Malcolm Macbeth, the first Earl of Ross and one of the "seven Maister Men of Scotland". Angus- it was after this that Patrick the Preacher came into Ireland, and to the king of Munster: to Angus son of Nadfraech, who believed in God and in Patrick; and Patrick baptised him. In that time came one of the seed of Duach, of the country of Ossory.
Since Pictland was composed of seven districts, each ruled by related royal families, the concept of a leader being King of the people (rather than of the land) was born. Under Norman influence, many clan chiefs later forgot or ignored this trust which their people held, but Scotland was not a single unit; the old pieces that made up Pictland still had a life of their own, Atholl and Gowrie, Fife and Fortriu (or Fothrif, which may have been Kinrosshire), Angus and Mearns, Mar and Buchan, and most distinctive of all, Moray and Ross. After Duncan's death, Macbeth succeeded to his crown; yet the power of Earl Thorfinn at this time was nearly as great as his own. Thorfinn possessed the nine earldoms of Sutherland, Ross, Moray, "Dali," Buchan, Mar, Mearns, Angus, and Galloway; and without his assistance the Mormaor of Moray.