The first Roman invasion of Scotland

The Romans invaded Caledonia (Scotland) in 79 AD. Caledonian tribes pushed back and fought against the Romans in a famous battle called Mons Graupius in 83 AD. But who won and did victory last?

Through their trading links, the Romans knew that Britain had good supplies of valuable resources such as tin, lead, and gold.

Controlling Britain would secure those resources for the Roman Empire - and controlling Scotland was a part of that plan.

In 55 BC they launched an invasion and took control of southern England. Over the next seventy to eighty years they pushed further north.

They defeated the tribes that lived there and built forts and camps to control those areas.

With most of England and Wales under Roman rule, in 79 AD the Roman general, Agricola, marched his army north into Scotland.

Fighting alone, the Scottish tribes didn’t stand a chance against the well-trained Roman army. To beat them, they needed to work together. In 83 AD, this is just what happened.

The Scottish tribes, under the leadership of a tribal chieftain called Calgacus, formed a huge army. In 83 AD they met Agricola's army at what would be called the Battle of Mons Graupius.

All we know of the battle comes from the Roman historian Tacitus. According to him a Roman army of fifteen-thousand men fought a battle against a tribal force twice as large.

The exact location of the battle is not known but it was probably somewhere in the Grampian Mountains in the north east of Scotland. Tacitus wrote that after fierce fighting that saw thousands of tribes men killed, the Romans were victorious.

With the Caledonian tribes defeated, it seemed like the Romans now controlled Scotland, too.

After victory at Mons Graupius, General Agricola pushed north. He may have got as far as Inverness, as there is a possible Roman fort at Cawdor, just north of the city.

However, before he could finish the job of finding and beating the remaining Scottish tribes, Agricola was called back to Rome.

In his absence, the Roman forces pulled back to the south of Scotland and built large defensive walls to protect the land they did control.

One of the best example of a Roman defensive wall is the Antonine Wall. It is thirty-seven miles long and runs from the Firth of Forth to the Firth of Clyde across the Central Belt of Scotland.

• Antonine Wall - the Antonine Wall runs across Central Scotland for thirty-seven miles from the Firth of Forth to the Firth of Clyde.
• Agricola - Agricola was the Roman general who led the invasion of Scotland.
• Calgacus - Calgacus was the name given to the leader of the Caledonian tribes who united to fight the Romans.
• Mons Graupius - this was the name of the place where the Romans defeated the Scottish tribes. We don't know exactly where this was but it is thought to be in the Grampian Mountains.
• Tacitus - was the Roman historian who wrote about Agricola's invasion of Scotland. Most of what we know about the Scottish tribes comes from his records.