The influence of Rome on the Pictish kingdoms of the seventh and eighth centuries A.D.

<p dir="ltr">This project aims to interpret the influence of Rome on the Pictish kingdoms of the seventh/eighth centuries AD. The interactions between Rome and Northern Scotland stopped with the end of Roman rule in Britain in the early fifth century AD, and the post-Roman period up to the seventh century AD is known as a 'Dark Age' in Northern Scotland for the lack of archaeological consistency of the indigenous populace. In the seventh and eighth centuries AD, the new Pictish kingdoms of Fortriu, Ce, Cait etc. demonstrate a defined and powerful Pictish identity.</p><p dir="ltr">This thesis will assess the influence of Rome during Rome's occupation of Britain on the Caledonians and 'Picts' of Northern Scotland. These influences are the hypothetical social coalition in the late fourth century AD, particularly the <i>barbarica conspiratio</i> event, and the introduction of Roman material in key Caledonian sites during the 'Roman Britain' period. These will be extended into the seventh/eighth centuries AD, compared to Germania Magna, and applied to theoretical scenarios, to determine the possibility of these Roman influences affecting the formation of Pictish kingdom states.</p><p dir="ltr">This paper will outline and contextualise questions of internal identity and ‘ethnonyms’, trade, diffusion, and the potential for passivity between two 'hostile' cultures. It will attest to 'Romanisation' as a legitimate cultural force with longevity and the ability to intrinsically alter societies. As a result, this will complicate the critical dialogue that has formed in Scottish scholarship which favours postcolonialism and the reduction of cultural 'influence'. This paper will also integrate the new evidence and theoretical bases that have been forwarded in Romano-Scottish scholarship in the last thirty years.</p>