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Book Review of The Picts: The History of the People Who Inhabited Scotland in Antiquity and the Middle Ages

The Picts: The History of the People Who Inhabited Scotland in Antiquity and the Middle Ages
jjares avatar reviewed on + 3299 more book reviews


I've been curious about the beginnings of London, and this book answers my questions. Londinium began as a Roman military outpost after 54 BCE. By the 2nd century CE, Londinium was a Roman city of 15,000 people, including Britons, Roman soldiers, and officials.

The Britons and Romans, more or less, worked together to build Hadrian's wall. However, on the northern side of that wall was a Celtic group known as the Picts. Considered to be barbarians, the Picts were perfectly happy to raid the Romans and Britons and scurry back north of the wall. Unlike some barbarian groups, the Picts had a written script, art, and an aristocracy.

This book mentions that Celtic Iron Age tribes inhabited Briton at the time of Caesar's arrival in their lands. A point was made about the Picts being illiterate until after the Romans left Britain. Thus, their history is shrouded in mystery. I would have enjoyed seeing more of the Pict's artwork. What I saw shows the Picts to have slightly different (more intricate) designs than the Celts.

Unfortunately, most information about the Picts comes from the Venerable Bede and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. There was little written available for research. During the Middle Ages, the Picts merged with the other tribes in the area to become Scotland.