The Western Roman Empire VS the Picts of Scotland: Stilicho's Pictish War
Channel: Celtic History Decoded
Date: 31/07/2022

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The Western Roman Empire VS the Picts of Scotland: Stilicho's Pictish War

An epic war erupted between the Western Roman Empire and the Picts around 398AD, at least according to the Latin poet Claudian. The war is sometimes referred to as Stilicho's Pictish War. Flavius Stilicho was a powerful Roman commander of part Vandal descent who became the guardian of Rome for the young Honorius, with Honorius becoming the Western Roman Emperor in 393AD at the age of just 10. This meant that Stilicho was one of the most powerful men in the Western Roman Empire for years considering Honorius’ age. 

But why do I keep referring to the Western Roman Empire? In the 3rd century AD, the Roman Empire almost collapsed, with this period known as the Crisis of the Third Century. One of the reforms to help avoid any further crises came in 293AD,  when the Roman Emperor Diocletian instituted a system of reform to partly address the issues around succession. He implemented a system of Tetrarchy, which means government by “four persons ruling jointly.” 

What this meant in the Roman context was that the administration of the Roman Empire was split between two emperors, called augusti, who then each choose a junior Emperor who would go on to succeed them, called caesares. This mean that  Diocletian and Maximian ruled as co-emperors, with Diocletian ruling in the eastern provinces and Maximian governing the western provinces. They both appointed caesares, who then succeeded them. 

This orderly system proved somewhat short-lived, as Constantine usurped this system in large part and went on to control the entire Empire for a period. An east-west division remained present within the Roman Empire however, and the Western Roman Empire would eventually collapse around 476AD, with the Eastern Roman Empire, or Byzantine Empire, existing for nearly another 1,000 years until the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. 

If we turn our attention back to Stilicho's Pictish War. The story goes that when Stilicho was supressing a revolt in north Africa, the Picts attacked Roman positions in Britain along with the Saxons, but both were defeated.  As Claudian wrote, “the Saxon conquered, the Ocean calmed, the Pict broken, and Britain secure.” Some argue that Stilicho ordered repairs to Hadrian’s Wall around 400AD, using money from the African campaign to do so, indicating that Hadrian’s Wall came under a sizeable attack.

But did this war exist? The answer is that we’re not sure, as Claudian’s poem is the only real source we have. Whether this particular war took place, we definitely know that the Picts attacked Roman positions on countless occasions, including in 297AD, a Roman writer wrote of the “Picts and Irish (Scots) attacking Hadrian’s Wall.”

Sources:

Britannica, Pict Pict | people | Britannica 

Wikipedia, Stilicho's Pictish War Stilicho's Pictish War - Wikipedia
 
Cambridge University Press, Stilicho's Pictish War Stilicho's Pictish War | Britannia | Cambridge Core 

#romanempire #history #picts