In 297 Eumenius (c.260-311) wrote that the Britons were already accustomed to the Picti and Hiberni (Irish) as their enemies’. In 309, he speaks of Caledonians and other Picts.
The Verona List gives the Roman provinces in 312 and names various barbarian tribes, including the Scoti, Picti and the Caledonii, active under the emperors. This is the last known reference to the Caledonii and the first of the Picti, the successor confederacy of the northern tribes. Nothing more is heard of the Maeatae, but the memory of their name is thought to survive in Dumyat (from Dun Myat, ‘Fort of the Maeatae’) in Stirling, and in Myot Hill, a fort in Falkirk.
Scoti (Scotti) was the name the Romans gave to the seafaring Irish who began raiding the northwest coast of Britain in the fourth century. As the shortest distance between Scotland and Ireland is in the North Channel at the Straits of Moyle which at its narrowest point separates County Antrim and the Kintyre peninsula and by about twelve miles (19 km), it is possible that the Scoti were raiding and settling among Epidii, the people of Islay and the peninsula, for some time before moving to other parts in the north and east.
Early in 306 the future emperor Constantine-I (c.65; r.307-337) joined his father in Gesoriacum (Boulogne) in northern France and together they carried out a successful campaign against the Picts. In 343 the western emperor Constans (c.27; r.337-350) braved crossing of the English Channel in winter and made a brief visit to Britain. Sources of this event hint that there were pressures on the northern frontier. In 350 at Augustodunum/Autun, France, Constans was usurped by the commander 26Flavius Magnus Magnentius (50; fl.350-353) and Britain sent troops to Gaul to assist him in his claim.
In winter 359/60 the Picts and the Scoti ravaged the frontier regions near Hadrian’s Wall. 29Flavius Claudius Julianus (31/32; fl.337-363), the caesar (commander) in Gaul, sent 33Flavius Lupicinus (fl.357-377) to subdue them, but he was recalled in early 360 when the western emperor Constantius II (44; r.337-361) ordered Julian’s troops to the East to deal with an attack by Shapur II (70; r.309-379).
In 364 the Picks and Scots were back again but this time accompanied by the Attacotti (Irish?) and Saxons. In 367 in a massive invasion, the so-called ‘Great Barbarian Conspiracy’, they resumed their attacks while Franks and Saxons were landing in northern Gaul.
Valentinian-I (54; r.364-375) sent the general Flavius (35) Theodosius the Elder (c.66; fl.373-376) with about four thousand troops. He landed at Richborough (Rutupiae) in Kent and it took him two years to irradiate the disruption and to restore military and administrative stability to Britain.
In 368 Ammianus Marcellinus (c.330-c.391/400) mentioned the Dicalydones and Verturiones as being the two branches of the Picti. It seems that the Dicalydones and Caledonii were one and the same, and the Verturiones although traditionally located around Strathearn, Perth and Kinross, is more likely they were located around the Moray Firth, Scottish Highlands.
Flavius (40) Magnus Maximus (c.53; fl.376-388), assigned to Britain in 380, defeated an incursion of the Picts and Scoti in 381. In spring 383 he was proclaimed emperor by his troops and he took them to Gaul to secure his position.
In 398 Flavius (49) Stilicho (c.49; fl.383-408) campaigned against the Picts and Scots. In 401 he took troops from Britain to fight Goths that were threatening Rome. By now the Picts probably had supremacy over virtually all of Scotland north of the Clyde-Forth isthmus.
In 407 Flavius (54) Claudius Constantinus (fl.406-409) was proclaimed emperor by the army and took most of it over the English Channel to defend Gaul against Germanic invaders.
By 410, according to the historian Zosimus (fl.490s-510s), the Honorius (38; r.393-423) (W) told the Romano-British who ran the British towns to look after its own affairs and expect no aid from Rome, although it has been argued that the order was sent to the people of Bruttium in Italy, not Britain.
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