INVASION
THE ROMANS IN PERTHSHIRE
Roman Perthshire 3D Map
Ardoch Roman Fort Video
Roman Patera Image or 3D with Audio Desc
The Roman presence in Scotland was sporadic. Unlike southern Britain – settled for nearly 400 years – the far north was never fully conquered. In the 1st century AD the Romans built forts, roads and signal towers as far north as modern-day Perthshire and Angus. By the end of the century a new frontier was established, the Stanegate, connecting the Tyne and Solway estuaries.
In the 120s AD, the Emperor Hadrian ordered the construction of a wall just to the north of the Stanegate line. 20 years later, a new frontier was established by his successor, Antoninus Pius on the Forth-Clyde line, with military bases north of this, including in Perthshire. The Antonine Wall was occupied for another 20 years before a retreat to Hadrian’s Wall. Occasional campaigns were launched further into Scotland, notably under the Emperor Septimius Severus in the 3rd century AD.
Evidence of these waves of invasion can still be found across the Perthshire landscape.
By the 2nd century AD the cult of the Roman Emperor was well-established and each fort was required to have an altar set up to observe the proper rituals. This example was found in the 1950s in the River Almond, adjacent to the Roman fort at Bertha, near Perth. The Latin inscription reads DISCIPVLINAE AVGVSTI, ‘To the discipline of the Emperor’. It dates to the Antonine period.
David Breeze Video
Bertha Alter 3D Model
INVASION
THE ROMANS IN PERTHSHIRE
IN FOCUS
ROMANS & CALEDONIANS
THE ANTONINE WALL
BEYOND BOUNDARIES