SCOTTISH HISTORY
The recorded history of Scotland begins in the 1st century
AD, when the Romans invaded Britain. The Romans added
southern Britain to their empire as the province Britannia.
They were unable, however, to subdue the fierce tribes in
the north.
To keep these tribes from invading Britannia, Emperor
Hadrian had a massive wall built across the island from sea
to sea. The Romans called the land north of the wall
Caledonia, and they called the people Picts--from the Latin
piclus, meaning "painted"--because they painted their
bodies. Parts of Hadrian's Wall still stand on the Scottish
border.
In the 5th century Celtic immigrants from Ireland, called
Scots, settled north of the Clyde. The Scots were already
Christians when they left Ireland. In the next century St.
Columba converted the king of the Picts to Christianity.
In the 9th century Kenneth MacAlpine, king of the Scots,
added the Pictish kingdom to his own. In about the 10th
century the land came to be known as Scotland.
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