16 June 2016, Starts: 13:00, Ends: 14:00

A ‘Caledonian resistance’? History and myth in Scotland’s ancient past

Talk by Alan Montgomery

Inverness Museum and Art Gallery. Cost £3.50.  Booking is essential, in person at Inverness Museum & Art Gallery, call 01463 237114 or email cait.mccullagh@highlifehighland.com

For centuries Scots have celebrated the fact that they were one of the only nations to have repelled the mighty Roman Empire, proudly boasting of their ancient liberty in patriotic history, poetry and political rhetoric since medieval times. But, as Inverness Museum’s exhibition of Cait3Roman Iron Age collections, Treasures from beyond the frontier demonstrates, relations between Rome and the region now known as Scotland were certainly more complex, and today’s historians are often sceptical of such ideas, one recently describing this much-vaunted independence as nothing more than a ‘fairytale’.

In this talk, Alan Montgomery will look at the development of these tales of Caledonian resistance to Rome, exploring to what extent they were based on historical evidence and revealing how they were influenced by more current concerns regarding Scotland’s sense of national identity through the ages.