Random Facts About Picts, A Scottish Tribe That Gave Roman Empire Hell (14 items)

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  (#1) They Might've Painted Themselves Blue And Been Covered In Tattoos

  Although whether this was the case has been the subject of much historical debate, invading Romans - including Julius Caesar - described the Picts as dyeing themselves blue in order to give themselves a "wild look in battle." 

  In Latin, the Picts were originally called the "Picti," or "the painted ones," because they supposedly had lots of tattoos in addition to staining their entire bodies blue. What did they use to achieve this? Woad, a cool, dark blue dye.
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  (#14) The Sound Of Their Language Remains A Mystery

  A Pictish script appears occasionally on their gorgeously carved stones, but does that mean historians can decipher their language? Probably not, since there exist only a few dozen examples of how these symbols were used. But scholars do know the Picts had their own tongue; examples of it survive in place names around Scotland.

  Places beginning with "Aber-, Cat-, Dol- and Pit-" are all Pictish in origin.
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  (#4) They Might've Chosen Royalty Through Female Bloodlines

  Pictish kingship didn't pass from father to son but from random relative to random relative. Some scholars have opined that royal blood wasn't patrilineal for the Picts, but matrilineal, meaning that the women of the clan (sisters, nieces, etc.) were the only ones who could give birth to kings.

  Matrilineality allowed the Picts a larger pool of kingly candidates to choose from, as opposed to one or two sons of a single monarch. Although scholars aren't completely sure exactly how the Picts chose their kings, it's worth noting that if power passed through the mother's bloodline, this didn't necessarily mean that women were given more power in society. 
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  (#2) They Were Hardcore Pirates

  Apparently, the Picts were pretty bad about blurring the line between "traders" and "pirates" in their coastal commerce with the Romans along the southern shores of the British Isles. Citizens of Londinium (the Roman name for London) recounted watching as hardcore bands of Pictish pirates would sail by after a successful raiding expedition in some small Roman British community - spoils and captives in tow.

  Although the Roman Brits attempted organized counterattacks against the Pictish pirates, their diffuse, guerilla style of piracy made them incredibly difficult to quell.
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  (#3) They Vanished In The Middle Ages

  By the beginning of the Middle Ages, Scotland didn't have people called "Picts" anymore. Under the control of the Scots-Irish King Kenneth MacAlpin (who might have had a Pictish mom), Scotland became a relatively unified realm; it appears that the newly Gaelic kingdom simply absorbed the Picts, as focus shifted to a different cultural perspective. But was it all peaceful?

  Legend has it that Kenneth and his Scots-Irish forces actually massacred Pictish nobles at a banquet using collapsible seating then took power for themselves.
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  (#9) Saint Patrick Wasn't Too Crazy About Them

  St. Patrick, head religious honcho of Christian Ireland, was actually born in Britain. There, he came into contact with the Picts and other people who weren't yet Christians, and - surprisingly! - he wasn't a fan of them.

  In his letter to the soldiers of Coroticus, Patrick condemned his own countrymen, calling them as bad as the Irish and "the apostate Picts" for killing newly-baptized Christians. What exactly he meant by "apostate" (whether the Picts had accepted, then later rejected, Christianity, or if they denied it entirely) is up for debate.

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