THE SCENE: The medieval historian Walter Bower describes the brutality of the war between the Romans and Celts and Picts, whose ferocity resulted in the destruction such ancient cities as Edinburgh.
THE TEXT: Then there was a most savage war between them, the like of which never been heard of before, nor has anything as cruel as it ever been recorded in the histories of the whole world. The ordinary people of both nations, whose proper pursuit was just agriculture, not killings and wars, were absolutely exposed on all sides to plundering and pillage. These wretches, the scum of the common herd, were slain without mercy.
And so it happened that, once the tillers of the fields had been cut down by the sword, as described above, the guardians of the towns were reduced to such great deprivation of famine and hunger that with no thought of their homes and all their wealth and possession, but wishing to save themselves, their wives and their children from this disaster, they took them off to remote regions far away. Meanwhile the cities, having been stripped of their defenders in this way and abandoned except for a few simpletons who were devoid of all skill in defence, were surrounded by the [Romans]. Their ferocity did not give the cities peace for very long. They united their forced and easily climbed the walls, which were immediately destroyed. They scattered the stones in the ditch, and leveled the walls with the ground. And the witnesses for this disaster are the strongest cities of the Britons, namely Agned, which was restored by Aed king of the Scots, and was later called Aedinburgh or Edinburgh.
– Scotichronicon, Walter Bower, 15th Century AD
