The Epidii

Ref:  http://www.bruichladdich.com/the_epidii_horsemen_of_islay_and_kintyre.htm


EXTRACT


The Epidii - Horsemen of Islay and Kintyre

Almost two thousand years ago the Romans invaded Britain in May 43 AD, with four legions and about 20,000 auxiliary troops under the command of Aulus Plautius. 
Scotland as a political entity did not exist then. 

Taken from information gathered in first century AD Roman expeditions, the 2nd century map of Britain by the Greek geographer and astrologer Ptolemy (writing about Agricola's famous circumnavigation of the British Isles), as well as from the Greek explorer Pytheas around 325 BC - the tribe settled in the area around Islay, Jura and Kintyre, is known as the Epidii - The Men of the Horse. This tribe is traditionally thought to be a British (Welsh) or Pictish tribe, whose name may be associated with the Celtic Horse Goddess Epona.

Convoluted references to obscure texts suggest that the Islay name MacEachern may be derived directly from the Epidii - meaning People of the Horse; This must be true because we have a Robert MacEachern working at the distillery today! Giraldus Cabriensis, writing in the 12th Century, tells of how he witnessed an Irish Kingship inauguration ritual, where the ceremony involved the future king performing some act with a horse. This act is often assumed to have been intercourse, supposedly symbolic of the mating of the King with the Goddess of Sovereignty. Anyhow, the MacEacherns certainly built a reputation as trainers and keepers of horses, and also as armourers - makers of the great Scottish broadsword we now know as the Claymore. 

The Romans never really conquered Scotland - let alone Islay - getting as far north as Perth in AD 80, although their influence was probably considerable. Every now and then they would send an army north - most famously led by Agricola in AD 81 when 40,000 Romans inflicted a heavy defeat on the native tribes at Mons Graupius in AD 84 (wherever that may be - nobody really knows - possibly in Aberdeenshire). As the only serious account came from Tacitus (who was married to Agricola's daughter and therefore keen to impress his father-in-law), the great Roman generals successes against the woad-covered natives may have been exaggerated somewhat. Winning battles is all very well, but the Romans could not subdue the tribes for long and were forced to build first Hadrians Wall in AD 122 and then the Antonine Wall nineteen years later to try and exert some control. Neither worked very well as defensive structures, though they may have had some effect as customs posts. Tribes such as the Epidii would have tried to profit by sending trade goods, probably particularly black cattle, to feed the Roman towns of the south and would also have been obliged to develop trade by sea with Ireland.

The Romans eventually gave up on Scotland in AD 399. It is thought that the Epidii forged a series of alliances with the Irish tribe called the Scottii and eventually founded the ancient Kingdom of Dalraida which was centred in Argyll. They hassled the Romans continuously, as did tribes from the north plus Angles, Saxons and Jutes from the east. After the Romans left there were many years of conflict with the Pictish tribes until the final unification of Scotland by Kenneth MacAlpine.