Pictish history begins with the Roman incursions into Scotland, the extent and long-term effects of which were generally underestimated. As sources confirm, Roman diplomats and legions reached as far north as Moray. While they did not stay long in the north, they were a frequent presence in the Scottish lowlands for nearly two and a half centuries. Historians and archaeologists are just beginning to map the ways in which Roman imperial policy effected enduring structural transitions in Pictland, from religious change to social organization.

Roman authors provide us with the first snapshot of the people who would eventually constitute the kingdom of the Picts. We also have Ptolemy's map of Britain, derived from military survey work undertaken in the Flavian era (69– 96 CE), which identifies some dozen territorial groups across Scotland. The two groups that most concerned Rome were the Maiatai and the Caledonii. The Maiatai, situated in Fife and parts of Stirlingshire, appear to have ousted the Dumnonii sometime after the Flavian survey, leaving traces of their occupation in the place-names Dumyat hill and Myothill. They were one of the few Iron Age groups to retain their name and territory into the seventh century (as the Miathi in the Life of St Columba) and probably controlled the Early Medieval district of Manau. This district, including the plain at the head of the Firth of Forth, remained a pivotal buffer zone between England and Scotland throughout the medieval period.

Beyond the Maiatai, the Caledonian territory stretched to the foot of the Mounth (Grampians) where the place-names Dunkeld and Schiehallion survive them. These were the groups that came into direct confrontation with Rome and its variable strategies of diplomacy and military aggression. Flipping between these policies, Roman control under the Flavians extended to the isthmus between the rivers Forth and Clyde. They consolidated this line with forts that reached to the foot of the Mounth along the Gask Ridge. This frontier proved unsustainable and by 122 CE Hadrian had withdrawn his armies and settled a new frontier between the Tyne– Solway isthmus. After his death a renewed offensive under Antoninus Pius re-established the frontier between the Forth and Clyde rivers. It was probably in this period that the fort known as the Leckie broch in the Forth valley was destroyed.