Maiatai

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The Maiatai ( ancient Greek Μαιάται , Latin Maeatae ) were a confederation of Pictish tribes that settled in the southern part of what is now Scotland . They lived north of the Antonine Wall outside of Roman-occupied Britain.

The historical sources are vague as to the region they inhabited, although the name of the association has been passed down in the names of two Hillforts . In the Ochil Hills, near Stirling , there are remains of the Dumyat Fort . The name (Gaelic Dùn Mhèad) is probably derived from the name of the Maeatae. The Hillfort may have marked its northern limit, while the Myot Hill (same root) near Falkirk marked its southern extent. They seem to have allied themselves as a result of treaties between the Roman Empire under Ulpius Marcellus and the border tribes in the 180s.

In 210 and 211 AD, they undertook heavy revolts against the Roman Empire that contributed to the abandonment of the Antonine Wall in the early 3rd century. As early as 208 the Roman governor of Britain called on the emperor Septimius Severus to help. This fought back the insurgents in hard fighting up to the year 210 and received the victorious name Britannicus . After his death in York in February 211 , his sons Caracalla and Geta left the British north to their own devices and returned to Rome.

The Miathi mentioned in Adomnán's life by Columba, which are to be equated with the southern peaks, were regarded as a group of the Maeatae, whose confederation apparently survived until the 6th or 7th century AD.

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