Brochs and the Empire: The Impact of Rome on Iron Age Scotland as Seen in the Leckie Broch Excavations

The excavation of the Leckie Iron Age broch in Stirlingshire, Scotland, took place during the 1970’s after the author had been asked to organise the work by a local archaeological society.At that stage the author did not consider - despite its location - that the site might vividly reflect the expansion of the Roman Empire into southern Scotland in the late first century AD.For various reasons the final report was not written until about thirty years after the fieldwork finished and by then the quality and significance of the Roman finds was much better understood, thanks to the analysis of them by experts.Many of them seemed like gifts to the broch chief, despite the clear evidence of the violent destruction of the broch at a later date.The Roman author Tacitus gave a detailed account of Governor Agricola’s campaigns in southern Scotland and pointed out that he sometimes tried to make friends with local chiefs before invading their territories, to avoid un-necessary casualties.This al