Votadini

The Votadini were a Brythonic Celtic people who inhabited parts of southern Scotland and the northern English frontiers during the late Iron Age and the early Roman period. In classical sources they are named as a distinct tribe in the region, and in later Welsh tradition they are commonly linked with the Gododdin, the Brythonic polity that occupied the district around the "Din Eidyn" fortress, identified with Edinburgh.

Geography and political center: The heartland of the Votadini lay around the Firth of Forth, including parts of present-day East Lothian and the Scottish Borders. The Roman fortress site at Trimontium near Melrose attests to their proximity to Roman imperial frontiers and to Roman military interest in controlling the Votadini. Ptolemy's Geography, written in the 2nd century, lists the Votadini among the tribes of southern Scotland. In later tradition, the Gododdin name is used for the kingdom or leadership of whose seat was Din Eidyn.

History and culture: The Votadini appear to have maintained a degree of local autonomy under Roman rule, with a Brythonic cultural and linguistic identity. After the Roman withdrawal from Britain, the Votadini are often viewed as the core of the Gododdin kingdom, with Din Eidyn as its capital. The medieval Welsh poem Y Gododdin memorializes the warriors of the Gododdin at Catraeth, a battle sometimes dated to the late 6th or early 7th century. Over the following century, Anglian expansion and the rise of the kingdom of Northumbria brought the territory under Anglo-Saxon influence, and by the early medieval period the area became integrated into Scotland.

Language and legacy: The Votadini spoke a Brittonic language ancestral to the later Brythonic tongues of southern Scotland and northern England. The name survives in place-names and in the historical record tied to the Gododdin tradition.