Vacomagi

The Picts (descendants of the Vacomagi)[j] are reported to have believed in the magi – people with supernatural powers; for example the magus Broichan, who was alleged to have the ability to influence the weather.

The cult of Esus was possibly introduced into North Britain by the movement of legions and auxiliaries[ab] from Roman Gaul (France) and Hispania Tarraconensis (Spain).

A Roman altar found in Chester may provide evidence that the Legio XX worshipped the Gaulish deity Taranis, but using the variant name Tanarus.

Watery places – including rivers, lakes and wetlands – had a special significance for Celtic people in Western Europe during the Iron Age.

[bk] The location of the battle ("Graupius mountain") has never been convincingly identified, however most historians agree that it was somewhere east of the Highlands and north of the Forth (in other words – Vacomagi territory – or thereabouts).

— Tacitus (AD c.56–c.120)[bq] Translated from the original Latin:triginta milia ...30,000armatorum ..."armed men"aspiciebantur..."to be seen" The Roman historian Tacitus gave us this account: [br] ..."Having sent on a fleet, which by its ravages at various points might cause a vague and wide-spread alarm, he advanced with a lightly equipped force,[bs] including in its ranks some Britons of remarkable bravery, whose fidelity had been tried through years of peace, as far as Mons Graupius,[bt] which the enemy had already occupied.

..."For the Britons, indeed, in no way cowed by the result of the late engagement, had made up their minds to be either avenged or enslaved, and convinced at length that a common danger must be averted by union, had, by embassies and treaties, summoned forth the whole strength of all their states.

Chronology:[bu] A Roman altar found in Chester, AD 1653, may provide evidence that the Legio XX worshipped the Gaulish deity Taranis, but using the variant name Tanarus.

Mount Keen is in a geographic area known as The Mounth, an expanse of high plateau that extends west to east from the Cairngorms across to the North Sea coast.

It forms a physical barrier to north-south travel – historians sometimes refer to The Mounth in the context of it being a geo-political border that historically separated the north and south of Pictland.

[bw][bx] Mount Keen is also part of a range of hills that defined the west to east boundary between the former regions of Grampian and Tayside.

It is possible that the people who gave Mount Keen its Scottish Gaelic name ("Monadh Caoin") had a good understanding of its human history.

This area was also occupied by neighbouring tribes: They were probably hunter-gatherer's who also kept animals and grew crops – it was reported that during the Roman advance, prior to the Battle of Mons Graupius, there had been destruction to farm land.

[cc] It was only by about the late 7th century that the descendants of the Vacomagi and Caledones became the contiguous group that we now know as the Picts, with a unique language, culture and identity, and ruled by a single Pictish king.

[cd] The term Picti (first recorded AD c.297) was used in classical sources to distinguish between those Celtic Tribes in Northern Britain who were Romanised[ce] – from those who were outside the Roman rule of law.

[Web 3] To Jupiter Tanarus, Best and Greatest, Lucius Elufrius Praesens of the Galerian voting-tribe, from Clunia, princeps of the Twentieth Legion Valeria Victrix, willingly and deservedly fulfilled his vow in the consulship of Commodus and Lateranus.

[z][aa] Another example of a dedication on stone to Tanarus, by a Gaul named Vebroumarus, was found at Orgon, Bouches du Rhone, France.

[36] Jupiter—Tanarus is a conflation of:[w][ci][cj] ..."horrid Esus with his wild altars"..."heaped divine honours on mountains, hills and rivers..."..."Already more than 30,000 armed men could be observed – Tacitus..."the names of other British groups had been merged into these two main polities......"jovi Optimo Maximo Tanaro...