The Caledonians (Latin: Caledones), or Caledonian Confederacy, is a name given by historians to a group of indigenous peoples of what is now Scotland during the Iron Age and Roman eras. The Romans referred to their territory as Caledonia and initially included them as Britons, but later distinguished as the Picts. The Caledonians were enemies of the Roman Empire, which was the occupying force then administering most of Great Britain as the Roman province called Britannia.

The term Caledones may derive from the Brythonic elements caled "hard, tough" plus the Celtic 'great' suffix, thus *caledonos "great, hard/tough person", *caledoni "great, hard/tough people". Alternatively, it may be derived from the Brythonic calet-donia, again meaning "hard/tough people". It could also derive from the Goidelic element "coille" "forest", i.e. "people of the forest".^{[citation needed]}

The Caledonians, like many Celtic tribes in Britain, were hillfort builders and farmers who defeated and were defeated by the Romans on several occasions. The Romans never fully occupied Caledonia, though several attempts were made. Nearly all of the information that we have about the Caledonians comes from their Roman enemy, and therefore unbiased information may be difficult to obtain.