The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus
detained him, under the semblance of friendship, till an occasion should
offer of making use of him. I have frequently heard him assert, that
a single legion and a few auxiliaries would be sufficient entirely to
conquer Ireland and keep it in subjection; and that such an event would
also have contributed to restrain the Britons, by awing them with the
prospect of the Roman arms all around them, and, as it were, banishing
liberty from their sight.
25. In the summer which began the sixth year [104] of Agricola's
administration, extending his views to the countries situated beyond
Bodotria, [105] as a general insurrection of the remoter nations was
apprehended, and the enemy's army rendered marching unsafe, he caused
the harbors to be explored by his fleet, which, now first acting in aid
of the land-forces gave the formidable spectacle of war at once pushed
on by sea and land. The cavalry, infantry, and marines were frequently
mingled in the same camp, and recounted with mutual pleasure their
several exploits and adventures; comparing, in the boastful language of
military men, the dark recesses of woods and mountains, with the
horrors of waves and tempests; and the land and enemy subdued, with
the conquered ocean. It was also discovered from the captives, that the
Britons had been struck with consternation at the view of the fleet,
conceiving the last refuge of the vanquished to be cut off, now the
secret retreats of their seas were disclosed. The various inhabitants of
Caledonia immediately took up arms, with great preparations, magnified,
however, by report, as usual where the truth is unknown; and by
beginning hostilities, and attacking our fortresses, they inspired
terror as daring to act offensively; insomuch that some persons,
disguising their timidity under the mask of prudence, were for instantly
retreating on this side the firth, and relinquishing the country rather
than waiting to be driven out. Agricola, in the meantime, being informed
that the enemy intended to bear down in several bodies, distributed
his army into three divisions, that his inferiority of numbers,
and ignorance of the country, might not give them an opportunity of
surrounding him.
26. When this was known to the enemy, they suddenly changed their
design; and making a general attack in the night upon the ninth legion,
which was the weakest, [106] in the confusion of sleep and consternation
they slaughtered the sentinels, and burst through the intrenchments.
They were now fighting within the camp, when Agricola, who had received
information of their march from his scouts, and followed close upon
their track, gave orders for the swiftest of his horse and foot to
charge the enemy's rear. Presently the whole army raised a general
shout; and the standards now glittered at the approach of day. The
Britons were distracted by opposite dangers; whilst the Romans in the
camp resumed their courage, and secure of safety, began to contend for
glory. They now in their turns rushed forwards to the attack, and a
furious engagement ensued in the gates of the camp; till by the emulous
efforts of both Roman armies, one to give assistance, the other to
appear not to need it, the enemy was routed: and had not the woods and
marshes sheltered the fugitives, that day would have terminated the war.
27. The soldiers, inspirited by the steadfastness which characterized
and the fame which attended this victory, cried out that "nothing could
resist their valor; now was the time to penetrate into the heart
of Caledonia, and in a continued series of engagements at length to
discover the utmost limits of Britain." Those even who had before
recommended caution and prudence, were now rendered rash and boastful by
success. It is the hard condition of military command, that a share in
prosperous events is claimed by all, but misfortunes are imputed to
one alone. The Britons meantime, attributing their defeat not to the
superior bravery of their adversaries, but to chance, and the skill of
the general, remitted nothing of their confidence; but proceeded to arm
their youth, to send their wives and children to places of safety, and
to ratify the confederacy of their several states by solemn assemblies
and sacrifices. Thus the parties separated with minds mutually
irritated.
28. During the same summer, a cohort of Usipii, [107] which had been
levied in Germany, and sent over into Britain, performed an extremely
daring and memorable action. After murdering a centurion and some
soldiers who had been incorporated with them for the purpose of
instructing them in military discipline, they seized upon three light
vessels, and compelled the masters to go on board with them. One of
these, however, escaping to shore, they killed the other two upon
suspicion; and before the affair was publicly known, they sailed away,
as it were by miracle. They were presently driven at the mercy of
the waves; and had frequent conflicts, with various success, with the
Britons, defending their property from plunder. [108] At length they
were reduced to such extremity of distress as to be obliged to feed upon
each other; the weakest being first sacrificed, and then such as were
taken by lot. In this manner having sailed round the island, they lost
their ships through want of skill; and, being regarded as pirates, were
intercepted, first by the Suevi, then by the Frisii. Some of them, after
being sold for slaves, by the change of masters were brought to the
Roman side of the river, [109] and became notorious from the relation of
their extraordinary adventures. [110]
29. In the beginning of the next summer, [111] Agricola received a
severe domestic wound in the loss of a son, about a year old. He bore
this calamity, not with the ostentatious firmness which many have
affected, nor yet with the tears and lamentations of feminine sorrow;
and war was one of the remedies of his grief. Having sent forwards his
fleet to spread its ravages through various parts of the coast, in
order to excite an extensive and dubious alarm, he marched with an
army equipped for expedition, to which he had joined the bravest of
the Britons whose fidelity had been approved by a long allegiance, and
arrived at the Grampian hills, where the enemy was already encamped.
[112] For the Britons, undismayed by the event of the former action,
expecting revenge or slavery, and at length taught that the common
danger was to be repelled by union alone, had assembled the strength
of all their tribes by embassies and confederacies. Upwards of thirty
thousand men in arms were now descried; and the youth, together with
those of a hale and vigorous age, renowned in war, and bearing their
several honorary decorations, were still flocking in; when Calgacus,
[113] the most distinguished for birth and valor among the chieftans,
is said to have harangued the multitude, gathering round, and eager for
battle, after the following manner:--
30. "When I reflect on the causes of the war, and the circumstances of
our situation, I feel a strong persuasion that our united efforts on the
present day will prove the beginning of universal liberty to Britain.
For we are all undebased by slavery; and there is no land behind us, nor
does even the sea afford a refuge, whilst the Roman fleet hovers around.
Thus the use of arms, which is at all times honorable to the brave, now
offers the only safety even to cowards. In all the battles which
have yet been fought, with various success, against the Romans, our
countrymen may be deemed to have reposed their final hopes and resources
in us: for we, the noblest sons of Britain, and therefore stationed in
its last recesses, far from the view of servile shores, have preserved
even our eyes unpolluted by the contact of subjection. We, at the
furthest limits both of land and liberty, have been defended to this
day by the remoteness of our situation and of our fame. The extremity of
Britain is now disclosed; and whatever is unknown becomes an object
of magnitude. But there is no nation beyond us; nothing but waves and
rocks, and the still more hostile Romans, whose arrogance we cannot
escape by obsequiousness and submission. These plunderers of the world,
after exhausting the land by their devastations, are rifling the ocean:
stimulated by avarice, if their enemy be rich; by ambition, if poor;
unsatiated by the East and by the West: the only people who behold
wealth and indigence with equal avidity. To ravage, to slaughter,
to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a
desert, they call it peace. [114]
31. "Our children and relations are by the appointment of nature the
dearest of all things to us. These are torn away by levies to serve in
foreign lands. [115] Our wives and sisters, though they should escape
the violation of hostile force, are polluted under names of friendship
and hospitality. Our estates and possessions are consumed in tributes;
our grain in contributions. Even our bodies are worn down amidst stripes
and insults in clearing woods and draining marshes. Wretches born to
slavery are once bought, and afterwards maintained by their masters:
Britain every day buys, every day feeds, her own servitude. [116] And as
among domestic slaves every new comer serves for the scorn and derision
of his fellows; so, in this ancient household of the world, we, as the
newest and vilest, are sought out to destruction. For we have neither
cultivated lands, nor mines, nor harbors, which can induce them to
preserve us for our labors. The valor too and unsubmitting spirit
of subjects only render them more obnoxious to their masters; while
remoteness and secrecy of situation itself, in proportion as it conduces
to security, tends to inspire suspicion. Since then all Lopes of mercy
are vain, at length assume courage, both you to whom safety and you to
whom glory is dear. The Trinobantes, even under a female leader, had
force enough to burn a colony, to storm camps, and, if success had not
damped their vigor, would have been able entirely to throw off the
yoke; and shall not we, untouched, unsubdued, and struggling not for the
acquisition but the security of liberty, show at the very first onset
what men Caledonia has reserved for her defence?
32. "Can you imagine that the Romans are as brave in war as they are
licentious in peace? Acquiring renown from our discords and dissensions,
they convert the faults of their enemies to the glory of their own army;
an army compounded of the most different nations, which success alone
has kept together, and which misfortune will as certainly dissipate.
Unless, indeed, you can suppose that Gauls, and Germans, and (I blush to
say it) even Britons, who, though they expend their blood to establish
a foreign dominion, have been longer its foes than its subjects, will be
retained by loyalty and affection! Terror and dread alone are the weak
bonds of attachment; which once broken, they who cease to fear will
begin to hate. Every incitement to victory is on our side. The Romans
have no wives to animate them; no parents to upbraid their flight. Most
of them have either no home, or a distant one. Few in number, ignorant
of the country, looking around in silent horror at woods, seas, and a
heaven itself unknown to them, they are delivered by the gods, as it
were imprisoned and bound, into our hands. Be not terrified with an idle
show, and the glitter of silver and gold, which can neither protect nor
wound. In the very ranks of the enemy we shall find our own bands. The
Britons will acknowledge their own cause. The Gauls will recollect their
former liberty. The rest of the Germans will desert them, as the
Usipii have lately done. Nor is there anything formidable behind them:
ungarrisoned forts; colonies of old men; municipal towns distempered and