"Do you suppose that the Romans will be as brave in war as they are licentious in peace? To our strifes and discords they owe their fame, and they turn the errors of an enemy to the renown of their own army, an army which, composed as it is of every variety of nations, is held together by success and will be broken up by disaster. Let us, then, a fresh and unconquered people, never likely to abuse our freedom, show forthwith at the very first onset what heroes Caledonia has in reserve.
Under a woman's leadership the Brigantes were able to burn a colony, to storm a camp, and had not success ended in supineness, might have thrown off the yoke. Since then you cannot hope for quarter, take courage, I beseech you, whether it be safety or renown that you hold most precious. Valour, too, and high spirit in subjects, are offensive to rulers besides, remoteness and seclusion, while they give safety, provoke suspicion. We have neither fruitful plains, nor mines, nor harbours, for the working of which we may be spared. And as in a household the last comer among the slaves is always the butt of his companions, so we in a world long used to slavery, as the newest and most contemptible, are marked out for destruction. Creatures born to slavery are sold once and for all, and are, moreover, fed by their masters but Britain is daily purchasing, is daily feeding, her own enslaved people. Our very hands and bodies, under the lash and in the midst of insult, are worn down by the toil of clearing forests and morasses. Our goods and fortunes they collect for their tribute, our harvests for their granaries. Our wives and our sisters, even though they may escape violation from the enemy, are dishonoured under the names of friendship and hospitality. Yet these are torn from us by conscriptions to be slaves elsewhere. "Nature has willed that every man's children and kindred should be his dearest objects. To robbery, slaughter, plunder, they give the lying name of empire they make a solitude and call it peace ( ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant). Alone among men they covet with equal eagerness poverty and riches. If the enemy be rich, they are rapacious if he be poor, they lust for dominion neither the east nor the west has been able to satisfy them. Robbers of the world, having by their universal plunder exhausted the land, they rifle the deep. But there are no tribes beyond us, nothing indeed but waves and rocks, and the yet more terrible Romans, from whose oppression escape is vainly sought by obedience and submission. Now, however, the furthest limits of Britain are thrown open, and the unknown always passes for the marvellous. To us who dwell on the uttermost confines of the earth and of freedom, this remote sanctuary of Britain's glory has up to this time been a defence. Former contests, in which, with varying fortune, the Romans were resisted, still left in us a last hope of succour, inasmuch as being the most renowned nation of Britain, dwelling in the very heart of the country, and out of sight of the shores of the conquered, we could keep even our eyes unpolluted by the contagion of slavery. And thus in war and battle, in which the brave find glory, even the coward will find safety. To all of us slavery is a thing unknown there are no lands beyond us, and even the sea is not safe, menaced as we are by a Roman fleet. "Whenever I consider the origin of this war and the necessities of our position, I have a sure confidence that this day, and this union of yours, will be the beginning of freedom to the whole of Britain. At that point one of the many leaders, named Calgacus, a man of outstanding valor and nobility, summoned the masses who were already thirsting for battle and addressed them, we are told, in words like these: Already more than 30,000 men made a gallant show, and still they came flocking to the colorsall the young men and those whose 'old age was fresh and green', famous warriors with their battle honors thick upon them.
#LATIN WORD FOR SKY FLEET FULL#
They had realized at last that common action was needed to meet the common danger, and had sent round embassies and drawn up treaties to rally the full force of all their states. The Britons were, in fact, undaunted by the loss of the previous battle, and welcomed the choice between revenge and enslavement. He sent his fleet ahead to plunder at various points and thus spread uncertainty and terror, and, with an army marching light, which he had reinforced with the bravest of the Britons and those whose loyalty had been proved during a long peace, reached the Graupian Mountain, which he found occupied by the enemy. Tacitus: Calgacus' Speech to his Troops (A.D.
0 kommentar(er)
