The Roman historian Tacitus put into the mouth of a an ancient Briton leader, about
to face the Roman army, a famous indictment of Roman imperialism.
Meanwhile, among the many leaders, one superior to the rest in valour and in birth,
Galgacus by name, is said to have thus harangued the multitude gathered around him and
clamouring for battle: --
“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. 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. And thus in war and battle, in which the brave find glory, even the coward will
find safety. 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. 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. Now, however, the furthest limits
of Britain are thrown open, and the unknown always passes for the marvellous. 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. Robbers
of the world, having by their universal plunder exhausted the land, they rifle the deep.
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. Alone among men they covet with equal
eagerness poverty and riches. To robbery, slaughter, plunder, they give the lying name of
empire; they make a solitude and call it peace.
“Nature has willed that every man’s children and kindred should be his
dearest objects. Yet these are torn from us by conscriptions to be slaves elsewhere. Our
wives and our sisters, even though they may escape violation from the enemy, are
dishonoured under the names of friendship and hospitality. Our goods and fortunes they
collect for their tribute, our harvests for their granaries. 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. 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. 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. We have neither fruitful plains, nor mines, nor harbours,
for the working of which we may be spared. Valour, too, and high spirit in subjects, are
offensive to rulers; besides, remoteness and seclusion, while they give safety, provoke
suspicion. Since then you cannot hope for quarter, take courage, I beseech you, whether it
be safety or renown that you hold most precious. 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. 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.
“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. These Gauls and
Germans, and, I blush to say, these Britons, who, though they lend their lives to support
a stranger’s rule, have been its enemies longer than its subjects, you cannot imagine
to be bound by fidelity and affection. Fear and terror there certainly are, feeble bonds
of attachment; remove them, and those who have ceased to fear will begin to hate. All the
incentives to victory are on our side. The Romans have no wives to kindle their courage;
no parents to taunt them with flight, man have either no country or one far away. Few in
number, dismayed by their ignorance, looking around upon a sky, a sea, and forests which
are all unfamiliar to them; hemmed in, as it were, and enmeshed, the Gods have delivered
them into our hands. Be not frightened by the idle display, by the glitter of gold and of
silver, which can neither protect nor wound. In the very ranks of the enemy we shall find
our own forces. Britons will acknowledge their own cause; Gauls will remember past
freedom; the other Germans will abandon them, as but lately did the Usipii. Behind them
there is nothing to dread. The forts are ungarrisoned; the colonies in the hands of aged
men; what with disloyal subjects and oppressive rulers, the towns are ill-affected and
rife with discord. On the one side you have a general and an army; on the other, tribute,
the mines, and all the other penalties of an enslaved people. Whether you endure these for
ever, or instantly avenge them, this field is to decide. Think, therefore, as you advance
to battle, at once of your ancestors and of your posterity.”
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