The Works of Tacitus
tr. by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb
[1864-1877]
Tacitus: Agricola Book 1 [10]
10. The geography and inhabitants of Britain, already described by many writers,
I will speak of, not that my research and ability may be compared with theirs,
but because the country was then for the first time thoroughly subdued. And
so matters, which as being still not accurately known my predecessors embellished
with their eloquence, shall now be related on the evidence of facts.
Britain,
the largest of the islands which Roman geography includes, is so situated that
it faces Germany on the east, Spain on the west; on the south it is even within
sight of Gaul; its northern extremities, which have no shores opposite to them,
are beaten by the waves of a vast open sea. The form of the entire country has
been compared by Livy and Fabius Rusticus, the most graphic among ancient and
modern historians, to an oblong shield or battle-axe. And this no doubt is its
shape without Caledonia, so that it has become the popular description of the
whole island. There is, however, a large and irregular tract of land which juts
out from its furthest shores, tapering off in a wedge-like form. Round these
coasts of remotest ocean the Roman fleet then for the first time sailed, ascertained
that Britain is an island, and simultaneously discovered and conquered what
are called the Orcades, islands hitherto unknown. Thule too was descried in
the distance, which as yet had been hidden by the snows of winter. Those waters,
they say, are sluggish, and yield with difficulty to the oar, and are not even
raised by the wind as other seas. The reason, I suppose, is that lands and mountains,
which are the cause and origin of storms, are here comparatively rare, and also
that the vast depths of that unbroken expanse are more slowly set in motion.
But to investigate the nature of the ocean and the tides is no part of the present
work, and many writers have discussed the subject. I would simply add, that
nowhere has the sea a wider dominion, that it has many currents running in every
direction, that it does not merely flow and ebb within the limits of the shore,
but penetrates and winds far inland, and finds a home among hills and mountains
as though in its own domain.
11. Who were the original inhabitants of Britain, whether they were indigenous
or foreign, is, as usual among barbarians, little known. Their physical characteristics
are various, and from these conclusions may be drawn. The red hair and large
limbs of the inhabitants of Caledonia point clearly to a German origin. The
dark complexion of the Silures, their usually curly hair, and the fact that
Spain is the opposite shore to them, are an evidence that Iberians of a former
date crossed over and occupied these parts. Those who are nearest to the Gauls
are also like them, either from the permanent influence of original descent,
or, because in countries which run out so far to meet each other, climate has
produced similar physical qualities. But a general survey inclines me to believe
that the Gauls established themselves in an island so near to them. Their religious
belief may be traced in the strongly-marked British superstition. The language
differs but little; there is the same boldness in challenging danger, and, when
it is near, the same timidity in shrinking from it. The Britons, however, exhibit
more spirit, as being a people whom a long peace has not yet enervated. Indeed
we have understood that even the Gauls were once renowned in war; but, after
a while, sloth following on ease crept over them, and they lost their courage
along with their freedom. This too has happened to the long-conquered tribes
of Britain; the rest are still what the Gauls once were.
12. Their strength is in infantry. Some tribes fight also with the chariot.
The higher in rank is the charioteer; the dependants fight. They were once ruled
by kings, but are now divided under chieftains into factions and parties. Our
greatest advantage in coping with tribes so powerful is that they do not act
in concert. Seldom is it that two or three states meet together to ward off
a common danger. Thus, while they fight singly, all are conquered.
Their sky is obscured by continual rain and cloud. Severity of cold is unknown.
The days exceed in length those of our part of the world; the nights are bright,
and in the extreme north so short that between sunlight and dawn you can perceive
but a slight distinction. It is said that, if there are no clouds in the way,
the splendour of the sun can be seen throughout the night, and that he does
not rise and set, but only crosses the heavens. The truth is, that the low shadow
thrown from the flat extremities of the earth’s surface does not raise the darkness
to any height, and the night thus fails to reach the sky and stars.
With the exception of the olive and vine, and plants which usually grow in
warmer climates, the soil will yield, and even abundantly, all ordinary produce.
It ripens indeed slowly, but is of rapid growth, the cause in each case being
the same, namely, the excessive moisture of the soil and of the atmosphere.
Britain contains gold and silver and other metals, as the prize of conquest.
The ocean, too, produces pearls, but of a dusky and bluish hue. Some think that
those who collect them have not the requisite skill, as in the Red Sea the living
and breathing pearl is torn from the rocks, while in Britain they are gathered
just as they are thrown up. I could myself more readily believe that the natural
properties of the pearls are in fault than our keenness for gain.
13. The Britons themselves bear cheerfully the conscription, the taxes, and
the other burdens imposed on, them by the Empire, if there be no oppression.
Of this they are impatient; they are reduced to subjection, not as yet to slavery
The deified Julius, the very first Roman who entered Britain with an army, though
by a successful engagement he struck terror into the inhabitants and gained
possession of the coast: must be regarded as having indicated rather than transmitted
the acquisition to future generations. Then came the civil wars, and the arms
of our leaders were turned against their country, and even when there was peace,
there was a long neglect of Britain. This Augustus spoke of as policy. Tiberius
as an inherited maxim. That Caius Car meditated an invasion of Britain is
perfectly clear, but his purposes, rapidly formed, were easily changed, and
his vast attempts on Germany had failed. Claudius was the first to renew the
attempt, and conveyed over into the island some legions and auxiliaries, choosing
Vespasian to share with him the campaign, whose approaching elevation had this
beginning. Several tribes were subdued and kings made prisoners, and destiny
learnt to know its favourite.
14. Aulus Plautius was the first governor of consular rank, and Ostorius
Scapula the next. Both were famous soldiers, and by degrees the nearest portions
of Britain were brought into the condition of a province, and a colony of veterans
was also introduced. Some of the states were given to king Cogidumnus, who lived
down to our day a most faithful ally. So was maintained the ancient and long-recognised
practice of the Roman people, which seeks to secure among the instruments of
dominion even kings themselves. Soon after, Didius Gallus consolidated the conquests
of his predecessors, and advanced a very few positions into parts more remote,
to gain the credit of having enlarged the sphere of government. Didius was succeeded
by Veranius, who died within the year. Then Suetonius Paullinus enjoyed success
for two years; he subdued several tribes and strengthened our military posts.
Thus encouraged, he made an attempt on the island of Mona, as a place from which
the rebels drew reinforcements; but in doing this he left his rear open to attack.
15. Relieved from apprehension by the legate’s absence, the Britons dwelt
much among themselves on the miseries of subjection, compared their wrongs,
and exaggerated them in the discussion. “All we get by patience,” they said,
“is that heavier demands are exacted from us, as from men who will readily submit.
A single king once ruled us; now two are set over us; a legate to tyrannise
over our lives, a procurator to tyrannise over our property. Their quarrels
and their harmony are alike ruinous to their subjects. The centurions of the
one, the slaves of the other, combine violence with insult. Nothing is now safe
from their avarice, nothing from their lust. In war it is the strong who plunders;
now, it is for the most part by cowards and poltroons that our homes are rifled,
our children torn from us, the conscription enforced, as though it were for
our country alone that we could not die. For, after all, what a mere handful
of soldiers has crossed over, if we Britons look at our own numbers. Germany
did thus actually shake off the yoke, and yet its defence was a river, not the
ocean. With us, fatherland, wives, parents, are the motives to war; with them,
only greed and profligacy. They will surely fly, as did the now deified Julius,
if once we emulate the valour of our sires. Let us not be panicstricken at the
result of one or two engagements. The miserable have more fury and greater resolution.
Now even the gods are beginning to pity us, for they are keeping away the Roman
general, and detaining his army far from us in another island. We have already
taken the hardest step; we are deliberating. And indeed, in all such designs,
to dare is less perilous than to be detected.”
16. Rousing each other by this and like language, under the leadership of
Boudicea, a woman of kingly descent (for they admit no distinction of sex in
their royal successions), they all rose in arms. They fell upon our troops,
which were scattered on garrison duty, stormed the forts, and burst into the
colony itself, the head-quarters, as they thought, of tyranny. In their rage
and their triumph, they spared no variety of a barbarian’s cruelty. Had not
Paullinus on hearing of the outbreak in the province rendered prompt succour,
Britain would have been lost. By one successful engagement, he brought it back
to its former obedience, though many, troubled by the conscious guilt of rebellion
and by particular dread of the legate, still clung to their arms. Excellent
as he was in other respects, his policy to the conquered was arrogant, and exhibited
the cruelty of one who was avenging private wrongs. Accordingly Petronius Turpilianus
was sent out to initiate a milder rule. A stranger to the enemy’s misdeeds and
so more accessible to their penitence, he put an end to old troubles, and, attempting
nothing more, handed the province over to Trebellius Maximus. Trebellius, who
was somewhat indolent, and never ventured on a campaign, controlled the province
by a certain courtesy in his administration. Even the barbarians now learnt
to excuse many attractive vices, and the occurrence of the civil war gave a
good pretext for inaction. But we were sorely troubled with mutiny, as troops
habituated to service grew demoralised by idleness. Trebellius, who had escaped
the soldiers’ fury by flying and hiding himself, governed henceforth on sufferance,
a disgraced and humbled man. It was a kind of bargain; the soldiers had their
licence, the general had his life; and so the mutiny cost no bloodshed. Nor
did Vettius Bolanus, during the continuance of the civil wars, trouble Britain
with discipline. There was the same inaction with respect to the enemy, and
similar unruliness in the camp, only Bolanus, an upright man, whom no misdeeds
made odious, had secured affection in default of the power of control.
17. When however Vespasian had restored to unity Britain as well as the rest
of the world, in the presence of great generals and renowned armies the enemy’s
hopes were crushed. They were at once panic-stricken by the attack of Petilius
Cerialis on the state of the Brigantes, said to be the most prosperous in the
entire province. There were many battles, some by no means bloodless, and his
conquests, or at least his wars, embraced a large part of the territory of the
Brigantes. Indeed he would have altogether thrown into the shade the activity
and renown of any other successor; but Julius Frontinus was equal to the burden,
a great man as far as greatness was then possible, who subdued by his arms the
powerful and warlike tribe of the Silures, surmounting the difficulties of the
country as well as the valour of the enemy.
18. Such was the state of Britain, and such were the vicissitudes of the
war, which Agricola found on his crossing over about midsummer. Our soldiers
made it a pretext for carlessness, as if all fighting was over, and the enemy
were biding their time. The Ordovices, shortly before Agricola’s arrival, had
destroyed nearly the whole of a squadron of allied cavalry quartered in their
territory. Such a beginning raised the hopes of the country, and all who wished
for war approved the precedent, and anxiously watched the temper of the new
governor. Meanwhile Agricola, though summer was past and the detachments were
scattered throughout the province, though the soldiers’ confident anticipation
of inaction for that year would be a source of delay and difficulty in beginning
a campaign, and most advisers thought it best simply to watch all weak points,
resolved to face the peril. He collected a force of veterans and a small body
of auxiliaries; then as the Ordovices would not venture to descend into the
plain, he put himself in front of the ranks to inspire all with the same courage
against a common danger, and led his troops up a hill. The tribe was all but
exterminated.
Well aware that he must follow up the prestige of his arms, and that in proportion
to his first success would be the terror of the other tribes, he formed the
design of subjugating the island of Mona, from the occupation of which Paullinus
had been recalled, as I have already related, by the rebellion of the entire
province. But, as his plans were not matured, he had no fleet. The skill and
resolution of the general accomplished the passage. With some picked men of
the auxiliaries, disencumbered of all baggage, who knew the shallows and had
that national experience in swimming which enables the Britons to take care
not only of themselves but of their arms and horses, he delivered so unexpected
an attack that the astonished enemy who were looking for a fleet, a naval armament,
and an assault by sea, thought that to such assailants nothing could be formidable
or invincible. And so, peace having been sued for and the island given up, Agricola
became great and famous as one who, when entering on his province, a time which
others spend in vain display and a round of ceremonies, chose rather toil and
danger. Nor did he use his success for self-glorification, or apply the name
of campaigns and victories to the repression of a conquered people. He did not
even describe his achievements in a laurelled letter. Yet by thus disguising
his renown he really increased it, for men inferred the grandeur of his aspirations
from his silence about services so great.
19. Next, with thorough insight into the feelings of his province, and taught
also, by the experience of others, that little is gained by conquest if followed
by oppression, he determined to root out the causes of war. Beginning first
with himself and his dependants, he kept his household under restraint, a thing
as hard to many as ruling a province. He transacted no public business through
freedmen or slaves; no private leanings, no recommendations or entreaties of
friends, moved him in the selection of centurions and soldiers, but it was ever
the best man whom he thought most trustworthy. He knew everything, but did not
always act on his knowledge. Trifling errors he treated with leniency, serious
offences with severity. Nor was it always punishment, but far oftener penitence,
which satisfied him. He preferred to give office and power to men who would
not transgress, rather than have to condemn a transgressor. He lightened the
exaction of corn and tribute by an equal distribution of the burden, while he
got rid of those contrivances for gain which were more intolerable than the
tribute itself. Hitherto the people had been compelled to endure the farce of
waiting by the closed granary and of purchasing corn unnecessarily and raising
it to a fictitious price. Difficult by-roads and distant places were fixed for
them, so that states with a winter-camp close to them had to carry corn to remote
and inaccessible parts of the country, until what was within the reach of all
became a source of profit to the few.
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