1. The old tradition of
conveying the actions and behaviors of the famous to future
generations has been continued in the present age, even though
this age has neglected those living in it; today, most ignore and
despise any high and noble performance that is superior to lying
reputation. In the past, however, there was a greater willingness
and greater opportunity to perform acts to be remembered, so
everyone who was able, for one's own satisfaction, without
self-interest, to record examples of great accomplishment. And many
considered it honesty, rather than arrogance, to be their own
biographers. Of this, Rutilius and Scaurus 1 were examples; who were never blamed for this, nor was
the truth of their account called in question; this is the way
achievement was always estimated, when the culture could appreciate
virtue. Since these times are different, I have chosen to write a
history of a deceased person, and an explanation seemed necessary,
one that I would not have to make, if these times had been less
cruel and hostile to splendid deeds. 2
2. We read that when Arulenus Rusticus published the praises
of Paetus Thrasea, and Herennius Senecio those of Priscus Helvidius,
it was thought to be a crime worthy of the death penalty; 3 and the jealous fury of a dictator
was let loose not only against the authors, but against their
writings; so that those great works of genius were burned at the
location for voting in the forum by specially-appointed bureaucrats.
In that fire they thought to extinguish the voice of the Roman
people, the freedom of the senate, and the conscious emotions of
all humankind; capping it off by driving out wise philosophers, 4 and the banishing every liberal art,
so that nothing generous or honorable might remain. We were patient,
however, and in contrast to the utmost liberty in the past, we,
deprived by govenment intrusion of meaningful conversation, experienced
the utmost of slavery. With these restrictions on discussion we
might have forgotten entirely, had we been as able to forget, as we
were forced to be silent.
3. Now we have begun to revive our
spirits. At the first dawning of this happy period,
5 the emperor Nerva united two things thought
incompatible, monarchy and liberty; and Trajan is now daily augmenting
the happiness of the empire; and the public security 6 has not only assured our hopes and wishes, but has seen
those wishes grow in confidence and stability, Even so, we know
from the nature of sickness, remedies are more slow in their operation
than diseases; and, as bodies slowly develop, over time, but they
can perish in a minute, so it is more easy to suppress initiative
and genius than to promote them. For doing nothing becomes attractive;
and laziness, however hateful at first, becomes in time a habit.
During the space of fifteen years, 7
a large slice of human life, how great a number have fallen through
casual events, and, as what happened to all the most distinguished,
extinguished by the cruelty of the emperor; while we, the few who
have survived and outlived not just those others alone, but, if I
may be allowed to say, even ourselves, find a gap of so many years
in our lives, which has silently brought us from youth to maturity,
from mature age to the very edge of life. Still, I will not regret
having written, however ineptly, a remembrance of past public
service, and a testimony of present joy. 8
The present work is dedicated to the honor of my
father-in-law, and may be approved, or at least excused, because
of my honest intention.
4. Cnaeus Julius Agricola was born at
the ancient and illustrious colony of Forumjulii.
9 Both his grandfathers were imperial procurators,
10 an office which confers the
rank of equestrian ("knightly") nobility. His father, Julius
Graecinus, 11 of the senatorian
order, was famous for the study of eloquence and philosophy; and
by these accomplishments he drew on himself the displeasure of Caius
Caesar; 12 for, being commanded
to undertake the accusation of Marcus Silanus, 13--on his refusal, he was put to death. His mother was
Julia Procilla, a lady of exemplary chastity. Educated with tenderness
in her heart, 14 he passed his
childhood and youth attaining every liberal art. He was
preserved from the allurements of vice, not only by a naturally
good disposition, but by being sent very early to pursue his studies
at Massilia; 15 a place where
Grecian politeness and provincial frugality are happily united. I
remember he was used to relate, that in his early youth he would
have devoted himself with more enthusiasm to philosophical speculation than was
suitable to a Roman and a senator, had not the prudence of his
mother restrained the warmth and vehemence of his disposition: for
his lofty and upright spirit, inflamed by the charms of glory and
exalted reputation, led him to the pursuit with more eagerness than
discretion. Reason and riper years tempered his warmth; and from
the study of wisdom, he retained what is most difficult to
encompass: moderation.
5. He learned the rudiments of war in
Britain, under Suetonius Paullinus, an active and prudent commander,
who chose him for his tent companion, in order to form an estimate
of his merit. 16 Nor did Agricola,
like many young men, who convert military service into extreme
self-indulgence, converting his milital title to moral
dissolution or laziness,
or his inexperience, to spend his time in pleasures and
absences from duty; but he employed himself in gaining a knowledge
of the country, making himself known to the army, learning from the
experienced, and imitating the best; neither pressing to be employed
through self-importance, nor avoiding work through fear; and performing
his duty with equal care and spirit. At no other time in truth
was Britain more disturbed or in a state of greater uncertainty. Our
veterans slaughtered, our colonies burnt, 17 our armies cut off, 18--we
were then fighting for safety, afterwards for victory. During
this period, although all things were done under the conduct
General and direction of Suetonius, as well as the distress of the whole
province and the glory of recovering it, all the general's share,
yet these imparted skill, experience, and
incentives to the young Agricola ; and the passion for military glory
entered his soul; such a
passion was not appreciated in those times, 19
in which success was unfavorably judged, and a great reputation
was more dangerous than a bad one.
6. After leaving to
assume the offices of magistracy in Rome, he married Domitia
Decidiana, a lady of illustrious descent, from which connection he
derived credit and support in his pursuit of greater things. They
lived together in admirable harmony and mutual affection; each
giving the preference to the other; a conduct equally praiseworthy in
both, except that a greater degree of praise is due to a good wife,
in proportion as a bad one deserves the greater censure. The choice
of quaestorship 20 gave him Asia Minor
for his province, and the proconsul Salvius Titianus 21 for his superior; by neither of which circumstances
was he corrupted, although the province was wealthy and open to
plunder, and the proconsul, from his rapacious disposition, would
readily have agreed to a mutual concealment of guilt. Agricola's family
was increased there by the birth of a daughter, who was both the
support of his house, and his consolation; for he lost an earlier
son in infancy. The interval between his serving the offices of
quaestor and tribune of the people, and even the year of the latter
magistracy, he passed in rest and inactivity; he well knew the
temper of the times under Nero, in which indolence was wisdom. He
maintained the same tenor of conduct when praetor; for the judiciary
part of the office did not fall to his share. 22 In the exhibition of public games, and the idle trappings
of dignity, he regarded appropriateness and the measured amount of his fortune;
by no means approaching extravagance, yet inclining rather to a
popular course. When he was afterwards appointed by the Emperor Galba to manage
an inquest concerning the offerings which had been presented to the
temples, by his strict attention and diligence he preserved the
state from any further sacrilege than what it had suffered from
Nero. 23
7. The following year 24 inflicted a severe wound on
his peace of mind, and his domestic concerns. The fleet of the Emperor Otho,
roving in a disorderly manner on the Italian coast, 25 attacked the region of Intemelii, 26 a part of Liguria, in which Agricola's mother was
murdered at her own estate, her lands were ravaged, and a great
part of her effects, which had invited the assassins, was carried
off. As Agricola upon this event was hastening to perform the duties
of filial piety, he was overtaken by the news of the Emperor Vespasian's aspiring
to the empire, 27 and immediately
went over to his party. The first acts of power, and the government
of the city, were entrusted to Mucianus; Domitian being at that
time very young, and taking no other privilege from his father's
elevation than that of indulging his dissipated tastes. Mucianus,
having approved Agricola's vigor and trustworthiness in the service
of raising taxes, gave him the command of the twentieth legion,
28 which had appeared reluctant in
swearing allegiance, as soon as Mucianus had heard about the rebellious
practices
of its commander. 29 This legion
had been unmanageable and resistant even to the consular lieutenants;
30 and its late commander, of
praetorian rank, had not sufficient authority to keep it in obedience;
though it was uncertain whether from his own disposition, or that
of his soldiers. Agricola was therefore appointed as his successor
and avenger; but, with an uncommon degree of moderation, he chose
rather to have it appear that he had found the legion obedient,
than that he had made it so.
8. Vettius Bolanus was at that
time governor of Britain, and ruled with a milder sway than was
suitable to so turbulent a province. Under his administration,
Agricola, accustomed to obey, and taught to consult the practical as well
as the glorious, tempered his enthusiasm, and restrained his enterprising spirit.
His virtues had soon a larger field for their display, with the
appointment of Petilius Cerealis, 31
a man of consular dignity, to the government. At first he only
shared the fatigues and dangers of his general; but was presently
allowed to partake of his glory. Cerealis frequently entrusted him
with part of his army as a trial of his abilities; and from the
event sometimes enlarged his command. On these occasions, Agricola
was never pretentious in assuming to himself the merit of his
actions; but always, as a subordinate officer, gave the honor of
his good fortune to his superior. Thus, by his spirit in executing
orders, and his modesty in reporting his success, he avoided envy,
yet did not fail of acquiring reputation.
9. On his return
from commanding the legion he was raised by Vespasian to the patrician
order, and then appointed to governing Aquitania, 32 a distinguished promotion, both
in respect to the office itself, and the hopes of the consulate to
which it destined him. It is a common supposition that military
men, habituated to unscrupulous and rigorous camp procedures,
where things are carried with a strong hand, are deficient in the
behavior and subtlety of genius requisite in civil jurisdiction.
Agricola, however, by his natural prudence, could act with
efficiency and precision even among civilians. He distinguished the
hours of business from those of relaxation. When the court or
tribunal demanded his presence, he was serious, intent, impressive, yet
generally inclined to lenity. When the duties of his office were
over, that powerful man was instantly laid aside. Nothing of sternness,
arrogance, or greed appeared; and, what was a singular
happiness, his good will did not impair his authority, nor his
severity render him less beloved. In fact, to mention integrity and freedom
from corruption in such a man, would be an affront to his virtues.
He did not even seek reputation, an object to which men of worth
frequently sacrifice, by showing off or by cleverness: at the same
time he also avoided
competition with his colleagues, 33
and argument with the procurators. To win in such struggles
he thought inglorious; and to lose, a disgrace. Somewhat
less than three years were spent in this office, when he was recalled
to the immediate prospect of the consulate; while at the same time
a popular opinion prevailed that the government of Britain would
he conferred upon him; an opinion not based upon any suggestions
of his own, but upon his being thought equal to the position. Popular
fame does not always err; sometimes it even directs a choice. When
consul, 34 he contracted his
daughter, a lady already of the happiest potential, to myself, then
a very young man; and after his office ended, I received her
in marriage. He was immediately appointed governor of Britain, and
the pontificate 35 was added to
his other dignities.
10. The situation and inhabitants of
Britain have been described by many writers; 36 and I shall not add to the number with the view of
competing with them in accuracy and skill, but I write because it was first
thoroughly subdued in the period of the present history. Those
things which, before they were established, those writers ornamented with their
eloquence, shall here be related with a faithful adherence to known
facts. Britain, the largest of all the islands which have come
within the knowledge of the Romans, stretches on the east towards
Germany, on the west towards Spain, 37
and on the south it is even within sight of Gaul. Its northern
extremity has no opposite land, but is washed by a wide and open
sea. Livy, the most eloquent of ancient witers, and Fabius Rusticus, of the
modern ones, have compared the shape of Britain to an oblong
shield, or a two-edged axe. 38 And
this is in reality its appearance, exclusive of Caledonia; whence
it has been popularly attributed to the whole island. But that tract
of country, irregularly stretching out to an immense length towards
the furthest shore, is gradually contracted in form of a wedge. 39 The Roman fleet, at this period
first sailing round this remotest coast, gave certain proof that
Britain was an island; and at the same time discovered and subdued
the Orcades, 40 islands till then
unknown. Thule 41 was also distinctly
seen, which winter and eternal snow had hitherto concealed. The sea
is reported to be sluggish and difficult to a rower; and even to
be scarcely agitated by winds. The cause of this stagnation I imagine
to be the deficiency of land and mountains where tempests are
generated; and the difficulty with which such a mighty mass of
waters, in an uninterrupted main, is put in motion. 42 It is not the business of this work to investigate the
nature of the ocean and the tides; a subject which many writers
have already undertaken. I shall only add one circumstance: that
the dominion of the sea is nowhere more extensive; that it carries
many currents in this direction and in that; and its ebbs and
flows are not confined to the shore, but the sea penetrates into the
heart of the country, and works its way among hills and mountains,
as though it were in its own domain. 43
11. Who were the first inhabitants of Britain,
whether indigenous 44 or immigrants,
is a question involved in the obscurity usual among barbarians.
Their physical condition is various, and from this deductions are formed
of their different origin. Thus, the ruddy hair and large limbs of
the Caledonians 45 point out a
German derivation. The swarthy complexion and curled hair of the
Silures, 46 together with their
situation opposite to Spain, render it probable that a colony of
the ancient Iberi 47 possessed
themselves of that territory. They who are nearest Gaul 48 resemble the inhabitants of that
country; whether from the duration of hereditary influence, or
whether it be that when lands jut forward in opposite directions,
49 climate gives the same condition
of body to the inhabitants of both. On a general survey, however,
it appears probable that the Gauls originally took possession of
the neighboring coast. The sacred rites and superstitions 50 of these people are discernible
among the Britons. The languages of the two peoples do not greatly
differ. The same audacity in provoking danger, and irresolution in
facing it when present, is observable in both. The Britons, however,
display more ferocity, 51 not being
yet softened by a long peace: for it appears from history that the
Gauls were once famous in warfare, till, losing their courage with their
liberty, sluggishness and indolence entered among them. The same change
has also taken place among those of the Britons who have been long
subdued; 52 but the rest continue
such as the Gauls formerly were.
12. Their military strength
consists in infantry; some British tribes also make use of chariots in
war; in the management of which, the most esteemed person guides
the reins, while his dependents fight from the chariot.
53 The Britons were formerly governed by kings,
54 but at present they are divided
in factions and parties among their chiefs; and this want of unity
for organizing some general plan is the most favorable circumstance
to us, in our ambitions against so powerful a people. It is seldom
that two or three communities concur in repelling the common danger;
and thus, while they engage singly, they are all subdued. The sky
in this country is deformed by clouds and frequent rains; but the
cold is never extremely rigorous. 55
The length of the days greatly exceeds that in our part of the
world. 56 The nights are bright,
and, at the extremity of the island, so short, that the close and
return of day is scarcely distinguished by a perceptible interval.
It is even asserted that, when clouds do not intervene, the splendor
of the sun is visible during the whole night, and that it does not
appear to rise and set, but to move across the sky.57 The cause of this is, that the extreme and flat parts
of the earth, casting a low shadow, do not throw up the darkness,
and so night falls beneath the sky and the stars. 58 The soil, though improper for the olive, the vine, and
other productions of warmer climates, is fertile, and suitable for
grain. Growth is quick, but maturation slow; both from the same
cause, the great humidity of the ground and the atmosphere. 59 The earth yields gold and silver
60 and other metals, the rewards
of victory. The ocean produces pearls, 61 but of a cloudy and ashen hue; which some impute to
a lack of skill in the gatherers; for in the Red Sea the oysters are
plucked from the rocks alive and vigorous, but in Britain they are
collected as the sea throws them up. For my own part, I can more
readily conceive that the defect is in the nature of the pearls
than in our avarice.
13. The Britons cheerfully submit to
taxes, tributes, and the other services of government, if they are
not treated injuriously; but such treatment they bear with impatience,
their subjection only extending to obedience, not to servitude.
Julius Caesar, 62 was the
first Roman who entered Britain with an army; but, although he terrified
the inhabitants by a successful engagement, and became master of
the shore, he may be considered to have transmitted rather the discovery
than the possession of the country to posterity. The Roman civil wars
soon followed; the leaders' weapons were turned against their
country; and a long neglect of Britain ensued, which continued even
after the establishment of peace. This Augustus attributed to policy;
and Tiberius to the injunctions of his predecessor. 63 It is certain that Caius Caesar 64 considered an expedition into Britain; but his mindset,
quick in forming schemes, and unsteady in pursuing them,
together with the ill success of his mighty attempts against Germany,
rendered the design abortive. Claudius 65 accomplished the undertaking, transporting his legions
and auxiliaries; and he associated Vespasian in the direction of
affairs, which laid the foundation of his future fortune. In this
expedition, tribes were subdued, kings made captive, and Vespasian
was delivered to the fates.
14. Aulus Plautius, the first
consular governor, and his successor, Ostorius Scapula,
66 were both eminent in military abilities.
Under them, the nearest part of Britain was gradually reduced into
the form of a province, and a colony of veterans 67 was settled. Certain districts were bestowed upon king
Cogidunus, a ruler who continued in perfect fidelity within our
own memory. This was done agreeably to the ancient and long established
practice of the Romans, to make even kings the instruments of
Roman enslavement. Didius Gallus, the next governor, preserved the acquisitions
of his predecessors, and added a very few fortified posts in the
remoter parts, for the fame attached to enlarging his province. Veranius
succeeded, but died within the year. Suetonius Paullinus then
commanded with success for two years, subduing various tribes, and
establishing garrisons. In the confidence with which this inspired
him, he undertook an expedition against the island Mona, 68 which had furnished the rebels
with supplies; and he thereby exposed the settlements behind him to a
surprise.
15. For the Britons, relieved from present dread by
the absence of the governor, began to hold conferences, in which
they described the miseries of servitude, compared their several
injuries, and inflamed each other with such representations as
these: "That the only result of their patience was still more grievous
explotations of a people who had submitted so easily. That formerly
they had one king for each tribe; now two were set over them, the
lieutenant and the procurator, the former venting his rage
upon their life's blood, the latter upon their properties; 69 that either the agreement or disagreement 70 between these governors was equally
fatal to those whom they ruled, while the officers of the one, and
the centurions of the other, joined in oppressing them by all kinds
of violence and contempt; so that nothing was beyond their
greed, nothing beyond their lust. In battle it was the bravest who
took spoils; but those officials whom they allowed to seize British houses,
force away British children, and levy taxes, were, for the most
part, the cowardly and weak; as if the only lesson of suffering
of which they were ignorant was how to die for their country. Yet
how inconsiderable would the number of invaders appear if the
Britons were to calculate their own forces. From considerations like these,
Germany had thrown off the Roman yoke, 71
though only a river 72 and not the ocean
was its barrier. The welfare of the British people, their wives, and
their parents called them to fight, while greed and indulgence alone
spurred their enemies; these Romans would withdraw as even the deified Julius
had done, if the present race of Britons would emulate the courage
of their ancestors, and not be disheartened at the event of the first
or second battle. Superior spirit and perseverence were always
the possession of the wretched; and the gods themselves now seemed to
compassionate the Britons, by ordaining the absence of the general,
and detaining his army on another island. The most difficult
point, that of assembling in order to deliberate, was already
accomplished; and there was always more danger from the discovery
of designs like these, than from their execution."
16. Whipped up
by such insights, they unanimously rose to weapons, led by Boadicea,
73 a woman of royal descent (for
they make no distinction between the sexes in succession to the
throne), and attacking the soldiers dispersed through the garrisons,
stormed the fortified posts, and invaded the colony 74 itself, as the seat of slavery. They practiced every kind
of cruelty with which rage and victory could inspire barbarians;
and had not Paullinus, on being acquainted with the commotion of
the province, marched speedily to its relief, Britain would have
been lost. The fortune of a single battle, however, reduced it to
its former subjection; but many still remained armed, those whom the
consciousness of revolt, and particular dread of the governor, had
driven to despair. Paullinus, although otherwise exemplary in his
administration, treated those who surrendered with severity,
and pursued too rigorous measures, as one who was revenging
his own personal injury as well; so Petronius Turpilianus 75 was sent in his place, as someone more inclined to
be lenient, and one who, being unacquainted with the enemy's offensive acts,
could more easily accept their penitence. After having restored
conditions to their former quiet state, he delivered the command to
Trebellius Maximus. 76 Trebellius,
lazy, and inexperienced in military affairs, maintained the
tranquillity of the province by popular practices; for even the
barbarians, seduced by vice, had now learned to excuse repressive
behavior; and the intervention of more Roman civil wars afforded a legitimate
excuse for his inactivity. Sedition however infected the soldiers,
who, instead of their usual military services, were rioting in
boredom. Trebellius, after escaping the fury of his army by flight
and concealment, dishonored and abased, regained a precarious
authority; and a kind of tacit compact took place, of safety for the
general, and immorality for the army. This mutiny did not involve
bloodshed. Vettius Bolanus, 77
succeeding during the continuance of the civil wars, was unable to
introduce discipline into Britain. The same inaction towards the
enemy, and the same insolence in the camp, continued; except that
Bolanus, unblemished in his character, and not obnoxious by any
crime, in some measure substituted affection for
authority.
17. At length, when Vespasian received the possession
of Britain together with the rest of the world, the great commanders
and well-appointed armies which were sent over lessened the confidence
of the enemy; and Petilius Cerealis struck terror by an attack upon
the Brigantes, 78 who are reputed
to form the most populous tribe in the whole province. Many
battles were fought, some of them attended with much bloodshed; and
the greater part of the Brigantes were either brought into subjection,
or destroyed in the ravages of war. The conduct and reputation of
Cerealis were both so brilliant that they might have eclipsed the splendor
of a successor; yet Julius Frontinus, 79 a truly great man, continued the arduous competition,
as far as circumstances would permit. 80 He subdued the strong and warlike tribe of the Silures,
81 in which expedition, besides
the courage of the enemy, he had the difficulties of the country to
struggle with.
18. Such was the state of Britain, and such
had been the vicissitudes of warfare, when Agricola arrived in the
middle of summer; 82 at a time
when the Roman soldiers, supposing that the expeditions for that year had been
concluded, were thinking of enjoying themselves without care, and
the natives were thinking of seizing the opportunity thus afforded them. Not
long before Agricola's arrival, the Ordovices 83 had cut off almost an entire corps of cavalry stationed
on their frontiers; and this beginning threw the inhabitants of the province
into anxious suspense, because war
was what they wished for, and they either approved of the example, or waited
to discover the disposition of the new governor. 84 The season was now far advanced, the troops dispersed
through the country, and onvinced that they would be allowed
to remain inactive during the rest of the year; these circumstances
tended to delay and discourage any military enterprise; for this reason
it was generally thought most advisable to content with defending
the most vulnerable posts: yet Agricola determined to march out and meet
the approaching danger. For this purpose, he drew together the
detachments from the legions, 85
and a small body of auxiliaries; and when he perceived that the
Ordovices would not venture to descend into the plain, he led an
advanced party in person to the attack, in order to inspire the
rest of his troops with equal enthusiasm. The result of the action was
almost the total annihilation of the Ordovices; when Agricola,
sensible that fame must be followed up, and that the future events
of the war would be determined by the first success, resolved to
attack the island Mona, from which
Paullinus had been previously summoned by the general rebellion of Britain,
as before related. 86 The usual
deficiency of an spontaneous expedition is a deficiency of
transport vessels; both the ability and resolution of the general were
exerted to mend this defect. A select body of auxiliaries,
relieved of their baggage, men well acquainted with the
fords, and accustomed, after the manner of their homeland, to direct
their horses and manage their arms while swimming, 87 were ordered to plunge suddenly into the channel; because of
this expediency, the enemy, who expected the arrival of a fleet, and
a formal invasion by sea, were struck with terror and astonishment,
conceiving nothing too difficult or impossible to troops who in this way
began an attack. They were therefore persuaded to sue for peace, and
to surrender of the island; an event which made the
name of Agricola lustrous; he, upon entering his province, had
employed in action and dangers the time which is usually devoted
to ostentatious parade, and the compliments of office. Nor was he
tempted, in the pride of success, to term that an expedition or a
victory; it was only controling the vanquished; he did not even to announce
his success in dispatches displaying laurel leaves. 88
But concealing his glory served to increase it; since men
were now induced to imagine the magnificence of his future,
when such important services would be passed over in silence.
19. Well acquainted with the condition of the province, and taught
by the experience of former governors how little progress had
been effected by war, where success was followed by injuries, he next
undertook to eradicate the causes of war. And beginning with himself,
and those next to him, he first established restrictions for his own
household, a task no less difficult to most governors than the
administration of the province. He allowed no public business to
pass through the hands of his slaves or freedmen. In appointing
soldiers to service, 89
in order to attend to his person, he was not influenced by private
favor, or the centurions' recommendations or requests, but
he considered the best men as likely to prove the most faithful. He
would know everything; but was content to let some things pass
unnoticed. 90 He could pardon small
faults, and use severity to great ones; yet did not always punish,
but was frequently satisfied with penitence. He chose rather to
confer offices and employments upon such as would not offend, than
to condemn those who had offended. The augmentation 91 of tributes and contributions he mitigated by a just
and equal assessment, abolishing those private demands which were
more painful to be obeyed than the taxes themselves. For the
inhabitants, insulted by the Romans, had been compelled to ignore their own
locked-up granaries, to buy grain needlessly, and to sell it again
at a stated price. Long and difficult journeys had also been imposed
upon them; for the several districts, instead of being allowed to
supply the nearest winter quarters, were forced to carry their grain
to remote and roundabout places; by which means, what was easy to be
procured by all, was converted into an article of gain to a few.
20. By suppressing these abuses in the first year of his
administration, he established a favorable idea of peace, which,
through the negligence or oppression of his predecessors, had been
no less dreaded than war. At the return of summer
92 he assembled his army. On their march, he
commended those who were regular and orderly, and restrained the stragglers;
he marked out the encampments, 93
and explored in person the estuaries and forests. At the same time
he perpetually harassed the enemy by sudden incursions; and, after
sufficiently alarming them, by an interval of forbearance, he held
to their view the benefits of peace. By this management, many
tribes, which until that time had asserted their independence, were
now induced to forget their animosity, and to deliver hostages.
These districts were surrounded with camps and forts, disposed
with so much attention and judgment, that no part of Britain,
up to now new to the Roman arms, escaped unattended.
21. The
succeeding winter was employed in the most excellent measures. In
order, by a taste of pleasures, to reclaim the natives from that
rude and unsettled state which prompted them to war, and reconcile
them to quiet and tranquillity, he incited them, by private
instigations and public encouragements, to erect temples, courts
of justice, and dwelling-houses. He distributed commendations to
those who were prompt in complying with his intentions, and reprimanded
such as were late; he thus promoted a spirit of emulation which
had all the force of necessity. He was also attentive to provide a
liberal education for the sons of their chieftains, preferring the
natural genius of the Britons to the attainments of the Gauls; and
his attempts were attended with such success, that they who before had
disdained to use the Roman language, were now ambitious to
be eloquent. Hence the Roman habit began to be held in honor,
and the toga was frequently worn. At length they gradually deviated
into a taste for those excesses which stimulate vice; porticos,
and baths, and the elegancies of the table; and this, from their
inexperience, they termed culture, while, in reality, it
constituted a part of their slavery.
22. The military expeditions
of the third year 94 discovered
new tribes to the Romans, and Roman ravages extended as far as the
estuary of the Tay. 95 The enemies
were thereby struck with such terror that they did not venture to
molest the army, though it had been harassed by violent tempests; the
Romans, then,
had sufficient opportunity to erect fortresses. 96 Persons of experience remarked
that no general had ever shown greater skill than Agricola in the choice of
advantageous situations; for not one of his fortified
posts was either taken by storm, or surrendered by capitulation.
The garrisons made frequent sallies [suprise attacks]; for they were secured against
a blockade by a year's provision in their stores. Thus the winter
passed without alarm, and each garrison proved sufficient for its
own defence; while the enemy, who were generally accustomed to
copensate for the losses of the summer by the successes of the winter, now
equally unfortunate in both seasons, were baffled and driven to
despair. In these transactions, Agricola never attempted to impute
to himself the glory of others; but he always bore an impartial testimony
to the meritorious actions of his officers, from the centurion to
the commander of a legion. He was represented by some as rather
harsh in correction; as if the same disposition which made him affable
to the deserving, had inclined him to severity towards the worthless.
But his anger left no remains behind; his silence and reserve were
not to be dreaded; and he esteemed it more honorable to show marks
of open displeasure than to entertain secret hatred.
23. The
fourth summer 97 was spent in
securing the country which had been overrun; and if the courage of
the army and the glory of the Roman name had permitted it, our
conquests would have found a limit within Britain itself. For the
tides of the opposite seas, flowing very far up the estuaries of
Clota and Bodotria, 98 almost
intersect the country; leaving only a narrow neck of land, which
was then defended by a chain of forts. 99 Thus all the territory on this side was held in
subjection, and the remaining enemies were removed, as it were,
into another island.
24. In the fifth campaign,
100 Agricola, crossing over in the first ship,
101 subdued, by frequent and
successful engagements, several tribes till then unknown; and
stationed troops in that part of Britain which is opposite to
Ireland, rather with a view to future advantage, than from any
apprehension of danger from that quarter. For the possession of
Ireland, situated between Britain and Spain, and lying widely
to the Gallic sea, 102 would
have formed a very beneficial connection between the most powerful
parts of the empire. This island is less than Britain, but larger
than those of our sea. 103 Its
soil, climate, and the manners and dispositions of its inhabitants,
are little different from those of Britain. Its ports and harbors
are better known, from the concourse of merchants for the purposes
of commerce. Agricola had received into his protection one of its
petty kings, who had been expelled by a domestic sedition; and
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 regions situated beyond Bodotria, 105 as a general insurrection of the remoter tribes was
discovered, 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 rumor, as usual where
the truth is unknown; and by beginning hostilities, and attacking
our fortresses, they inspired terror as daring to act offensively;
so 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 entrenchments.
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; while the
Romans in the camp rekindled their courage, and secure in 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 eager 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 courage; 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 now became 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, lost no confidence; but proceeded to arm
their youth, to send their wives and children to places of safety,
and to cement the confederacy of their several peoples by solemn
assemblies and sacrifices. Thus the parties separated with minds
mutually furious.
28. During the same summer, a cohort of
Usipii, 107 which had been
raised in Germany, and sent over into Britain, performed an extremely
daring and unforgetable 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 captains to go on board with them.
One of these capitains, however, escaped to shore, and
they killed the other two
in suspicion; and before the affair was publicly known, they
sailed away, as it were by pure luck. They were presently driven at
the mercy of the waves; and they had frequent skirmishes, 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 a throw of dice. In this manner having sailed round the island, they
lost their ships through a lack 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
showy 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 doubtful 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 danger common to them all must 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
perceived; 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 courage among the
chieftains, is said to have addressed ["harangued"]
the multitude, gathering round and eager for battle, in the following way:
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 not debased by slavery; and there is no land
behind us, nor does even the sea afford a refuge, while 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 tribe beyond us; nothing but waves and rocks, and
the still more hostile Romans, whose arrogance we cannot escape by
debasement and submission. These plunderers of the world, after
exhausting the land by their devastations, are rifling the ocean:
stimulated by greed, if their enemy be rich; by ambition, if poor;
unsatiated by the East and by the West: the only people who behold
wealth and poverty with equal enthusiasm. 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 conscription 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 taxes; our grain in
contributions. Even our bodies are worn down admid whippings 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 newcomer serves enduring 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 courage 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 hopes of mercy
are useless, 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 power, 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 defense?
32. "Can you imagine that the Romans are as brave in war as
they are immoral in peace? Acquiring fame from our discords
and dissensions, they convert the faults of their enemies into the
glory of their own army, an army composed of the most different
peoples, which success alone has kept together, and which misfortune
will as certainly dissolve. Indeed, can you 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; this attachment, when it is broken, means that
they who cease to fear will begin
to hate. Every incitement to victory is on our side. The Romans
have no wives to inspire them; no parents to abhor 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 dysfunctional and distracted
between unjust masters and ill-obeying subjects. Here is a general;
here an army. There, taxes, excavated mines, and all the instances of punishments
inflicted on slaves; these, whether to bear eternally, or instantly
to revenge, this field must determine. March then to battle, and
think of your ancestors and your posterity."
33. They received
this harangue eagerly, and testified their applause after the
barbarian manner, with songs, and yells, and dissonant shouts. And
now the several divisions were in motion, the glittering of arms
was beheld, while the most daring and impetuous were hurrying to
the front, and the line of battle was forming; when Agricola,
although his soldiers were in high spirits, and scarcely to be kept
within their entrenchments, kindled additional enthusiasm by these
words:
"It is now the eighth year, my fellow-soldiers, in
which, under the high fortunes of the Roman empire, by your courage
and perseverance you have been conquering Britain. In so many
expeditions, in so many battles, whether you have been required to
exert your courage against the enemy, or your patient labors against
the very nature of the country, neither have I ever been dissatisfied
with my soldiers, nor you with your general. In this mutual confidence,
we have proceeded beyond the limits of former commanders and former
armies; and are now become acquainted with the extremity of the
island, not by uncertain rumor, but by actual possession with our
arms and encampments. Britain is discovered and subdued. How often
on a march, when impeded by mountains, bogs and rivers, have
I heard the bravest among you exclaim, 'When shall we see the
enemy? when shall we be led to the field of battle?' At length they
have moved out from their retreats; your wishes and your courage have
now free scope; and every circumstance is equally propitious to the
victor, and ruinous to the vanquished. For, the greater our glory
in having marched over vast tracts of land, penetrated forests, and
crossed arms of the sea, while advancing towards the foe, the greater
will be our danger and difficulty if we should attempt a retreat.
We are inferior to our enemies in knowledge of the country, and
less able to obtain provisions; but we have arms in our
hands, and in these we have everything. For myself, it has long
been my principle, that either a retreating general or an army is never safe.
Not only, then, are we to reflect that death with honor is preferable
to life with shame, but we are to remember that security and glory are
seated in the same place. Even to fall in this extremest edge of
earth and of nature cannot be thought an inglorious fate.
34.
"If unknown tribes or untried troops were drawn up against you, I
would exhort you from the example of other armies. At present,
remember your own honors, question your own eyes. These are they,
who, the last year, attacking by surprise a single legion in the
obscurity of the night, were put to flight by a shout: these were the greatest
fugitives of all the Britons, and therefore the longest survivors.
As in penetrating woods and thickets the fiercest animals boldly
rush on the hunters, while the weak and fearful flee at their very
noise; so the bravest of the Britons have long since fallen: the
remaining number consists solely of the cowardly and spiritless;
these you see at length within your reach, not because they have
stood their ground, but because they are overtaken. Paralyzed with
fear, their bodies are fixed and chained down in yonder field, which
to you will speedily be the scene of a glorious and memorable
victory. Here bring your works and services to a conclusion; close
a struggle of fifty years 118
with one great day; and convince your countrymen, that to the army
ought not to be imputed either the lentherning of war, or the causes
of rebellion."
35. While Agricola was yet speaking, the enthusiasm
of the soldiers declared itself; and as soon as he had finished,
they burst forth into cheerful acclamations, and instantly flew to
arms. Thus eager and impetuous, he formed them so that the centre
was occupied by the auxiliary infantry, in number eight thousand,
and three thousand horse were spread in the wings. The legions were
stationed in the rear, before the entrenchments; a disposition which
would render the victory signally glorious, if it were obtained
without the expense of Roman blood; and would ensure support if the
rest of the army were repulsed. The British troops, for the greater
display of their numbers, and more formidable appearance, were
ranged upon the rising grounds, so that the first line stood upon
the plain, the rest, as if linked together, rose above one another
upon the ascent. The charioteers 119
and horsemen filled the middle of the field with their restlessness and
rearing. Then Agricola, fearing from the superior number of the
enemy lest he should be obliged to fight as well on his flanks as
in front, extended his ranks; and although this rendered his line
of battle less firm, and several of his officers advised him to
bring up the legions, yet, filled with hope, and resolute in danger,
he dismissed his horse and took his station on foot before the
standards.
36. At first the action was carried on at a distance.
The Britons, armed with long swords and short shields,
120 with steadiness and dexterity avoided or
struck down our missile weapons, and at the same time poured in a
torrent of their own. Agricola then encouraged three Batavian and
two Tungrian 121 cohorts to fall
in and come to close quarters; a method of fighting familiar to
these veteran soldiers, but a hardship to the enemy from the
nature of their armor; for the enormous British swords, blunt at
the point, are unfit for close grappling, and engaging in a confined
space. When the Batavians, therefore, began to redouble their blows,
to strike with the bosses of their shields, and mangle the faces
of the enemy, and, bearing down all those who resisted them on the
plain, were advancing their lines up the ascent, the other cohorts,
fired with enthusiasm and emulation, joined in the charge, and overthrew
all who came in their way: and so great was their impetuosity in
the pursuit of victory, that they left many of their foes half dead
or unhurt behind them. In the meantime their troops of cavalry took
to flight, and the armed chariots mingled in the engagement of the
infantry; but although their first shock occasioned some consternation,
they were soon entangled among the close ranks of the cohorts, and
the inequalities of the ground. Not the least appearance was left
of an engagement of cavalry; since the men, long keeping their
ground with difficulty, were forced along with the bodies of the
horses; and frequently, straggling chariots, and affrighted horses
without their riders, flying variously as terror impelled them,
rushed obliquely crosswise or directly through the lines. 122
37. Those of the Britons
who, yet disengaged from the fight, sat on the summits of the hills,
and looked with careless contempt on the smallness of our numbers,
now began gradually to descend; and would have fallen on the rear
of the conquering troops, had not Agricola, foreseeing this very
event, opposed four reserved squadron of horse to their attack,
which, the more furiously they had advanced, drove them back with
the greater speed. Their project was thus turned against themselves;
and the squadrons were ordered to wheel from the front of the battle
and fall upon the enemy's rear. A striking and hideous spectacle
now appeared on the plain: some pursuing; some striking: some making
prisoners, whom they slaughtered as others came in their way. Now,
as their several dispositions prompted, crowds of armed Britons
fled before inferior numbers; or a few Britons, even those unarmed, rushed upon
their foes, offering themselves to a voluntary death. Arms,
carcasses, and mangled limbs were widely scattered, and the
field was dyed in blood. Even among the vanquished were seen instances
of rage and courage. When the fugitives approached the woods, they
regrouped, and surrounded the foremost of the pursuers, who had advanced
incautiously, unacquainted with the country; and had not Agricola,
who was everywhere present, caused some strong and lightly-equipped
cohorts to surround the ground, while part of the dismounted cavalry
made way through the thickets, and part on horseback scoured the
open woods, had not he anticipated this,
some disaster would have proceeded from the pursuers' excess of
confidence. But when the enemy saw the Romans again formed in
compact order, they renewed their flight, not in groups as before,
or waiting for their companions, but scattered and mutually avoiding
each other; and thus took their way to the most distant and hidden
retreats. Night and abundance of slaughter put an end to the pursuit.
Of the enemy ten thousand were slain: on our part three hundred and
sixty fell; among these was Aulus Atticus, the praefect of a cohort,
who, by his juvenile enthusiasm, and the fire of his horse, was borne
into the midst of the enemy.
38. Success and plunder made
the night joyful to the victors; while the Britons,
wandering and forlorn, amid the widespread lamentations of men and
women, were dragging along the wounded; calling out to the unhurt;
abandoning their dwellings, and in the rage of despair setting
them on fire; choosing places of concealment, and then deserting
them; consulting together, and then separating. Sometimes, on
beholding the dear pledges of kindred and affection, they were
melted into tenderness, or more frequently roused into fury; so much so
that several, according to authentic information, instigated by a
savage compassion, laid violent hands upon their own wives and
children. On the succeeding day, a vast silence all around, desolate
hills, the distant smoke of burning houses, and not a living soul
seen by the scouts, displayed more amply the face of victory.
After parties had been detached to all quarters without discovering
any certain tracks of the enemy's flight, or any bodies of them
still in arms, as the lateness of the season rendered it impracticable
to spread the war through the country, Agricola led his army to the
confines of the Horesti. 123
Having received hostages from this people, he ordered the commander
of the fleet to sail round the island; for which expedition he was
furnished with sufficient force, and preceded by the terror associated
with the Roman name. He himself then led back the cavalry and infantry,
marching slowly, that he might impress a deeper awe on the newly
conquered tribes; and at length distributed his troops into their
winter-quarters. The fleet, about the same time, with prosperous
gales and fame, entered the Trutulensian 124 harbor, from which, coasting all the further shore of
Britain, it returned entire to its former station. 125
39. The account of these transactions, although
unadorned with the glory of words in the letters of Agricola, was
received by the Emperor Domitian, as was customary with that monarch,
with outward
expressions of joy, but inward anxiety. He was conscious that his
late mock-triumph over Germany, 126
in which he had exhibited purchased slaves, whose habits and hair
127 were contrived to give them
the resemblance of captives, was a subject of derision; in contrast
here, a real and important victory, in which so many thousands of
the enemy were slain, was celebrated with universal applause. His
greatest dread was that the name of a private man should be exalted
above that of the emperor. In vain had he silenced the eloquence of
the forum, and cast a shade upon all civil honors, if military glory
were still in possession of another. Other accomplishments might
more easily be connived at, but the talents of a great general were
truly imperial. Tortured with such anxious thoughts, and brooding
over them in secret, 128 a certain
indication of some malignant intention, he judged it most prudent
for the present to suspend his rancor, until the first burst of glory
and the affections of the army should fade: for Agricola still
possessed the command in Britain.
40. Domitian therefore caused the
senate to decree Agricola triumphal ornaments, 129--a statue crowned with laurel, and all the other
honors which are substituted for a real triumph, together with a
profusion of complimentary expressions; and he also directed that an
expectation be raised that the province of Syria, vacant by the
death of Atilius Rufus, a consular man, and usually reserved for
persons of the greatest distinction, would be designed for Agricola. It
was commonly believed that one of the freedmen, who were employed
in confidential services, was despatched with the instrument
appointing Agricola to the government of Syria, with orders to
deliver it if he should be still in Britain; but it wasa also believed
that this messenger,
meeting Agricola in the straits, 130
returned directly to Domitian without so much as confronting him. 131 Whether this was really the
fact, or only a fiction founded on the mentality and character of the
emperor, is uncertain. Agricola, in the meantime, had delivered the
province, in peace and security, to his successor; 132 and lest his entry into the city should be rendered
too conspicuous by the concourse and acclamations of the people,
he declined the salutation of his friends by arriving in the night;
and went by night, as he was commanded, to the palace. There, after
being received with a slight embrace, but not a word spoken, he was
mingled with the servile throng. In this situation, he endeavored
to soften the glare of military reputation, which is offensive to
those who themselves live in laziness, by the practice of virtues
of a different cast. He resigned himself to ease and tranquillity,
was modest in his clothing and equipment, affable in conversation, and
in public was only accompanied by one or two of his friends; so much so
that the many, who are accustomed to form their ideas of great men
from their slaves and appearance, when they saw Agricola, were likely
to call his fame into question: few could understand his conduct.
41. He was frequently, during that period, accused in his absence
before Domitian, and in his absence also acquitted. The source of
his danger was not any criminal action, nor the complaint of any
injured person; but a ruler hostile to virtue, and his own high
reputation, and the worst kind of enemies, eulogists.
133 For the situation of public affairs which
followed was such as would not permit the name of Agricola to rest
in silence: so many armies in Moesia, Dacia, Germany, and Pannonia
lost through the terror or cowardice of their generals; 134 so many men of military character,
with numerous cohorts, defeated and taken prisoners; while a dubious
struggle was maintained, not for the boundaries of the empire, and
the banks of the bordering rivers, 135 but for the winter-quarters of the legions, and the
possession of our territories. In this state of things, when loss
succeeded loss, and every year was signaled by disasters and
slaughters, the public voice loudly demanded Agricola for general:
every one comparing his strength, firmness, and experience in war,
with the laziness and weak-spiritedness of the others. It is certain
that the ears of Domitian himself were battered by such insinuations;
all the time the best of his freedmen pressed him to the choice through
motives of fidelity and affection, and the worst through envy and
malignity, emotions to which he was of himself sufficiently prone.
Thus Agricola, as well by his own virtues as the vices of others,
was urged on precipitously to glory.
42. The year now arrived
in which the proconsulate of Asia or Africa must fall by lot upon
Agricola; 136 and as Civica had
lately been put to death, Agricola was provided with a lesson,
and Domitian with an example. 137
Some persons, acquainted with the secret inclinations of the emperor,
came to Agricola, and inquired whether he intended to go to his
province; and first, somewhat distantly, they began to commend a life
of leisure and tranquillity; then offered their services in procuring
him to be excused from the office; and at length, throwing off all
disguise, after using arguments both to persuade and intimidate
him, compelled him to accompany them to Domitian. The emperor,
prepared to dissemble, and assuming an air of stateliness, received
his petition for excuse, and Domitian allowed himself to be formally thanked
138 for granting it, without
blushing at so evil a favor. He did not, however, bestow on
Agricola the salary 139 usually
offered to a proconsul, and which he himself had granted to others;
either taking offence that it was not requested, or feeling a
that it would seem to be a bribe for what he had in reality
extorted through his authority. It is a principle of human nature to
hate those whom we have injured; 140
and Domitian was constitutionally inclined to anger, which was the
more difficult to be avoided, in proportion as it was the more
disguised. Yet he was softened by the temper and prudence of Agricola;
who did not think it necessary, by a stubbornly rebellious spirit, or a vain
show of liberty, to challenge fame or promote his fate. 141 Let those be warned, who are
accustomed to admire every opposition to domination, that even under
a bad emperor men may be truly great; that submission and modesty,
if accompanied with vigor and industry, will elevate a character
to a height of public esteem equal to that which many, through
sudden and dangerous paths, have attained, without benefit to their
country, by an ambitious death.
43. His decease was a severe
affliction to his family, a grief to his friends, and a subject of
regret even to foreigners, and those who had no personal knowledge
of him. 142 The common people
too, and the class who little interest themselves about public
concerns, were frequent in their inquiries at his house during his
sickness, and made him the subject of conversation at the forum and
in private circles; nor did any person either rejoice at the news
of his death, or speedily forget it. Their commiseration was
aggravated by a prevailing report that he was taken off by poison.
I cannot venture to affirm anything certain of this matter; 143 yet, during the whole course
of his illness, the principal of the imperial freedmen and the most
confidential of the physicians was sent much more frequently than
was customary for a court whose visits were chiefly paid by messages;
whether that was done out of real solicitude, or for the purposes
of state inquisition. On the day of his decease, it is certain that
accounts of his approaching collapse were every instant transmitted
to the emperor by couriers stationed for the purpose; and no one
believed that the information, which so many pains had been taken to
speed, could be received with regret. He put on, however, in
his countenance and demeanor, the semblance of grief: for he was
now secured from an object of hatred, and could more easily conceal
his joy than his fear. It was well known that on reading the will,
in which he was nominated co-heir 144
with the excellent wife and most dutiful daughter of Agricola, he
expressed great satisfaction, as if it had been a voluntary testimony
of honor and esteem: so blind and corrupt had his mind been rendered
by continual flattery, that he was ignorant of the fact tha
none but a bad emperor could be nominated heir by a good father.
44. Agricola was
born in the ides of June, during the third consulate of Caius Caesar;
145 he died in his fifty-sixth
year, on the tenth of the calends of September, when Collega and
Priscus were consuls. 146 Posterity
may wish to form an idea of his person. His figure was attractive rather
than majestic. In his countenance there was nothing to inspire awe;
its character was gracious and engaging. You would readily have
believed him a good man, and willingly a great one. And indeed,
although he was snatched away in the midst of a vigorous age, yet
if his life be measured by his glory, it was a period of the greatest
extent. For after the full enjoyment of all that is truly good,
which is found in virtuous pursuits alone, decorated with consular
and triumphal ornaments, what more could fortune contribute to his
elevation? Immoderate wealth did not fall to his share, yet he
possessed a decent affluence. 147
His wife and daughter surviving, his dignity unimpaired, his
reputation flourishing, and his kindred and friends yet in safety,
it may even be thought an additional felicity that he was thus
withdrawn from impending evils. For, as we have heard him express
his wishes of continuing to the dawn of the present auspicious day,
and beholding Trajan in the imperial seat, wishes in which he
formed a certain prescience of the event; so it is a great consolation,
that by his untimely end he escaped that latter period, in which
Domitian, not by intervals and remissions, but by a continued, and,
as it were, a single act, aimed at the destruction of the commonwealth.
148
45. Agricola did not
behold the senate-house besieged, and the senators enclosed by a
circle of arms; 149 and in one
disaster the massacre of so many consular men, the flight and banishment
of so many honorable women. As yet Carus Metius 150 was distinguished only by a single victory; the
counsels of Messalinus 151
resounded only through the Albanian citadel; 152 and Massa Baebius 153
was himself among the accused. Soon after, our own hands 154 dragged Helvidius 155 to prison; ourselves were
tortured with the spectacle of Mauricus and Rusticus, 156 and sprinkled with the innocent
blood of Senecio. 157
Even
Nero withdrew his eyes from the cruelties he commanded. Under
Domitian, it was the principal part of our miseries to see and
to be seen: then our sighs were registered; and that stern
countenance, with its dominant redness, 158 his defence against shame, was employed in noting the
pallid horror of so many spectators. Happy, O Agricola not only in
the splendor of your life, but in the seasonableness of your death.
With resignation and cheerfulness, from the testimony of those who
were present in your last moments, did you meet your fate, as if
striving to the utmost of your power to make the emperor appear
guiltless. But to myself and your daughter, besides the anguish of
losing a parent, the aggravating affliction remains, that it was
not our lot to watch over your sick-bed, to support you when
languishing, and to fill ourselves with beholding and embracing
you. With what attention should we have received your last instructions,
and engraven them on our hearts. This is our sorrow; this is our
wound: to us you were lost four years before by a tedious absence.
Everything, doubtless, O best of parents, was administered for your
comfort and honor, while a most affectionate wife sat beside you;
yet fewer tears were shed upon your bier, and in the last light
which your eyes beheld, something was still wanting.
46. If
there be any habitation for the shades of the virtuous, and if, as
philosophers suppose, exalted souls do not perish with the body,
may you repose in peace, and call us, your household, from empty
regret and feminine lamentations, to the contemplation of your
virtues, which allow no place for mourning or complaining. Let us
rather adorn your memory with our admiration, with our short-lived
praises, and, as far as our natures will permit, with an imitation
of your example. This is truly to honor the dead; this is the piety
of every near relation. I would also recommend it to the wife and
daughter of this great man, to show their veneration of a husband's
and a father's memory by revolving his actions and words in their
breasts, and endeavoring to retain an idea of the form and features
of his mind, rather than of his person. Not that I would reject
those resemblances of the human figure which are engraven in brass
or marbles but as their originals are frail and perishable, so
likewise are they: while the form of the mind is eternal, and not
to be retained or expressed by any foreign matter, or the artist's
skill, but by the manners of the survivors. Whatever in Agricola
was the object of our love, of our admiration, remains, and will
remain in the minds of men, transmitted in the records of fame,
through an eternity of years. For, while many great persons of
antiquity will be involved in a common forgetfulness with the base and
inglorious, Agricola shall survive, represented and dedicated to
future ages.
NOTES: [1] Rutilius was consul
B.C. 104; and for his upright life and great strictness was banished
B.C. 92. Tacitus is the only writer who says he wrote his own life.
Athenaeus mentions that he wrote a history of the affairs of Rome
in the Greek language. Scaurus was consul B.C. 114, and again B.C.
106. He is the same Scaurus whom Sallust mentions as having been
bribed by Jugurtha. As the banishment of Rutilius took place on the
accusation of Scaurus, it is possible that, when the former wrote
his life, the latter also wrote his, in order to defend himself
from charges advanced against him. Back
[2] Venia opus fuit. Such an apology for the
unworthiness of his subject at the commencement of the biography,
ill accords with the tone of dignified confidence which pervades
the memoir. The best commentary I have seen on the passage is that
of Walther; and it would not, perhaps, be giving more space to so
mooted a question than the scholar requires, to extract it entire:
-- "Venia," he says, "is here nothing else than what we, in the
language of modesty, call an apology, and has respect to the very
justification he has just offered in the foregoing exordium. For
Tacitus there appeals to the usage, not of remote antiquity only,
but of later times also, to justify his design of writing the
biography of a distinguished man. There would have been no need of
such an apology in other times. In other times, dispensing with all
preamble, he would have begun, as in c. 4, 'Cnaeus Julius Agricola,'
assured that no one would question the propriety of his course. But
now, after a long and servile silence, when one begins again 'facta
moresque posteris tradere' ["to transmit the doings and customs of
past men"], when he utters the first word where speech and almost
memory (c. 2) had so long been lost, when he stands forth as the
first vindicator of condemned virtue, he seems to venture on something
so new, so strange, so bold, that it may well require apology." Back
[3] A passage in Dio
excellently illustrates the fact here referred to: "He (Domitian)
put to death Rusticus Arulenus, because he studied philosophy, and
had given Thrasea the appellation of holy; and Herennius Senecio,
because, although he lived many years after serving the office of
quaestor, he solicited no other post, and because he had written
the Life of Helvidius Priscus." (lxvii. p. 765.) With less accuracy,
Suetonius, in his Life of Domitian (s. 10), says: "He put to death
Junius Rusticus, because he had published the panegyrics of Paetus
Thrasea and Helvidius Priscus, and had styled them most holy persons;
and on this occasion he expelled all the philosophers from the city,
and from. Italy." Arulenus Rusticus was a Stoic; on which account
he was contumeliously called by M. Regulus "the ape of the Stoics,
marked with the Vitellian scar." (Pliny, Epist. i. 5.) Thrasea, who
killed Nero, is particularly recorded in the Annals, book xvi. Back
[4] The expulsion of
the philosophers, mentioned in the passage above quoted from
Suetonius. Back
[5] This
truly happy period began when, after the death of Domitian, and the
recision of his acts, the imperial authority devolved on Nerva,
whose virtues were emulated by the successive emperors, Trajan,
Hadrian, and both the Antonines. Back
[6] Securitas publica, "the public security," was a
current expression and wish, and was frequently inscribed on medals. Back
[7] The term of Domitian's
reign. Back
[8] It appears
that at this time Tacitus proposed to write not only the books of
his History and Annals, which contain the "memorial of past servitude,"
but an account of the "present blessings" exemplified in the
occurrences under Nerva and Trajan. Back
[9] There were two Roman colonies of this name; one
in Umbria, supposed to be the place now called Friuli; the other
in Narbonnensian Gaul, the modern name of which is Frejus. This
latter was probably the birth-place of Agricola.
Back
[10] Of the procurators who were
sent to the provinces, some had the charge of the public revenue;
others, not only of that, but of the private revenue of the emperor.
These were the imperial procurators. All the offices relative to
the finances were in the possession of the Roman knights; of whom
the imperial procurators were accounted noble. Hence the equestrian
nobility of which Tacitus speaks. In some of the lesser provinces,
the procurators had the civil jurisdiction, as well at the
administration of the revenue. This was the case in Judaea. Back
[11] Seneca bears a
very honorable testimony to this person, "If," says he, "we have
occasion for an example of a great mind, let us cite that of Julius
Graecinus, an excellent person, whom Caius Caesar put to death on
this account alone, that he was a better man than could be suffered
under a tyrant." (De Benef. ii. 21.) His books concerning Vineyards
are commended by Columella and Pliny. Back
[12] Caligula, one of the most cruel and insanely
capricious of all the early Roman emperors. Back
[13] Marcus Silanus was the father of Claudia,
the first wife of Caius. According to the historians of that period,
Caius was jealous of him, and took every opportunity of mortifying
him. Tacitus (Hist. iv. 48) mentions that the emperor deprived him
of the military command of the troops in Africa in an insulting
manner. Dion (lix.) states, that when, from his age and rank, Silanus
was usually asked his opinion first in the senate, the emperor found
a pretext for preventing this respect. Suetonius (iv. 23) records
that the emperor one day put to sea in a hasty manner, and commanded
Silanus to follow him. This, from fear of illness, he declined to
do; upon which the emperor, alleging that he stayed on shore in
order to get possession of the city in case any accident befell
himself, compelled him to cut his own throat. It would seem, from
the present passage of Tacitus, that there were some legal forms
taken in the case of Silanus, and that Julius Graecinus was ordered
to be the accuser; and that that noble-minded man, refusing to take
part in proceedings so cruel and iniquitous, was himself put to
death. Back
[14] Of the
part the Roman matrons took in the education of youth, Tacitus has
given an elegant and interesting account, in his Dialogue concerning
Oratory, c. 28. Back
[15]
Now Marseilles. This was a colony of the Phoenicians; whence
it derived that Grecian politeness for which it was long famous. Back
[16] It was usual for
generals to admit young men of promising characters to this honorable
companionship, which resembled the office of an aide-de- camp in
the modern service. Thus, Suetonius informs us that Caesar made his
first campaign in Asia as tent-companion to Marcus Thermus the
praetor. Back
[17] This
was the fate of the colony of veterans at Camalodunum, now Colchester
or Maldon. A particular account of this revolt is given in the 14th
book of the Annals. Back
[18]
This alludes to the defeat of Petilius Cerialis, who came with
the ninth legion to succor the colony of Camalodunum. All the
infantry were slaughtered; and Petilius, with the cavalry alone,
got away to the camp. It was shortly after this, that Suetonius
defeated Boadicea and her forces. Back
[20] The office of quaestor was the entrance to
all public employments. The quaestors and their secretaries were
distributed by lot to the several provinces, that there might be
no previous connections between them and the governors, but they
might serve as checks upon each other. Back
[21] Brother of the emperor Otho.
Back
[22] At the head of the praetors,
the number of whom was different at different periods of the empire,
were the Praetor Urbanus, and Praetor Peregrinus. The first
administered justice among the citizens, the second among strangers.
The rest presided at public debates, and had the charge of exhibiting
the public games, which were celebrated with great solemnity for
seven successive days, and at a vast expense. This, indeed, in the
times of the emperors, was almost the sole business of the praetors,
whose dignity, as Tacitus expresses it, consisted in the idle
trappings of state; whence Boethius justly terms the praetorship
"an empty name, and a grievous burthen on the senatorian rank." Back
[23] Nero had plundered
the temples for the supply of his extravagance and debauchery. See
Annals, xv. 45. Back
[24]
This was the year of Rome 822, CE (Common Era) 69. Back
[25] The cruelties
and depredations committed on the coast of Italy by this fleet are
described in lively colors by Tacitus, Hist. ii. 12, 13.
Back
[26] Now the county of Vintimiglia.
The attack upon the municipal town of this place, called Albium
Intemelium, is particularly mentioned in the passage above referred
to. Back
[27] In the
month of July of this year. Back
[28] The twentieth legion, surnamed the Victorious, was stationed
in Britain at Deva, the modern Chester, where many inscriptions and
other monuments of Roman antiquities have been discovered. Back
[29] Roscius Caelius.
His disputes with the governor of Britain, Trebellius Maximus, are
related by Tacitus, Hist. i. 60. Back
[30] The governors of the province, and commanders
in chief over all the legions stationed in it.
Back
[31] He had formerly been commander
of the ninth legion. Back
[32] The province of Aquitania extended from the Pyrenean
mountains to the river Liger (Loire). Back
[33] The governors of the neighboring provinces. Back
[34] Agricola was
consul in the year of Rome 830, CE 77, along with Domitian. They
succeeded, in the calends of July, the consuls Vespasian and Titus,
who began the year. Back
[35]
He was admitted into the Pontifical College, an extremely important
Roman institution originally inn charge of the bridges in Rome ("pons" =
bridge), at the head of
which was the Pontifex Maximus ["Greatest Bridge-Builder"]. Back
[36] Julius Caesar, Livy, Strabo, Fabius Rusticus,
Pomponius Mela, Pliny, and so on. Back
[37] Thus Caesar: "One side of Britain inclines towards Spain,
and the setting sun; on which part Ireland is situated." -- Bell.
Gall. v. 13. Back
[38]
These, as well as other resemblances suggested by ancient geographers,
have been mostly corrected by the greater accuracy of modern maps,
but they still demonstrate some sophistication on their part. Back
[39] This is
true, that the northern extremity of Scotland is much narrower than
the southern coast of England. Back
[40] The Orkney Islands. These, although now first
thoroughly known to the Romans, had before been heard of, and
mentioned by authors. Thus Mela, in. 6: "There are thirty of the
Orcades, separated from each other by narrow straits." And Pliny,
iv. 16: "The Orcades are forty in number, at a small distance from
each other." In the reign of Claudius, the report concerning these
islands was particularly current, and excessive praise converted it into
the news of a victory. Hence Hieronymus in his Chronicon says,
"Claudius triumphed over the Britons, and added the Orcades to the
Roman empire." Back
[41]
Camden supposes the Shetland Islands to be meant here by Thule;
others imagine it to have been one of the Hebrides. Pliny, iv. 16,
mentions Thule as the most remote of all known islands; and, by
placing it but one day's sail from the Frozen Ocean, renders it
probable that Iceland was intended. Procopius (Bell. Goth, ii. 15)
speaks of another Thule, which must have been Norway, which many
of the ancients thought to be an island. Mr. Pennant supposes that
the Thule here meant was Foula, a very lofty isle, one of the most
westerly of the Shetlands, which might easily be descried by the
fleet. Back
[42] As far
as the meaning of this passage can be elucidated, it would appear
as if the first circumnavigators of Britain, to enhance the idea
of their dangers and hardships, had represented the Northern sea
as in such a thickened half solid state, that the oars could scarcely
be worked, or the water agitated by winds. Tacitus, however, rather
chooses to explain its stagnant condition from the want of winds,
and the difficulty of moving so great a body of waters. But the
fact, taken either way, is erroneous; as this sea is never observed
frozen, and is remarkably stormy and tempestuous. -- Aiken. Back
[43] The great number
of firths and inlets of the sea, which almost cut through the
northern parts of the island, as well as the height of the tides
on the coast, render this observation peculiarly proper.
Back
[44] Caesar mentions that the
interior inhabitants of Britain were supposed to have originated
in the island itself. (Bell. Gall. v. 12.) Back
[45] Caledonia, now Scotland, was at that
time overspread by vast forests. Thus Pliny, iv. 16, speaking of
Britain, says, that "for thirty years past the Roman arms had not
extended the knowledge of the island beyond the Caledonian forest." Back
[46] Traditionally, these were inhabitants of
what are now the counties of Glamorgan, Monmouth, Brecknock, Hereford,
and Radnor, but they could have controlled all of modern-day Wales.. Back
[47]
The Iberi were a people of Spain, so called from their neighborhood
to the river Iberus, now Ebro. Back
[48] Of these, the inhabitants of Kent are honorably
mentioned by Caesar. "Of all these people, by far the most civilized
are those inhabiting the maritime country of Cantium, who differ
little in their manners from the Gauls." -- Bell. Gall. v. 14. Back
[48] From the obliquity
of the opposite coasts of England and France, some part of the
former runs further south than the northern extremity of the latter. Back
[50] Particularly the
mysterious and bloody solemnities of the Druids.
Back
[51] The children were born and
nursed in this ferocity. Thus Solinus, c. 22, speaking of the warlike
people of Britons, says, "When a woman is delivered of a male child,
she lays its first food upon the husband's sword, and with the point
gently puts it within the little one's mouth, praying to her country
deities that his death may in like manner be in the midst of arms." Back
[52] In the reign of
Claudius. Back
[53] The
practice of the Greeks in the Homeric age was the reverse of this. Back
[54] Thus the kings
Cunobelinus, Caractacus, and Prasutagus, and the queens Cartismandua
and Boadicea, are mentioned in different parts of Tacitus. Back
[55] Caesar says of
Britain, "the climate is more temperate than that of Gaul, the cold
being less severe." (Bell. Gall. v. 12.) This certainly proceeds
from its insular situation, and the moistness of its atmosphere. Back
[56] Thus Pliny (ii.
75): -- "The longest day in Italy is of fifteen hours, in Britain
of seventeen, where in summer the nights are light."
Back
[57] Tacitus, through the medium
of Agricola, must have got this report, either from the men of
Scandinavia, or from those of the Britons who had passed into that
country, or been informed to this effect by those who had visited
it. It is quite true, that in the further part of Norway, and so
also again in Iceland and the regions about the North Pole, there
is, at the summer solstice, an almost uninterrupted day for nearly
two months. Tacitus here seems to affirm this as universally the
case, not having heard that, at the winter solstice, there is a
night of equal duration. Back
[58] Tacitus, after having given the report of the Britons as
he had heard it, probably from Agricola, now goes on to state his
own views on the subject. He represents that, as the far north is
level, there is nothing, when the sun is in the distant horizon,
to throw up a shadow towards the sky: that the light, indeed, is
intercepted from the surface of the earth itself, and so there is
darkness upon it; but that the sky above is still clear and bright
from its rays. And hence he supposes that the brightness of the
upper regions neutralizes the darkness on the earth, forming a
degree of light equivalent to the evening twilight or the morning
dawn, or, indeed, rendering it next to impossible to decide when
the evening closes and the morning begins. Compare the following
account, taken from a "Description of a Visit to Shetland," in vol.
viii. of Chambers' Miscellany: -- "Being now in the 60th degree of
north latitude, daylight could scarcely be said to have left us
during the night, and at 2 o'clock in the morning, albeit the mist
still hung about us, we could see as clearly as we can do in London,
at about any hour in a November day." Back
[59] Mr. Pennant has a pleasing remark concerning
the soil and climate of our island, well agreeing with that of
Tacitus: -- "The climate of Great Britain is above all others
productive of the greatest variety and abundance of wholesome
vegetables, which, to crown our happiness, are almost equally
diffused through all its parts: this general fertility is owing to
those clouded skies, which foreigners mistakenly urge as a reproach
on our country: but let us cheerfully endure a temporary gloom,
which clothes not only our meadows, but our hills, with the richest
verdure." -- Brit. Zool. 4to. i. 15. Back
[60] Strabo (iv. 138) testifies the same. Cicero,
on the other hand, asserts, that not a single grain of silver is
found on this island. (Ep. ad Attic, iv. 16.) If we have recourse
to modern authorities, we find Camden mentioning gold and silver
mines in Cumberland, silver in Flintshire, and gold in Scotland.
Dr. Borlase (Hist. of Cornwall, p. 214) relates, that so late as
the year 1753, several pieces of gold were found in what the miners
call stream tin; and silver is now got in considerable quantity
from several of our lead ores. A curious paper, concerning the Gold
Mines of Scotland, is given by Mr. Pennant in Append. (No. x.) to
his second part of a "Tour in Scotland in 1772," and a much more
general account of the mines and ores of Great Britain in early
times, in his "Tour in Wales of 1773," pp. 51-66.
Back
[61] Camden mentions pearls being
found in the counties of Caernarvon and Cumberland, and in the
British sea. Mr. Pennant, in his "Tour in Scotland in 1769," takes
notice of a considerable pearl fishery out of the fresh-water mussel,
in the vicinity of Perth, from whence 10,000_l._ worth of pearls
were sent to London from 1761 to 1764. It was, however, almost
exhausted when he visited the country. See also the fourth volume
of Mr. Pennant's Br. Zool. (Class vi. No. 18), where he gives a
much more ample account of the British pearls. Origen, in his
Comment. on Matthew, pp. 210, 211, gives a description of the British
pearl, which, he says, was next in value to the Indian; -- "Its
surface is of a gold color, but it is cloudy, and less transparent
than the Indian." Pliny speaks of the British unions as follows:
-- "It is certain that small and discolored ones are produced in
Britain; since the deified Julius has given us to understand that
the breastplate which he dedicated to Venus Genitrix, and placed
in her temple, was made of British pearls." -- ix. 35.
Back
[62] Caesar's two expeditions into
Britain were in the years of Rome 699 and 700. He himself gives an
account of them, and they are also mentioned by Strabo and Dio. Back
[63] It was the wise
policy of Augustus not to extend any further the limits of the
empire; and with regard to Britain, in particular, he thought the
conquest and preservation of it would be attended with more expense
than it could repay. (Strabo, ii. 79, and iv. 138.) Tiberius, who
always professed an entire deference for the maxims and injunctions
of Augustus, in this instance, probably, was convinced of their
propriety. Back
[65]
Claudius invaded Britain in the year of Rome 796, CE 43. Back
[66] In the parish
of Dinder, near Hereford, are yet remaining the vestiges of a Roman
encampment, called Oyster-hill, as is supposed from this Ostorius.
Camden's Britain, by Gibson, p. 580. Back
[67] That of Camalodunum, now Colchester, or
Maldon. Back
[68] The
Mona of Tacitus is the Isle of Anglesey, that of Caesar is the Isle
of Man, called by Pliny Monapia. Back
[69] The avarice of Catus Decidianus the procurator
is mentioned as the cause by which the Britons were forced into
this war, by Tacitus, Annal. xiv. 32. Back
[70] Julius Classicianus, who succeeded Decidianus,
was at variance with the governor, but was no less oppressive to
the province. Back
[71]
By the slaughter of Varus. Back
[72] The Rhine and Danube. Back
[73] Boadicea, whose name is variously written
Boudicea, Bonduca, Voadicea, and so on, was queen of the Iceni, or people
of Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, and Huntingdonshire. A particular
account of this revolt is given in the Annals, xiv. 31, and seq. Back
[75] This was in CE
61. According to Tac. Hist. i. 6, Petronius Turpilianus was put to
death by Galba, CE 68. Back
[76] The date of his arrival is uncertain.
Back
[77] He was sent to Britain by
Vespasian, CE 69. Back
[78]
The Brigantes inhabited Yorkshire, Lancashire, Westmoreland,
Cumberland, and Durham. Back
[79] The date of his arrival in Britain is uncertain. This
Frontinus is the author of the work on "Stratagems," and, at the
time of his appointment to the lieutenancy of Britain, he was curator
aquarum at Rome. This, probably, it was that induced him to write
his other work on the aqueducts of Rome. Back
[80] This seems to relate to his having been
curtailed in his military operations by the parsimony of Vespasian,
who refused him permission to attack other people than the Silures.
See c. 11. Back
[81]
Where these people inhabited is mentioned in note 46. Back
[82] This was in the
year of Rome 831, CE 78. Back
[83] Inhabitants of North Wales, exclusive of the Isle of
Anglesey. Back
[84] I.e.
Some were for immediate action, others for delay. Instead of et
quibus, we read with Dr. Smith's edition (London, 1850), ut quibus. Back
[85] Vexilla is here
used for vexillarii. "Under the Empire the name of Vexillarii was
given to a distinct body of soldiers supposed to have been composed
of veterans, who were released from the military oath and regular
service, but kept embodied under a separate flag (vexillum), to
render assistance to the army if required, guard the frontier, and
garrison recently conquered provinces; a certain number of these
supernumeraries being attached to each legion. (Tac. Hist. ii. 83,
100; Ann. i. 36.)" -- Rich, Comp. to Dict. and Lex. s. v. Vexillum. Back
[86] A pass into the
vale of Clwyd, in the parish of Llanarmon, is still called Bwlch
Agrikle, probably from having been occupied by Agricola, in his
road to Mona. -- Mr. Pennant. Back
[87] From this circumstance it would appear that
these auxiliaries were Batavians, whose skill in this practice is
related by Tacitus, Hist. iv. 12. Back
[88] It was customary for the Roman generals to
decorate with sprigs of laurel the letters in which they sent home
the news of any remarkable success. Thus Pliny, xv. 30: "The laurel,
the principal messenger of joy and victory among the Romans, is
affixed to letters, and to the spears and javelins of the soldiers."
The laurus of the ancients was probably the baytree, and not what
we now call laurel. Back
[89]
The Latin is "Ascire," or "accire," literally,
"To receive into regular service." The
reference is to the transfer of soldiers from an excess number
available
to the legions. So Walch, followed by Dronke, Both, and Walther.
The next clause implies, that he took care to receive into the
service none but the best men (optimum quemque), who, he was
confident, would prove faithful (fidelissimum).
Back
[90] In like manner Suetonius says
of Julius Caesar, "He neither noticed nor punished every crime; but
while he strictly inquired into and rigorously punished desertion
and mutiny, he connived at other delinquencies." -- Life of Julius
Caesar, s. 67. Back
[91]
Many commentators propose reading "exaction," instead of "augmentation."
But the latter may be suffered to remain, especially as Suetonius
informs us that "Vespasian, not contented with renewing some taxes
remitted under Galba, added new and heavy ones: and augmented the
tributes paid by the provinces, even doubling some." -- Life of
Vesp. s. 19. Back
[92]
In the year of Rome 832. CE 79. Back
P> [93] Many vestiges of these or other Roman camps
yet remain in different parts of Great Britain. Two principal ones,
in the county of Annandale, in Scotland, called Burnswork and
Middleby, are described at large by Gordon in his Itiner. Septentrion,
pp. 16, 18. Back
[94]
The year of Rome 833, CE 80. Back
[95] Now the Firth of Tay. Back
[96] The principal of these was at Ardoch,
seated so as to command the entrance into two valleys, Strathallan
and Strathearn. A description and plan of its remains, still in
good preservation, are given by Mr. Pennant in his Tour in Scotland
in 1772, part ii. p. 101. Back
[97] The year of Rome 834, CE 81. Back
[98] The Firths of Clyde and Forth. Back
[99] The neck of land
between these opposite arms of the sea is only about thirty miles
wide. About fifty-five years after Agricola had left the island,
Lollius Urbicus, governor of Britain under the Emperor
Antoninus Pius, erected
a vast wall or rampart, extending from Old Kirkpatrick on the Clyde,
to Caeridden, two miles west of Abercorn, on the Forth, a space of
nearly thirty-seven miles, defended by twelve or thirteen forts.
These may be on the same site as Agricola's defenses.
This wall is usually called "Graham's Dike"; and some parts of it are
still discernable. Back
[100]
The year of Rome 835, CE 82. Back
[101] Crossing the Firth of Clyde, or Dumbarton
Bay, and turning to the western coast of Argyleshire, or the Isles
of Arran and Bute. Back
[104] The year of Rome 836, CE 83. Back
[105] The eastern
parts of Scotland, north of the Firth of Forth, where now are the
counties of Fife, Kinross, Perth, Angus, and so on .
Back
[106] This legion, which had been
weakened by many engagements, was afterwards recruited, and then
called Gemina. Its station at this affair is supposed by Gordon to
have been Lochore in Fifeshire. Mr. Pennant rather imagines the
place of the attack to have been Comerie in Perthshire.
Back
[107] For an account of these
people see Manners of the Germans, c. 32. Back
[108] Mr. Pennant had a present made him
in Skye, of a brass sword and a denarius found in that island. Might
they not have been lost by some of these people in one of their
landings? Back
[110]
This extraordinary expedition, according to Dio, set out from the
western side of the island. They therefore must have coasted all
that part of Scotland, must have passed the intricate navigation
through the Hebrides, and the dangerous strait of Pentland Firth,
and, after coming round to the eastern side, must have been driven
to the mouth of the Baltic Sea, Here they lost their ships; and,
in their attempt to proceed homeward by land, were seized as pirates,
part by the Suevi, and the rest by the Frisii.
Back
[111] The year of Rome 837, CE
84. Back
[112] The
scene of this celebrated engagement is by Gordon (Itin. Septent.)
supposed to be in Strathern, near a place now called the Kirk of
Comerie, where are the remains of two Roman camps. Mr. Pennant,
however, in his Tour in 1772, part ii. p. 96, gives reasons which
appear well founded for dissenting from Gordon's opinion. Back
[113] The more usual
spelling of this name is Galgacus; but the other is preferred as
of better authority. Back
[114] "Peace given to the world" is a very frequent inscription
on the Roman medals. Back
[115] It was the Roman policy to send the recruits raised in
the provinces to some distant country, for fear of their desertion
or revolt. Back
[116]
How much this was the fate of the Romans themselves, when, in the
decline of the empire, they were obliged to pay tribute to the
surrounding barbarians, is shown in lively colors by Salvian: --
"We call that a gift which is a purchase, and a purchase of a
condition the most hard and miserable. For all captives, when they
are once redeemed, enjoy their liberty: we are continually paying
a ransom, yet are never free." -- De Gubern. Dei, vi.
Back
[118] The expedition of Claudius
into Britain was in the year of Rome 796, from which to the period
of this engagement only forty-two years were elapsed. The number
fifty therefore is given oratorically rather than accurately. Back
[119] The Latin
word used here, covinarius, signifies the driver of a covinus, or
chariot, the axle of which was bent into the form of a scythe. The
British manner of fighting from chariots is particularly described
by Caesar, who gives them the name of esseda: -- "The following is
the manner of fighting from essedae: They first drive round with
them to all parts of the line, throwing their javelins, and generally
disordering the ranks by the very alarm occasioned by the horses,
and the rattling of the wheels: then, as soon as they have insinuated
themselves between the troops of horse, they leap from their chariots
and fight on foot. The drivers then withdraw a little from the
battle, in order that, if their friends are overpowered by numbers,
they may have a secure retreat to the chariots. Thus they act with
the celerity of horse, and the stability of foot; and by daily use
and exercise they acquire the power of holding up their horses at
full speed down a steep declivity, of stopping them suddenly, and
turning in a short compass; and they accustom themselves to run
upon the pole, and stand on the cross-tree, and from thence with
great agility to recover their place in the chariot." -- Bell. Gall.
iv. 33. Back
[120]
These targets, called cetrae, in the Latin, were made of leather.
The broad sword and target were till very lately the peculiar arms
of the Highlanders. Back
[121] Several inscriptions have been found in Britain commemorating
the Tungrian cohorts. Back
[122] The great conciseness of Tacitus has rendered the
description of this battle somewhat obscure. The following, however,
seems to have been the general course of occurrences in it: -- The
foot on both sides began the engagement. The first line of the
Britons which was formed on the plain being broken, the Roman
auxiliaries advanced up the hill after them. In the meantime the
Roman horse in the wings, unable to withstand the shock of the
chariots, gave way, and were pursued by the British chariots and
horse, which then fell in among the Roman infantry, These, who at
first had relaxed their files to prevent their being out-fronted,
now closed, in order better to resist the enemy, who by this means
were unable to penetrate them. The chariots and horse, therefore,
became entangled admid the inequalities of the ground, and the
thick ranks of the Romans; and, no longer able to wheel and career
as upon the open plain, gave not the least appearance of an equestrian
skirmish: but, keeping their footing with difficulty on the declivity,
were pushed off, and scattered in disorder over the field. Back
[123] People of
Fifeshire. Back
[124]
Where this was does not appear. Brotier calls it Sandwich, making
it the same as Rutupium: others Plymouth or Portsmouth. It is clear,
however, this cannot be the case, from the subsequent words. --
White. Back
[125] This
circumnavigation was in a contrary direction to that of the Usipian
deserters, the fleet setting out from the Firth of Tay on the eastern
coast, and sailing round the northern, western, and southern coasts,
till it arrived at the port of Sandwich in Kent. After staying here
some time to refit, it went to its former station, in the Firth of
Forth, or Tay. Back
[126]
It was in this same year that Domitian made his pompous
expedition into Germany, from whence he returned without ever seeing
the enemy. Back
[127]
Caligula in like manner got a number of tall men with their hair
dyed red to give credit to a pretended victory over the Germans. Back
[128] Thus Pliny,
in his Panegyric on Trajan, xlviii., represents Domitian as "ever
affecting darkness and secrecy, and never emerging from his solitude
but in order to make a solitude." Back
[129] Not the triumph itself, which, after the
year of Rome 740 was no longer granted to private persons, but
reserved for the imperial family. This new piece of adulation was
invented by Agrippa in order to gratify Augustus. The "triumphal
ornaments" which were still bestowed, were a peculiar garment,
statue, and other insignia which had distinguished the person of
the triumphing general. Back
[131] Domitian, it seems, was afraid that Agricola might refuse
to obey the recall he forwarded to him, and even maintain his post
by force. He therefore despatched one of his confidential freedmen
with an autograph letter, wherein he was informed Syria was given
to him as his province. This, however, was a mere ruse: and hence
it was not to be delivered as Agricola had already set out on his
return. In compliance with these instructions, the freedman returned
at once to Domitian, when he found Agricola on his passage to Rome
According to Dion (liii.), the emperor's lieutenants were required
to leave their province immediately upon the arrival of their
successor, and return to Rome within three months. -- White. Back
[132] Agricola's
successor in Britain appears to have been Sallustius Lucullus, who,
as Suetonius informs us, was put to death by Domitian because he,
permitted certain lances of a new construction to be palled Lucullean.
-- Life of Domitian, s. 10. Back
[133] Of this worst kind of enemies, who praise a
man in order to render him obnoxious, the emperor Julian, who had
himself suffered greatly by them, speaks feelingly in his 12th
epistle to Basilius; -- "For we live together not in that state of
dissimulation, which, I imagine, you have hitherto experienced: in
which those who praise you, hate you with a more confirmed aversion
than your most inveterate enemies," Back
[134] These calamitous events are recorded by
Suetonius in his Life of Domitian. Back
[135] The Rhine and Danube.
Back
[136] The two senior consulars
cast lots for the government of Asia and Africa.
Back
[137] Suetonius relates that Civica
Cerealis was put to death in his proconsulate of Asia, on the charge
of meditating a revolt. (Life of Domitian, s. 10.)
Back
[138] Obliging persons to return
thanks for an injury was a refinement in tyranny frequently practised
by the worst of the Roman emperors. Thus Seneca informs us, that
"Caligula was thanked by those whose children had been put to death,
and whose property had been confiscated." (De Tranquil, xiv.) And
again; -- "The reply of a person who had grown old in his attendance
on kings, when he was asked how he had attained a thing so uncommon
in courts as old age? is well known. It was, said he, by receiving
injuries, and returning thanks." -- De Ira, ii. 33.
Back
[139] From a passage in Dio,
lxxviii. p. 899, this sum appears to have been decies sestertium,
about 9,000_l._ sterling. Back
[140] Thus Seneca: "Little souls rendered insolent by prosperity
have this worst property, that they hate those whom they have
injured." -- De Ira, ii. 33. Back
[141] Several who suffered under Nero and Domitian
erred, though nobly, in this respect. Back
[142] A Greek epigram still extant of Antiphilus,
a Byzantine, to the memory of a certain Agricola, is supposed by
the learned to refer to the great man who is the subject of this
work. It is in the Anthologia, lib. i. tit. 37.
Back
[143] Dio absolutely affirms it;
but from the manner in which Tacitus, who had better means of
information, speaks of it, the story was probably false. Back
[144] It appears
that the custom of making the emperor co-heir with the children of
the testator was not by any means uncommon. It was done in order
to secure the remainder to the family. Thus Prasutagus, king of the
Iceni in Britain, made Nero co-heir with his two daughters. Thus
when Lucius Vetus was put to death by Nero, his friends urged him
to leave part of his property to the emperor, that his grandsons
might enjoy the rest. (Ann. xvi. 11.) Suetonius (viii. 17) mentions
that Domitian used to seize the estates of persons the most unknown
to him, if any one could be found to assert that the deceased had
expressed an intention to make the emperor his heir. -- White. Back
[145] Caligula.
This was CE 40, when he was sole consul. Back
[146] According to this account, the birth
of Agricola was on June 13th, in the year of Rome 793, CE 40; and
his death on August 23d, in the year of Rome 846 CE 93: for this
appears by the Fasti Consulares to have been the year of the consulate
of Collega and Priscus. He was therefore only in his fifty-fourth
year when he died; so that the copyists must probably have written
by mistake LVI. instead of LIV. Back
[147] From this representation, Dio appears to
have been mistaken in asserting that Agricola passed the latter
part of his life in dishonor and penury. Back
[148] Juvenal breaks out in a noble strain
of indignation against this savage cruelty, which distinguished the
latter part of Domitian's reign:
[149] This happened
in the year of Rome 848, CE 105. Back
[150] Carus and Massa, who were proverbially infamous as
informers, are represented by Juvenal as dreading a still more
dangerous villain, Heliodorus.
[151] Of this odious
instrument of tyranny, Pliny the younger thus speaks: "The conversation
turned upon Catullus Messalinus, whose loss of sight added the evils
of blindness to a cruel disposition. He was irreverent, unblushing,
unpitying, Like a weapon, of itself blind and unconscious, he was
frequently hurled by Domitian against every man of worth." (iv.
22.) Juvenal launches the thunder of invective against him in the
following lines: --
[152]
This was a famous villa of Domitian's, near the site of the ancient
Alba, about twelve miles from Rome. The place is now called Albano,
and vast ruins of its magnificent edifices still remain. Back
[153] Tacitus, in
his History, mentions this Massa Baebius as a person most destructive
to all men of worth, and constantly engaged on the side of villains.
From a letter of Pliny's to Tacitus, it appears that Herennius
Senecio and himself were joined as counsel for the province of
Boetica in a prosecution of Massa Baebius; and that Massa after his
condemnation petitioned the consuls for liberty to prosecute Senecio
for treason. Back
[154]
By "our own hands," Tacitus means one of our own body, a
senator. As Publicius Certus had seized upon Helvidius and led him
to prison, Tacitus imputes the crime to the whole senatorian order.
To the same purpose Pliny observes: "Amidst the numerous villanies
of numerous persons, nothing appeared more atrocious than that in
the senate-house one senator should lay hands on another, a praetorian
on a consular man, a judge on a criminal." -- B. ix. ep. 13. Back
[155] Helvidius
Priscus, a friend of Pliny the younger, who did not suffer his death
to remain unrevenged. See the Epistle above referred to. Back
[156] There is in
this place some defect in the manuscripts, which critics have
endeavored to supply in different manners. Brotier seems to prefer,
though he does not adopt in the text, "nos Mauricum Rusticumque
divisimus," "we parted Mauricus and Rusticus," by the death of one
and the banishment of the other. The prosecution and crime of
Rusticus (Arulenus) is mentioned at the beginning of this piece,
c. 2. Mauricus was his brother. Back
[157] Herennius Senecio. See c. 2.
Back
[158] Thus Pliny, in his Panegyr.
on Trajan, xlviii.: "Domitian was terrible even to behold; pride
in his brow, anger in his eyes, a feminine paleness in the rest of
his body, in his face shamelessness suffused in a glowing red."
Seneca, in Epist. xi. remarks, that "some are never more to be
dreaded than when they blush; as if they had effused all their
modesty. Sylla was always most furious when the blood had mounted
into his cheeks." Back
Atque utinam his potius nugis
tota illa dedisset Tempora saevitiae: claras quibus abstulit Urbi
Illustresque animas impune, et vindice nullo. Sed periit, postquam
cerdonibus esse timendus Coeperat: hoc nocuit Lamiarum, caede
madenti. -- Sat. iv. 150.
"What folly this but oh that all
the rest Of his dire reign had thus been spent in jest/ And all
that time such trifles had employed/ In which so many nobles he
destroyed/ He safe, they unrevenged, to the disgrace/ Of the
surviving, tame, patrician race/ But when he dreadful to the rabble
grew,/ Him, who so many lords had slain, they slew." -- DUKE. Back
-- Quem Massa timet, quem
munere palpat Carus. -- Sat. i. 35.
"Whom Massa dreads, whom
Carus soothes with bribes."
Carus is also mentioned with
deserved infamy by Pliny and Martial. He was a mimic by profession. Back
Et cum mortifero prudens Vejento Catullo,
Qui numquam visae flagrabat amore puellae, Grande, et conspicuum
nostro quoque tempore monstrum, Caecus adulator, dirusque a ponte
satelles, Dignus Aricinos qui mendicaret ad axes, Blandaque devexae
jactaret basia rhedae. -- Sat. iv. 113.
"Cunning Vejento next,
and by his side/ Bloody Catullus leaning on his guide:/ Decrepit,
yet a furious lover he,/ And deeply struck with charms he could not
see./ A monster, that even this worst age outives,/ Conspicuous and
above the common size./ A blind base flatterer; from some bridge
or gate,/ Raised to a murdering minister of state./ Deserving still
to beg upon the road,/ And bless each passing wagon and its load."
-- DUKE. Back