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Tacitus, Annals, Book XIV, Chapters 29-37
Tacitus, Annals, Book XIV, Chapters 29-37
The translation from Latin is adapted from Arthur Murphy (Works of Tacitus, 1794).
Chapter 29. [Military campaign in Wales]
During the consulship of Lucius Caesennius Paetus and Publius Petronius Turpilianus [AD 60-61], a dreadful
calamity befell the army in Britain. Aulus Didius, as has been mentioned, aimed at no extension of territory, content
with maintaining the conquests already made. Veranius, who succeeded him, did little more: he made a few
incursions into the country of the Silures, and was hindered by death from prosecuting the war with vigour. He had
been respected, during his life, for the severity of his manners; in his end, the mark fell off, and his last will
discovered the low ambition of a servile flatterer, who, in those moments, could offer incense to Nero, and add, with
vain ostentation, that if he lived two years, it was his design to make the whole island obedient to the authority of the
prince.
Paulinus Suetonius succeeded to the command; an officer of distinguished merit. To be compared with Corbulo was
his ambition. His military talents gave him pretensions, and the voice of the people, who never leave exalted merit
without a rival, raised him to the highest eminence. By subduing the mutinous spirit of the Britons he hoped to equal
the brilliant success of Corbulo in Armenia. With this view, he resolved to subdue the isle of Mona; a place in
habited by a warlike people, and a common refuge for all the discontented Britons. In order to facilitate his approach
to a difficult and deceitful shore, he ordered a number of flat-bottomed boats to be constructed. In these he wafted
over the infantry, while the cavalry, partly by fording over the shallows, and partly by swimming their horses,
advanced to gain a footing on the island.
Exasperated by their acts of violence, and dreading worse calamities, the Icenians had recourse to arms. The
Trinobantians joined in the revolt. The neighboring states, not as yet taught to crouch in bondage, pledged
themselves, in secret councils, to stand forth in the cause of liberty. What chiefly fired their indignation was the
conduct of the veterans, lately planted as a colony at Camulodunum. These men treated the Britons with cruelty and
oppression; they drove the natives from their habitations, and calling them by the [shameful] names of slaves and
captives, added insult to their tyranny. In these acts of oppression, the veterans were supported by the common
soldiers; a set of men, by their habits of life, trained to licentiousness, and, in their turn, expecting to reap the same
advantages. The temple built in honour of Claudius was another cause of discontent. In the eye of the Britons it
seemed the citadel of eternal slavery. The priests, appointed to officiate at the altars, with a pretended zeal for
religion, devoured the whole substance of the country. To over-run a colony, which lay quite naked and exposed,
without a single fortification to defend it, did not appear to the incensed and angry Britons an enterprise that
threatened either danger or difficulty. The fact was, the Roman generals attended to improvements to taste and
elegance, but neglected the useful. They embellished the province, and took no care to defend it.
were sure to attack with the fiercest rage. Military skill was not the talent of Barbarians. The number massacred in
the places which have been mentioned, amounted to no less than seventy thousand, all citizens or allies of Rome. To
make prisoners, and reserve them for slavery, or to exchange them, was not in the idea of a people, who despised all
the laws of war. The halter and the gibbet, slaughter and defoliation, fire and sword, were the marks of savage
valour. Aware that vengeance would overtake them, they were resolved to make sure of their revenge, and glut
themselves with the blood of their enemies.
This speech was received with warlike acclamations. The soldiers burned with impatience for the onset, the veterans
brandished their javelins, and the ranks displayed such an intrepid countenance, that Suetonius, anticipating the
victory, gave the signal for the charge.