Urgent en- fury of Jugurtha. By your affection for your treaty. chil dren, by your love for your country, by your own virtues, by the majesty of the Roman commonwealth, by all that is sacred, and all that is dear to you, deliver a wretched prince from undeserved, unprovoked injury, and save the kingdom of Numidia, which is your own property, from being the prey of violence, usurpation, and cruelty. Courage. Vexation. Courage. XXIII.-EXHORTATION. The speech of Galgacus, the general of the Caledonii,' in which he exhorts the army he had assembled, in order to expel the Romans, to fight valiantly against their foes under Julius Agricola.-Tacitus. COUNTRYMEN AND FELLOW-SOLDIERS, when I consider the cause for which we have drawn our swords, and the necessity of striking an effectual blow before we sheathe them again, I feel joyful hopes arising in my mind, that this day an opening shall be made for the restoration of British liberty, and for shaking off the infamous yoke of Roman slavery. Caledonia is yet free. The all-grasping power of Rome has not yet been able to seize our liberty. But it is only to Warning. be preserved by valour. By flight it cannot, for the sea confines us, and that the more effectually, as being possessed by the fleets of the enemy. As it is by arms that the brave acquire immortal fame, so it is by arms that the sordid must defend their lives and properties, or lose them. You are the very men, my friends, who have hitherto set bounds to the unmeasurable ambition of the Romans. In consequence of your Encouraging. 1 The Caledonii were, according to Ptolemy, the inhabitants of the interior parts of what before the union was called Scot land, now North Britain. mhabiting the more inaccessible parts of the island, you have hitherto been free from the common disgrace and the common sufferings. You lie almost out of the reach of fame itself; but you must not Warning. expect to enjoy this untroubled security any longer, unless you bestir yourselves so effectually as to put it out of the power of the enemy to search out your retreats, and disturb your repose. If you do not, curiosity alone will set them a prying, and they will conclude that there is something worth the labour of conquering in the interior parts of the island, merely because they have never seen them. What is little known is often coveted, because so little known. And you are not to expect that you should escape the ravage of the general plunderers of mankind, by any sentiment of moderation in them. When the countries which are more accessible come to be subdued, they will then force their way into those which are harder to come at. And if they should conquer the Accusation. dry land over the whole world, they will then think of carrying their arms beyond the ocean, to see whether there be not certain unknown regions which they may attack, and reduce under subjection to the Roman empire. For we see, that if a country is thought to be powerful in arms the Romans attack it, because the conquest will be glorious; if inconsiderable in the military art, because the victory will be easy; if rich, they are drawn thither by the hope of plunder; if poor, by the desire of fame. The east and the west, the south and the north, the face of the whole earth, is the scene of their military achievements; the world is too little for their ambition and their avarice. They are the only nation ever known to be equally desirous of conquering a poor kingdom as a rich one. Their supreme joy seems to be ravaging, fighting, Horror. and shedding of blood; and when they have unpeo Horror. pled a region, so that there are none left alive able to bear arms, they say they have given peace to that country. Nature itself has peculiarly endeared to all men, their wives and their children. But it is known to you, my countrymen, that the conquered youth are daily drafted off to supply the deficiencies in the Roman army. The wives, the sisters, and the daughters of the conquered are either exposed to the violence, or at least corrupted by the arts, of these Accusation. cruel spoilers. The fruits of our industry are plun dered to make up the tributes imposed on us by oppressive avarice. Britons sow their fields, and the Complaining greedy Romans reap them. Our very bodies are worn out in carrying on their military works, and our toils are rewarded by them with abuse and stripes. Those who are born to slavery are bought and main Indignation, tained by their master. But this unhappy country pays for being enslaved, and feeds those who enslave it. And our portion of disgrace is the bitterest, as the inhabitants of this island are the last who have Accusation, fallen under the galling yoke. Our native bent against tyranny is the offence which most sensibly irritates those lordly usurpers. Our distance from the seat of government, and our natural defence by the surrounding ocean, render us obnoxious to their suspicions; for they know that Britons are born with an instinctive love of liberty; and they conclude, that we must be naturally led to think of taking the advantage of our detached situation to disengage ourselves, one time or other, from their oppression. Warning. Courage. Thus, my countrymen and fellow-soldiers, suspected and hated, as we ever must be by the Romans, there is no prospect of our enjoying even a tolerable state of bondage under them. Let us, then, in the name of all that is sacred, and in defence of all that tion. is dear to us, resolve to exert ourselves, if not for glory, at least for safety; if not in vindication of British honour, at least in defence of our lives. How Commendanear were the Brigantines' to shaking off the yokeled on, too, by a woman? They burned a Roman settlement; they attacked the dreaded Roman legions in their camp. Had not their partial success drawn Regret. them into a fatal security, the business would have been done. And shall not we of the Caledonian region, Courage. whose territories are yet free, and whose strength entire—shall not we, my fellow-soldiers, attempt something which may show these foreign ravagers that they have more to do than they think of before they can be masters of the whole island? strance. But, after all, who are these mighty Romans? Are Contempt. they gods, or mortal men like ourselves? Do we not see that they fall into the same errors and weaknesses as others? Does not peace effeminate them? Does not abundance debauch them? Does not luxury enervate them? Do they not even go to excess in the most unmanly vices ? And can you imagine that Remonthey who are remarkable for their vices are likewise remarkable for their valour? That, then, do we Courage. dread?—Shall I tell you the very truth, my fellowsoldiers! It is by means of our intestine divi- Regret. sions that the Romans have gained so great advantages over us. They turn the mismanagement of their enemies to their own praise. They boast of what they have done, and say nothing of what we might have done, had we been so wise as to unite against them. What is this formidable Roman army ? Is it not Contempt. composed of a mixture of people from different coun 1 The Brigantines, according to Ptolerny, inhabited what is now called Yorkshire, the bishopric of Durham, &c. Courage. Regret. Courage. Courage. No: the tries, some more, some less, disposed to military achievements; some more, some less, capable of bearing fatigue and hardship. They keep together, while they are successful. Attack them with vigour ; distress them; and you will see them more disunited among themselves than we are now. Can any one imagine, that Gauls, Germans, and—with shame I must add, Britons, who basely lend, for a time, their limbs and their lives to build up a foreign tyranny— can any one imagine that these will not be longer enemies than slaves! or that such an army is held toge ther by sentiments of fidelity or affection? only bond of union among them is fear. And, whenever terror ceases to work upon the minds of that mixed multitude, they who now fear will then hate their tyrannical masters. On our side there is every possible incitement to valour. The Roman courage is not, as ours, inflamed by the thought of wives and children in danger of falling into the hands of the enemy. The Romans have no parents, as we have, to reproach them if they should desert their infirm old age. They have no country here to fight for. Contempt. They are a motley collection of foreigners, in a land wholly unknown to them, cut off from their native country, hemmed in by the surrounding ocean, and given, I hope, a prey into our hands beyond all possibility of escape. Let not the sound of the Roman name affright your ears; nor let the glare of gold or silver upon their armour dazzle your eyes. It is not by gold or silver that men are either wounded or defended, though they are rendered a richer to prey the conquerors. Let us boldly attack this disunited rabble; we shall find among themselves a reinforcement to our army. The degenerate Britons, who are incorporated into their forces, will, through shame of their country's cause deserted by them, quickly Courage. |