Agricola Het eerste werk van Tacitus behoort nog niet tot de geschiedschrijving, maar tot een daarmee verwant genre. He mitigated the demands for grain and other tributes by equalising the burden, curtailing such schemes for profit as were harder to tolerate than the tribute itself. It is common knowledge that Caligula considered invading Britain (40AD), but his fickle mind was quick to repent of it, besides his great designs in Germany were frustrated. ‘Ancient Roman Warriors Riding into Battle’ Some judge their pearl-gatherers lacking in skill; for pearls are torn from the living breathing oyster in the Red Sea, while in Britain they are only collected when washed ashore: I can more readily believe that the pearls lack quality than that we lack greed. Further translations from Tacitus', of the Annals and Histories, will be started this winter. At no time was Britain more troubled or the situation more in doubt: veterans were slaughtered, colonies burned, forces cut off from their base; one day brought victory, the next a struggle for life. Het is een levensbeschrijving van zijn schoonvader Cn. turned to flight, not in groups as before, nor with any regard one for another, but scattering and taking evasive action made singly for their distant lairs. edited for Perseus. Taking the wider view, it is certainly credible that the Gauls might occupy a neighbouring island; you find the same ceremonies and religious beliefs there; their languages are not too dissimilar, they have the same recklessness in courting danger, and the same anxiety to escape it, when it comes. We shall find helping hands in the enemy’s own battle lines. As the battle lines were drawn, Agricola, aware that his men, though full of spirit and hard to hold back behind their defences, needed further encouragement, spoke as follows: ‘My fellow-soldiers, with the power and auspices of our Roman Empire backing you, and by loyalty and hard work, you have conquered Britain. Though the leadership and strategy were another’s, though the high command and credit for securing the province were the general’s, yet the young soldier gained skill, experience and a sense of purpose. Trebellius, eluding the violence, by fleeing into hiding, shamed and humiliated, was then allowed to govern only on sufferance. It is said he spoke in the following manner to the gathered host demanding battle: ‘When I consider the causes of this war and our present situation, my spirit rises at the thought that this very day, and the unity you show, will bring freedom to all Britain; for united here and untouched by slavery, there is no land behind and the very sea is insecure, threatened as we are by the Roman fleet. The Agricola is both a portrait of Julius Agricola - the most famous governor of Roman Britain and Tacitus' well-loved and respected father-in-law - and the first detailed account of Britain that has come down to us. Very little is known concerning the life of Tacitus, the historian, except that which he tells us in his own writings and those incidents which are related to him by his contemporary, Pliny. Now, the enemy, according to their nature, fled in armed groups before smaller numbers, or charged, though unarmed, of their own volition, and offered up their lives. This work may be freely reproduced, stored and transmitted, electronically or otherwise, for any non-commercial purpose. It soon bore little resemblance to a cavalry action, as our troops, who had difficulty staying on their feet, were driven forward by the mass of horses; while the odd driverless chariot, its team panic-stricken, driven wild with terror, made oblique or head-on charges. of freedom, this remote sanctuary of Britain's glory has up to this time been a defence. Pieter Romans (Jr.), 1832 L035 - Tacitus -- Dialogus, Agricola, Germania. Meanwhile, the Caledonians, on the hill-tops not yet reached by the fighting, free to deride the smallness of our force, began to descend gradually and might have surrounded the rear of their attackers had not Agricola, fearing this, thrown four squadrons of cavalry, held in reserve, in their path, by whom the enemy were put to flight with a ferocity as great as the bravado of their assault. On the life and character of Julius Agricola) is a book by the Roman historian Tacitus, written c. AD 98, which recounts the life of his father-in-law Gnaeus Julius Agricola, an eminent Roman general and Governor of Britain from AD 77/78 – 83/84.It also covers, briefly, the geography and ethnography of ancient Britain. He was protected from any temptation towards wrongdoing not only by his own sound and virtuous nature but also by Massilia who provided the foundation to his studies and acted as his guide, he representing a happy mixture of Greek refinement and provincial simplicity. With An Introduction by Edward Brooks, Jr. [1.1] Clārōrum virōrum facta mōrēsque posterīs trādere, antīquitus ūsitātum, nē nostrīs quidem temporibus quamquam incūriōsa suōrum aetās omīsit, quotiēns magna aliqua ac nōbilis virtūs vīcit ac supergressa est vītium parvīs magnīsque cīvitātibus commūne, ignōrantiam rēctī et invidiam. And just as, in our predecessors’ times, the age was more favourable and open to actions worth recording, so distinguished men of ability were led to produce those records of virtue, not to curry favour or from ambition, but for the reward of a good conscience. To bequeath to posterity a record of the deeds and characters of distinguished men is an ancient practice which even the present age, careless as it is of its own sons, has not abandoned whenever some great and conspicuous excellence has conquered and risen superior to that failing, common to petty and to great states, blindness and hostility to goodness. He almost eliminated the whole tribe, and aware of the need to follow up his success after that first campaign, in order to terrorise the rest, he determined to reduce the island of Mona (Anglesey), from whose conquest Paulinus had been recalled by the wider rebellion in Britain. Few in numbers; fearful in their ignorance; the very sea, sky and forest, all they see around them, unfamiliar to their eyes, the gods have delivered them into our hands like prisoners in a cage. No doubt his noble and aspiring mind desired the beauty and splendour of great and glorious ideas with more violence than restraint. Not having anticipated the action, Agricola lacked the presence of the fleet: yet through his resourcefulness and determination the straits were bridged. Julius Caesar, since deified, was the first of the Romans to invade Britain, overawing the natives in a successful campaign and making himself master of the coast (54BC), though he is seen rather to have revealed the island to posterity, than delivered it to them. The British Library. The Britons had their country, wives, parents to fight for; the enemy fought only out of greed and a desire for luxurious living; they would retreat, as their god Julius Caesar had retreated, if Britons would emulate the courage of their forefathers. Gnaeus Julius Agricola In 98 werd het leven van Agricola op schrift vastgelegd door zijn schoonzoon; niemand minder dan Publius Cornelius Tacitus, een van de belangrijkste historici van de late eerste eeuw na Christus. Everywhere the field was covered with weapons, corpses, severed limbs and blood; but there was sometimes an angry courage even in defeat. Agricola’s scouts, sent in all directions, met no one; the traces of the enemy’s flight uncertain, and nowhere any sign of unity. Equally, the Britons, considering themselves vanquished not in courage but by the general’s timely strategy, were not a fraction less arrogant, but armed their young men, sent their women and children to places of safety, and ratified their confederacy by gathering to make sacrifice. Such was the state of Britain, such the military situation which Agricola found in the midsummer of his arrival when the troops, assuming campaigning was over, were seeking rest, and the enemy were seeking an opportunity. That the name of a private individual should be exalted above that of the Leader, was what he most feared: it was useless to silence the forum’s eloquence, and the noble arts of peace, if another were to grasp military glory. Let those whose way it is to admire only what is rebellious, learn that great men can exist even under bad leaders, and obedience and moderation, if accompanied by industry and vigour, achieve that glory more often realised through dangerous actions, without benefit to the state, and an ostentatious end. Livy the most eloquent of ancient and Fabius Rusticus of modern authors respectively likened its shape to a lengthened shoulder-blade, or a double axe-head. It was a custom in the past not yet relinquished by our own age, indifferent though we may now be to events, to relay to posterity the deeds and manners of famous men; whenever, that is, mighty and noble virtue had conquered and suppressed that vice common to all states, great and small, the ignorance and envy of what is good. The general public, in this otherwise preoccupied city, came often to his door, and talked of him in the market squares and in private circles. The consul (suffectus, 77AD) betrothed his daughter Julia, a girl of great promise, to me, then a mere youth, and on conclusion of his office gave her to me in marriage. When you penetrate the woodland glades, the creatures that are bravest charge at you, the timid and placid are driven off by the mere sound of your passing. Had Suetonius Paulinus not learned of the uprising in his province and rushed to the rescue, Britain would have been lost. I doubt not that all tributes due to you, best of fathers, were more than rendered in your honour, by the fondest of wives at your bedside; yet too few still were the tears shed as you were buried, and something your eyes longed for as they last sought the light. The Agricola (Latin: De vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae, lit. Then Agricola, fearing the enemy numbers were superior, extended his lines so as not to be attacked in front and on the flanks simultaneously, though his ranks would be stretched, and many called on him to deploy the legionaries, but he, more resolutely hopeful and firmly opposed to it, instead dismissed his mount and placed himself before the troops. If posterity wishes to know of his outward appearance, he was more handsome than imposing: there was no aggressiveness in his look: his dominant expression was benign. He married Julia Agricola, the daughter of the famous general Agricola, and later wrote a biography of his father-in-law. Once they each had one master: now two were imposed on them – a governor to extract their blood, a procurator their possessions. Kline, A.S., (prose translation) "Tacitus: The Agricola and Germania" Author Email: admin@poetryintranslation.com. Often, soldiers, cavalrymen and marines shared their rations in mutual celebration, delighting in their various deeds and disasters, heights of mountain and forest on the one hand, trials of storm and sea on the other; comparing conquest of the foe and the terrain here, of the ocean there, in rival boast. To refer to the honesty and restraint of such a man is almost to insult virtue itself. This I would preach to wife and daughter, to so venerate the memory of husband and father as to contemplate his every word and action, and to cling to the form and feature of the mind rather than the body; not because I think bronze or marble likenesses should be suppressed, but that the face of a man and its semblance are both mortal and transient, while the form of the mind is eternal, and can only be captured and expressed not through the materials and artistry of another, but through one’s own character alone. The History of Great Britain: from the First Invasion of it by the Romans under Julius Cæsar - Robert Henry, Malcolm Laing, John Adams (p602, 1789) Those who had been so prudent and cautious were now, after the event, eager and boastful. Theft, slaughter, rapine they misname empire, they make a desert and call it peace.’. We use cookies for social media and essential site functions.