Tacitus Agricola 30


Quotiens causās bellī et necessitātem nostram intueor, magnus mihi animus est hodiernum diem consensumque vestrum initium lībertātis tōtī Britanniae fore: nam et ūniversī coistis et servitūtis expertēs, et nullae ultrā terrae ac nē mare quidem sēcūrum imminente nōbīs classe Rōmānā. ita proelium atque arma, quae fortibus honesta, eadem etiam ignāvīs tūtissima sunt. priōres pugnae, quibus adversus Rōmānōs variā fortūnā certātum est, spem ac subsidium in nostrīs manibus habēbant, quia nōbilissimī tōtīus Britanniae eōque in ipsīs penetrālibus sitī nec ulla servientium lītora aspicientēs, oculōs quoque ā contactū dominātiōnis inviolātōs habēbāmus. nōs terrārum ac lībertātis extrēmōs recessus ipse ac sinus fāmae in hunc diem dēfendit: nunc terminus Britanniae patet, atque omne ignōtum prō magnificō est; sed nulla iam ultrā gens, nihil nisi fluctūs ac saxa, et infestiōres Rōmānī, quōrum superbiam frustrā per obsequium ac modestiam effugiās. raptōrēs orbis, postquam cuncta vastantibus dēfuēre terrae, mare scrūtantur: sī locuples hostis est, avārī, sī pauper, ambitiōsī, quōs nōn Oriens, nōn Occidens satiāverit: sōlī omnium opēs atque inopiam parī affectū concupiscunt. auferre trucidāre rapere falsīs nōminibus imperium, atque ubi solitūdinem faciunt, pācem appellant.


Whenever I consider the reasons for this war and the peril we are in, I have great confidence that your unity today will be the beginning of freedom for the whole of Britain: you have all rallied together and are free men, there are no lands beyond here, and not even the sea is safe with the Roman fleet threatening us. Armed battle, which brings glory to the brave, brings safety even to the cowardly. The battles which we have fought against the Romans before now with varying success left us hoping that our security might be in our own control, for we are the most renowned people in all Britain, dwelling in the very heartland of the country and not facing the shores of those who are in slavery, and we kept even our eyes uncontaminated by contact with the Romans’ tyranny. Until this day, the very remoteness of our glory has defended us at the limits of the earth and of freedom. But now the furthest confines of Britain are wide open, and everything unfamiliar is regarded as magnificent. But there are now no peoples beyond us, nothing but waves and rocks, and the even more hostile Romans, whose arrogance you could not escape through obedience and subservience. Now that they have run out of countries to pillage, those plunderers of the world are exploiting the sea: if an enemy is rich, they are greedy, if he is poor, they strive to conquer him. Neither the East nor the West is enough for them. They are the only race that longs to dominate rich and poor indiscriminately. They falsely call plundering, slaughtering and robbery an empire, and where they create a desert they call it peace.



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