The Words of Calgacus - as written down by Tacitus

Extract from - - from AGRICOLA (pages 79 to 83) - in .. The Agricola and The Germania - Tacitus -- Penguin Classics ISBN 0-14-044241-3 - revised translation published 1970

AD 81 or 82 - just before the Battle of Mons Graupius - between the Romans, led by General and Governor, Gnaeus Julius Agricola, and the Caledonians (Picts), one of whose leaders was Calgacus, who is the first native of what we today call Scotland to get his name in a book - here is the relevant extract from that book ....

AGRICOLA 30

...... At that point one of the many leaders, a man of outstanding valour and nobility named Calgacus, addressed the close-packed multitude of men clamouring for battle. This is the substance of what he is reported to have said:

AGRICOLA 31

'When I consider the motives we have for fighting and the critical position we are in, I have a strong feeling that the united front you are showing today will mean the dawn of liberty for the whole of Britain. You have mustered to a man, and all of you are free. There are no lands behind us, and even on the sea we are menaced by the Roman fleet. The clash of battle - the hero's glory - has now actually become the safest refuge for the coward. Battles against Rome have been lost and won before; but hope was never abandoned, since we were always here in reserve. We, the choicest flower of Britain's manhood, were hidden away in her most secret places. Out of site of subject shores, we kept even our eyes free from the defilement of tyranny. We, the most distant dwellers upon the earth, the last of the free, have been shielded till today by our very remoteness and by the obscurity in which it has shrouded our name. Now, the furthest bounds of Britain lie open to our enemies; and what men know nothing about they always assume to be a valuable prize. But there are no more nations beyond us; nothing is there but waves and rocks, and the Romans, more deadly still than these - for in them is an arrogance which no submission or good behaviour can escape. Pillagers of the world, they have exhausted the land by their indiscriminate plunder, and now they ransack the sea. A rich enemy excites their cupidity; a poor one, their lust for power. East and West alike have failed to satisfy them. They are the only people on earth to whose covetousness both riches and poverty are equally tempting. To robbery, butchery, and rapine, they give the lying name of "government"; they create a desolation and call it peace.

AGRICOLA 32

'Do you imagine that the Romans' bravery in war matches their dissoluteness in time of peace? No! It is our quarrels and disunion that have given them fame. The reputation of the Roman army is built up on the faults of its enemies. Look at it, a motley conglomeration of nations, that will be shattered by defeat as surely as it is now held together by success. Or can you seriously think that those Gauls and Germans - and, to our bitter shame, many Britons too - are bound to Rome by genuine loyalty or affection? They may be lending their life-blood now to the foreign tyrant, but they were enemies of Rome for more years than they have been her slaves. Terror and intimidation are poor bonds of attachment: once break them, and where fear ends hatred will begin. All that can spur men to victory is on our side. The enemy have no wives to fire their courage, no parents to taunt them if they run away. Most of them either have no fatherland they can remember, or belong to to one other than Rome. See them, a scanty band, scared and bewildered, staring at the unfamiliar sky, sea and forests around them. The gods have given them, like so many prisoners bound hand and foot, into our hands. Be not afraid of the outward show that means nothing, the glitter of gold and silver that can neither avert not inflict a wound. Even in the ranks of our enemies we shall find willing hands to help us. The Britons will recognise our cause as their own; the Gauls will remember their lost liberty; the rest of the Germans will desert them as surely as the Usipi did recently. And beyond this army that you see there is nothing to be frightened of - only forts without garrisons, colonies of greybeards, towns sick and distracted between rebel subjects and tyrant masters. Which will you choose - to follow your leader into battle, or to submit to taxation, labour in the mines, and all the other tribulations of slavery? Whether you are to endure these for ever or take quick vengeance, this field must decide. On then, into action; and as you go. think of those that went before you and of those that shall come after.'

Cornelius Tacitus was probably born in a country town of Gallia Narbonensis, in AD 56 or 57 and died at some time after AD 115.

The battle certainly took place - it was a great victory for the Romans - Tacitus gives the figures - Of the enemy some 10,000 fell; on our side, 360 men - I doubt if he would have got away with that in his book if it wasn't true.
Whether Galgacus was a real person or not, we don't really know. Calgacus - and his speech - may have been made up by Tacitus.
Nobody today knows where the battle at 'Mount Graupius' between the Romans and the Caledonians, as described by Tacitus. actually took place!