Publius Cornelius Tacitus is ancient Rome’s most famous historian. This speech is taken from Tacitus’s earliest known history, The Agricola. Written about his father-in-law’s governorship of the Roman province of Britannia. Though not as well known as his Historiae, a history of Rome itself, Agricola does have one of the most famous descriptions of the Romans ever given – “Theft, slaughter, rapine they misname empire, they make a desert and call it peace.” Put into the mouth of the rebellious Scottish chieftain Calgacus, this is more than just a pithy phrase. It is a damning revelation of the nature of empire itself. But it is more than even that.
That phrase, indeed Calgacus’s entire speech, is a revelation and rejection of the nature of the State itself.
Surely this wasn’t intended. Tacitus, after all, was a loyal son of Imperial Rome and the man his work was written to honor was a Roman imperial governor. But that doesn’t change the insights gained from Calgacus’s words. In the modern day we, thanks to our centuries of experience with democracy and republicanism in their many forms, know that empires aren’t the only political systems that engage in colonialism, that slaughter civilians, that oppress people, that reduce humans to slavery in all but name. We know that empires aren’t even more likely to do these evil things.
Between the truths Tacitus recorded in 98 AD and the truths we see today, we can see how the evils of those ancient days continue on until now. The State always establishes and maintains itself through violence, legalizing theft under the guise of taxation, murdering people under the guise of law enforcement and military action, inventing whatever legal fictions needed to seize the property of the people under the guise of such lies as asset forfeiture. Sometimes it is headed by an Emperor, sometimes by a President. Never does its nature change.
This tells us that the source of those evils isn’t empire and the solutions to them aren’t democracy. The State inspires, justifies, and enables the worst of humanity no matter what permutation the State takes. Like Calgacus and his people, we are all colonized by a violent political elite and like Calgacus and his people we should refuse to accept it any longer.
For all their insights into the nature of the State itself, for their ability to awaken people to the awful nature of the system that dominates their lives and the lives of everyone they love and all they treasure, the words of Calgacus deserve to be read in their entirety.
For the natives, still unbroken by the outcome of previous battles, with the prospect of Roman vengeance or slavery before them, aware by now that mutual danger must be repelled by common alliance, had summoned the tribes in strength, through envoy and treaty. Already in excess of thirty thousand men were in evidence, and still the warriors streamed in, those whose years were still fresh and green, noted in war, some wearing badges of honour, among whom the chieftain pre-eminent by courage and birth was named Calgacus. 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. So weapons and war, virtues to the strong, are also the best refuge of the coward. Previous battles, fought against Rome with varying success, leave the hope of salvation in our hands, for we the noblest of the Britons, dwelling in its furthest reaches, have never seen the shores of slavery, our eyes untouched by the stain of tyranny.
To this day, on the last frontier of freedom, we have been protected by our very remoteness and obscurity; now the furthest shores of Britain lie exposed, and while the unknown is always magnified, now there are no more tribes, nothing but sea and stone, for these fatal Romans, whose arrogance you will not escape by humility and restraint. Thieves of the world, lacking lands now to devastate, they rove the sea. Those whom East nor West can satisfy reveal their greed if their enemies are wealthy, their ambition if they are paupers; alone amongst all men they covet rich and poor alike. Theft, slaughter, rapine they misname empire, they make a desert and call it peace.’
‘Our children and kin are, by nature, the things most dear to us; they are carried off by levy to be slaves in other lands: our wives and sisters, even if they escape the soldiers’ lust, are defiled by so called friends and guests. Our goods, our wealth are lost to tribute; our land and harvest to requisitions of grain; life and limb themselves in forging roads through marsh and forest, to the accompaniment of curses and blows. Slaves born to servitude are sold once and for all, and fed by their masters free of cost: Britain pays daily for her own enslavement, and daily nourishes it. And as among household slaves the newcomer is mocked by his fellows, so in this age-old worldwide house of slaves, we the newest and most worthless, are marked for destruction: we lack the fields, the mines, the harbours that we might have been preserved to labour in.
Pride and courage, moreover, in a subject displeases their rulers: our distance from them and obscurity, even as they protect us, make us more suspect. Therefore abandon all hope of pardon, and even now take thought, as to which is dearest, safety or glory. A woman led the Trinovantes to storm a camp and burn a colony, and if success had not lapsed to inactivity, they might have thrown off the yoke: let us, whole and indomitable, brought forth in freedom not regret, show at the first encounter, what manner of men Caledonia has chosen for her cause.’
‘Think you the Romans, then, are as brave in war as they are lascivious in peace? Our discords and dissensions bring them success, their enemy’s errors bring their armies glory. Those armies, recruited from diverse nations, success holds together, defeat will dissolve. Unless you imagine that Gauls and Germans, and even, to their shame, many Britons, who lend themselves to an alien tyranny, its enemies longer than they have been its slaves, are swayed by loyalty and affection. Fear and terror are sorry bonds of love: remove them, and those who cease to fear will begin to hate. Every spur to success is ours: the Romans have no wives here to inspire them, no parents to reproach the deserter, and most have no other than an alien homeland.
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. Empty show, the gleam of gold and silver, cannot terrify, that neither protects nor wounds. We shall find helping hands in the enemy’s own battle lines. The Britons will acknowledge our cause is theirs, the Gauls will remember their former freedom: as the Usipii recently deserted them, so will the rest of the Germans. There is nothing beyond them to fear; empty forts, veterans’ colonies, weak and quarrelsome townships of disaffected founders and unjust rulers. Here is leadership, and an army: there lies tribute, toil in the mines, and all the other ills of servitude, that you can perpetuate for ever, or avenge now, upon this field. Think then of your forefathers, and of your posterity, before you enter into battle.”
Tacitus, The Agricola, Sections 29-32
Note: The only changes that I made to the text was to add some paragraphization to enhance readability. Otherwise, all text is unaltered.
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