Here you see a general, here an army:
there you may behold tributes and the mines, with all the other train of
calamities and curses ever pursuing men enslaved. Whether all these are to
be for ever imposed, or whether we forthwith avenge ourselves for the
attempt, this very field must determine. As therefore you advance to
battle, look back upon your ancestors, look forward to your posterity."
They received his speech joyfully, with chantings, and terrible din, and
many dissonant shouts, after the manner of barbarians. Already too their
bands moved, and the glittering of their arms appeared, as all the most
resolute were running to the front: moreover the army was forming in
battle array; when Agricola; who indeed saw his soldiers full of alacrity,
and hardly to be restrained even by express cautions, yet chose to
discourse to them in the following strain. "It is now the eighth year, my
fellow-soldiers, since through the virtue and auspicious fortune of the
Roman Empire, and by your own services and fidelity you have been pursuing
the conquest of Britain. In so many expeditions that you have undertaken,
in so many battles as you have fought, you have still had constant
occasion either to be exerting your bravery against the foe, or your
patience and pains even against the obstacles of nature.
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