33. No sooner was the line of battle in process of formation than Agricola, thinking that his soldiery, though exultant and with difficulty held back behind their fortifications, ought to receive yet further inspiration, spoke as follows:
For six years, fellow-soldiers, under the powerful auspices of the Roman empire and by our combined loyalty and initiative, you have conquered Britain. In all these campaigns and on these battlefields, whether resolution was required against the enemy or patience and hard work against Nature herself, I have had nothing to regret in my soldiers, or you in your general. Accordingly, we have out distanced, previous governors, you previous armies: today our knowledge of Britain's boundaries rests not on hearsay and report, but on armed occupation: we have both discovered and subdued Britain. Often on the march, when you were exhausted by swamp, mountain, and river, I overheard the exclamations of your bravest, 'When will the enemy be delivered into our hands? When will (they come)?'
They are coming: they have been dragged from their coverts; there is nothing now to bar your prayers and prowess. Victory and the stream is with you. Defeat and difficulties are everywhere. To have covered so much ground, to have passed the forests, to have forded the estuaries, is honour and glory to an army advancing; but our successes of today become the worst of perils in retreat: we have not the same knowledge of locality, we have not the same abundance of supplies; we have but our hands and swords, and therein we have everything. As for myself, I have long ago reached the conviction that retreat is fatal both to army and to general: therefore not only is honourable death always better than life dishonoured, but in our special case safety and honour go together; nor would it be inglorious to fall at the world's edge and nature's end.
34. If it were unknown tribes and a strange battle-line that confronted you, I would encourage you with the precedents of other armies: as it is, you have only to rehearse your own achievements and question your own eyes. These are the men who last year under cover of night attacked a single legion and were beaten by a shout: these are the most fugitive of the other tribes of Britain, for which reason they have survived so long. When you pierced the thickets and glens, the bravest beasts charged at you; the timid and spiritless were dislodged by the mere stir of your march. Even so the keenest of the Britons have long since fallen; there is left only the flock of cowards and shirkers. That you have found them at last is not because they have made a stand; they have been overtaken: desperation and supreme panic have paralysed their troops here on this spot, for you to win a glorious and spectacular victory. Make an end here of your campaignings: crown fifty years' work with a day of glory: prove to the state that the army has never been to blame if the war has dragged on or if rebels have had their opportunity.
35. Even while Agricola was still speaking the enthusiasm of his men gave voice, and the close of his speech was followed by wild excitement, and they broke up at once to take their place for battle