Two weeks ago, we wondered how Tacitus, that pillar of the Roman establishment, was able to get away with putting a speech in the mouth of the Caledonian ‘terrorist’ Calgacus to his troops that sounded so sympathetic to him and his cause. This week concludes the extracts and offers some comments. Note that Calgacus admits that some Britons, Gauls and Germans were fighting on the Roman side. He argues this is partly the allies’ own fault for not showing a united front before enemies he regards as a ‘motley rabble’:
‘Do you really believe the Romans to be as courageous in war as they are lecherous in peace? It is our own splits and quarrels that have made those men famous, enabling them to turn enemy weakness into military triumph — this motley rabble from every nation, held together only by good fortune as surely as it will be shattered by bad.
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