Brought to their Knees
Agricola, tasked with subduing the people of Britain to Roman colonial government, persuaded them to wear servitude as a badge of refinement.
78
Roman Britain 43-410
Agricola, tasked with subduing the people of Britain to Roman colonial government, persuaded them to wear servitude as a badge of refinement.
78
Roman Britain 43-410
Gnaeus Julius Agricola took over as Roman Governor of Britannia in 78, and remained there for six very successful years. Having applied the stick, so his son-in-law Cornelius Tacitus tells us, he was eager to offer carrots: taxes were cut, corrupt officials were weeded out, and investment was poured in. The coddled and cozened tribal leaders thought they had got a fine bargain for their liberties.
HIS first year saw a speedy end put to these abuses, and brought peace into high honour with the natives whom the alternate carelessness and cruelty of his predecessors caused to dread it no less than war.* With the advent of summer, however, he took the field again at the head of his army: on the march he was everywhere in person, praising steadiness and checking stragglers. He himself chose the camps, he himself sounded the estuaries and scoured the woods; and in the meantime he never allowed the enemy a moment’s rest, but laid waste their territories with unexpected forays.
Then when he had brought them to their knees his ready clemency unfolded to them the attractions of peace. By these methods many tribes, independent until then, were brought to give hostages and abandon their hostile attitude, and a line of forts was drawn round them, nor was any new annexation in Britain ever so wisely and carefully carried out before.
Tranquillity reigned during the following winter, and Agricola took advantage of it to give wholesome advice.
* The military raids ended by Agricola were Roman raids, the taxes he cut were Roman taxes, the corrupt officials he fired were Roman officials: they were abuses for which the Romans were themselves responsible. See also David Henry Montgomery on Rome, Ruin and Revenue. On the other hand, the tax money he spent on Roman temples and Roman baths, on Roman villas, courthouses and civic buildings, was British: they paid for their own chains. Yet as Tacitus goes on to say with unconcealed wonder, the British were abased with gratitude, and the sure sign of an intellectual was a complete inability to understand what was happening.
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Roman officials were cruel. The Britons feared them. Peace seemed as bad as war.
See if you can include one or more of these words in your answer.
IBetter. IIInspire. IIISuch.