Druides rebus divinis intersunt, sacrifica publica ac privata procurant, religiones
interpretantur: ad hos magnus numerus adulescentium discendi causa concurrit,
magnoque hi sunt apud eos honore. nam fere de omnibus controversiis publicis
privatisque constituunt, et, si quod facinus admissum est, si caedes facta, si de
hereditate, de finibus controversia est, Druides rem decernunt, praemia poenasque
constituunt. si quis aut privatus aut publicus eorum decreto non stetit, sacrificiis
interdicunt: haec poena apud eos est gravissima. ei quibus ita interdictum est
numero impiorum ac scelestorum habentur; eis omnes decedunt, aditum
sermonemque fugiunt, ne quid ex contagione incommodi accipiant; neque eis
petentibus ius redditur neque honos ullus datur. his autem omnibus Druidibus
praeest unus, qui summam inter eos habet auctoritatem. hoc mortuo, aut is qui ex
reliquis excellit dignitate succedit, aut, si sunt multi pares, suffragio Druidum,
nonnumquam etiam armis, de principatu contendunt. disciplina eorum in Britannia
reperta atque inde in Galliam translata esse existimatur, et nunc ei, qui diligentius
eam rem cognoscere volunt, plerumque in Britanniam discendi causa proficiscuntur.
Druides a bello abesse solent neque tributa una cum reliquis pendunt; militae
vacationem omniumque rerum immunitatem habent. Tantis praemiis excitati et sua
sponte multi in disciplinam conveniunt et a parentibus propinquisque mittuntur.
magnam ibi numerum versuum ediscere dicuntur; itaque nonnulli viginti annos in
disciplina permanent. neque fas esse existimant hos versus litteris mandare, cum in
reliquis fere rebus Graecis litteris utantur. id mihi duabus de causis instituisse
videntur, quod neque in vulgum disciplinam efferri velint, neque eos, qui discunt,
litteris confisos minus memoriae studere. in primis hoc volunt persuadere, animas
non perire, sed ab allis post mortem transire ad alios, atque hoc maxime homines ad
virtutem excitari putant metu mortis neglecto. Multa praeterea de sideribus atque
eorum motu, de mundi ac terrarum magnitudine, de rerum natura, de deorum
immortalium vi ac potestate disputant et iuventuti tradunt.
natio omnis Gallorum est magnopere dedita religionibus, atque ob eam
causam ei, qui sunt affecti gravioribus morbis quique in proeliis periculisque
versantur, aut pro victimis homines immolant aut se immolaturos esse vovent
administrisque ad ea sacrificia Druidibus utuntur, quod, nisi pro vita hominis
reddatur hominis vita, non posse deorum immortalium numen placari arbitrantur:
publiceque eiusdem generis habent instituta sacrificia. alli simulacra ingenti
magnitudine habent, quorum membra viminibus contexta vivis hominibus complent;
simulacris incensis homines flamma circumventi pereunt. supplicia eorum qui in
furto aut in latrocinio aut aliqua noxia sint comprehensi gratiora deis immortalibus
esse arbitrantur; sed, cum copia eius generis defecit, etiam ad innocentium supplicia
descendunt.
Suetonius igitur Monam insulam, incolis validam et receptaculum
perfugarum, aggredi parat: navibus pedites equites vado secuit aut adnates equis
transierunt. stabat pro litore diversa acies, densa armis virisque intercursantibus
feminis; quae in modum Furiarum veste ferali, crinibus deiectis faces praeferebant;
Druidesque circum, preces diras sublatis ad caelum minibus funderntes novitiate
aspectus perculerunt milites it wuase haerentibus membris immobile corpus
vulnerius praeberent. deinde hortante duce et se ipsi stimulantes ne muliebre et
fanatiucm agmen timerent, inferunt signa sternuntque obvios et igni suo incolcunt.
praesidium posthac impositum est victis excisique sunt luci superstitionibus sacri:
nam Druides cruore captivo adolere aras et hominum fibris consulere deos fas
habebant.
rex Icenorum Prautagus, divitiis diu clarus, Caesarem heredem duasque filias
scripserat, tali obsequio ratus et regnum et domum suam procul iniuria futuram
esse. quod contra vertit, adeo ut regnum a centurionibus, domus a servis velut capta
vastarentur. iam primum uxor eius Boudica verberata et filiae stupro violatae sunt:
principes omnes Icenorum, quasi Romani totam regionem muneri accepissent, avitis
bonis exuuntur, et propinqui regis inter servos habebantur. qua contumelia et metu
graviorum permoti, quod in formam provinciae cesserant, rapiunt arma; commoti
sunt ad rebellionem Trinobantes et qui alii, nondum servitio fracti, recipere
libertatem occultis coniurationibus pepigerant. acerrimum in veteranos odium; qui in
coloniam Camulodunum nuper deducti pellebant domibus Trinobantes, exturbabant
agris, captivos vel servos appellabant; militesque superbiam saevitiamque
veteranorum incitabant similitudine vitae et spe eiusdem licentiae. ad hoc, templum
divo Claudio exstructum quasi arx aeternae dominationis aspiciebatur, electique
sacerdotes specie religionis omnes fortunas suas effundebant. nec difficile videbatur
delere coloniam nullis munimentis saeptam; quod ducibus nostris parum provisum
erat, cum amoenitati prius quam usui consuluissent. iam Suetonio erant quarta
decima legio cum vexillariis vicensimae et e proximis auxiliares, decem ferme milia
armatorum: contendere et acie congredi parat. eligitque locum angustis faucibus et
a tergo silvis clausum; sciebat enim nihil hostium esse nisi in fronte, et apertam esse
planitiem sine metu insidiarum. igitur legionarii instructi sunt frequentes ordinibus,
levi armatura circumstante; equites conglobati pro cornibus adstiterunt. at
Britannorum copiae passim per catervas et turmas exultabant, tanta multitudo
quanta non alias, et animo adeo feroci ut coniuges quoque testes victoriae secum
traherent, plaustrisque imponerent quae ad extremam planitiem posuerant. ac
primum legio gradu immota et angustiis loci defensa, postquam in appropinquantes
hostes certo iactu tela exhauserat, tamquam cuneo erupit. auxiliares quoque
impetum faciunt; et equites protentis hastis perfringunt quod obvium et validum
erat. ceteri terga praebuerunt, difficili effugio, quia circumiecta plaustra saepserant
abitus. et milites ne feminis quidem parcebant, confixaque telis etiam iumenta
corporum cumulum auxerant. eo die milites laudem claram et parem antiquis
victoriis pepererunt: qippe sunt qui paulo minus quam octoginta milia Britannorum
cecidisse tradant, militum quadringentis ferme interfectis nec multo amplius
vulneratis. Boudica vitam veneno finivit.
The Druids are concerned with sacred things, they attend to public and private
sacrifices and they explain religious questions. A great number of young men flock to
them to learn and they are held in great honour among them. For they make
decisions about nearly all public and private disputes and if any crime has been
committed, if any murder has been done, if there is a dispute about inheritance or
about boundaries the Druids decide the matter and fix rewards and punishments. If
any public or private individual has disobeyed their decree, they ban them from
9sacrifices. This punishment is the most serious one among them. Those who have
been banned in the way are reckoned in the number of evil men and criminals.
Everyone avoids them and refuses to approach them or talk with them in case they
receive some harm from contact with them. Justice is not given to them if they ask
for it nor is any honour given to them. But one man is in change of all these Druids,
who has supreme authority among them. When this man dies either the man who
stands out from the rest in merit succeeds him, or if there are many equals, they
compete for the leadership either by vote of the Druids or sometimes even with
weapons. The Druids’ training is believed to have been invented in Britain and to
have been brought from there to Gaul and now those who want to learn that
doctrine more deeply generally set off to Britain to learn.
Druids are accustomed to being exempt from warfare and they do not pay
taxes together with the rest of the Gauls. They have exemption from military service
and freedom from all duties. Attracted by such great rewards many people flock to
this training both of their own accord and are sent by their parent and relatives.
They are said to learn a great number of verses there by heart; and so, some remain
in training for twenty years. They do not think it right to entrust these verses to
writing, although in nearly all other things they uses Greek letters. They seem to me
to have established that for two reasons: because they do not want their doctrine to
be spread amongst the common people and because they do not want those who
learn, relying on the written word, to pay less attention to memory. In particular
they wish to persuade the people of this: that souls do not die but after death pass
from one body to another and from this belief especially they think that men are
spurred onto courage, with fear of death disregarded. Moreover, they discuss many
things about the stars and their movement, about the size of the universe and the
earth, about the nature of things, about the strength and power of the immortal
gods and they pass this down to the young people.
The entire nation of the Gauls is deeply devoted to religion and because of
that reason those who have been affect by more serious illnesses and those who are
engaged in battles or dangers either sacrifice men as sacrificial victims or vow that
they will sacrifice them and they employ Druids as assistants for these sacrifices
because they think that, unless a man’s life is offered up for a man’s life the divine
power of the immortal gods cannot be appeased, and they have sacrifices
established publicly of this same sort. Some have images of immense size whose
limbs, woven from willow branches, they fill with living men. When the images have
been set on fire, the men die engulfed in flames. They think that the punishment of
those who have been caught in theft or in robbery or in some other offense are
more pleasing to the immortal gods but when the supply of that kind of men has run
out, they even stoop to the execution of innocent men.
Therefore, Suetonius prepared to attack Mona, the island of Anglesey, well
supplied with inhabitants and a haven for refugees. The infantry crossed on boats,
the cavalry followed in the shallows or swimming next to their horses. The varied
battle-line was standing on the shore, close-packed with armed men, with women
running about between them, who in funeral clothes, in the manner of Furies, with
their hair dishevelled, were brandishing torches, and round about the Druids, with
their hands raised to the sky, pouring out terrible curses, overawed our soldiers by
the strangeness of the sight so that, as if with paralysed limbs they presented their
unmoving bodies to wounds. Then with their general urging them on and they
themselves spurring themselves on not to fear a column of women and fanatics,
they carried the standards forward and cut down those in their way and enveloped
them in their own fire. After this a garrison was imposed on the conquered men and
the groves sacred to these savage superstitions were cut down; for the Druids
considered it right to make offerings on the altars with the blood of captive and to
consult the gods with human intestines.
Prasutagus, the king of the Iceni, famous for a long time for his wealth, had
made Caesar his heir along with his two daughters, thinking that by such obedience
both his kingdom and his home would be far from harm. And this turned out quite
the opposite, to such an extent that his kingdom was plundered by the centurions
and his home by his slaves, as if it had been captured. Now at first his wife Boudica
was beaten and his daughters were violated by rape, all the chiefs of the Iceni, as if
the Romans had received the whole region as a gift, were deprived of their ancestral
goods and the relatives of the king were treated among the slaves. Alarmed by this
humiliation and by fear of more serious things because they had been reduced to
the state of a province, they took up arms; the Trinobantes were roused to rebellion
and others, who not yet broken by slavery, vowed to recapture their freedom
through secret conspiracies. The fiercest hatred was towards the veterans, who,
having recently been brought into the colony of Camulodonum, were driving the
Trinobantes from their homes, expelling them from their fields and calling them
captives or slaves; and the soldiers were encouraging the arrogance and the violence
of the veterans, owing to the similarity in their lifestyles and in hope of the same
freedom to misbehave. In addition to this the temple constructed to the divine
Claudius was regarded as a citadel of eternal domination and the priests who had
been chosen were pouring out all of their fortunes under the pretence of religion.
Nor did it seem difficult to destroy a colony surrounded by no fortifications. A fact
which had been considered too little by our leaders, since they had payed attention
to its pleasantness rather than its practicality. Now Suetonius had the fourteenth
legion with detachments of the twentieth and auxiliaries from the neighbouring
area, almost 10,000 armed men. He prepared to hurry and join battle. And he
choose a place with a narrow entrance and closed in from behind by woods; for he
knew that there were no enemy except in front of him and that the plain was open
with no fear of ambush therefore the legionaries were drawn up densely in their
lines, with the light troops surrounding them; the cavalry stood by massed together
in front of the wings. But the troops of the Britons were rushing out wildly
everywhere through troops of soldiers and cavalry. Such a number as never before
and with spirit so fierce that they also dragged their wives along with them as
witnesses of their victory and they placed them on the wagons which they had put at
the edge of the plane.
And now at first the legion, giving no ground and defended by the
narrowness of the location, after it had used up its weapons, with accurate throws at
the approaching enemy charged in wedge formation. The auxiliaries also made an
attack and the cavalry, with their spears stretched forth broke through that which
was in their way and strong. The others turned tail but their escape was difficult
because the wagons which had been placed around them blocked their escape
routes and the soldiers spared not even the women and even the baggage animals,
pierced with weapons, had increased the heap of bodies. On that day the soldiers
acquired glory which was famous and equal to the victories of old. Indeed, there are
those who say that a few less that 80,000 of the Britons had fallen and that about
400 of our soldiers were killed and not many more were wounded, Boudica ended
her life with poison.