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THE PAINTED SAVAGES OF ENGLAND
(I've had this little book for decades, it does not say
when it was first written and published - Keith Hunt)
by Alban Heath
FOREWORD
The substance of the following pages was given as a lecture
at The College, Harrow Weald Park In issuing the lecture in
printed form as a Handbook I have thought it advisable to give in
full the speeches of Caradoc, Boadicea and Galgacus. This was not
possible in a single lecture; but it is only by reading these
noble utterances in full that we can visualise the circumstances
and appreciate the lofty sentiments expressed therein. Further,
as some readers may not have at hand the works of Tacitus from
which the extracts are taken, it seemed best to give what I have
given here.
While this little book does nothing more than bring together
in compact form information with which most students of History
are familiar, it may be that to some the information will come as
new and useful.
If this book should prove to be of service to those who are
seeking to spread the truth, it will serve the purpose intended.
It is only as our message is based upon established facts that we
can hope to succeed in enlightening those "who sit in darkness."
I have not thought it necessary to labour the distiction between
British and English; t is enough to show that this land was
blessed with culture long before the coming of the English and
with Christianity long before the arrival of Augustine.
ALBAN HEATH
THE "PAINTED SAVAGES" OF ENGLAND
WHEN toward the end of August 55 B.C. 1 Caesar and his legions
landed on the shores of Kent; "they saw the beach crowded with
horses and chariots, and skin-clad, blue-dyed infantry armed with
pointless swords, and uttering shouts of defiance," says
Sanderson. 2 Thus does the painted savage, theory perpetuate
itself. It is based on the description of Julius Caesar. Caesar
was in Gaul (France). Finding a little time hanging on his hands,
Caesar resolved to visit England, "Having spent altogether
eighteen days beyond the Rhine, and thinking he had advanced far
enough to serve both honour and interest, (Ceasar) returned into
Gaul, and cut down the bridge." 3 "During the short part of
summer which remained, Caesar ... resolved to proceed to
Britain." 4
He came with about eighty ships and two legions, but more ships
and soldiery were in the offing. It was intended as a flying
visit only for they came without baggage. 5 As the autumn
equinox
drew near, i.e. about September 23rd,
......
1 The date was probably several years earlier, but
this is the date given by Sanderson.
2 History of Ergland and the British Empire, p.5
3 The Gallic War, iv, 19.
4 Ibid, 20.
5 Ibid, 30.
......
Cearas was anxious to get awat again and returned to France under
cover of night. 1 It was too brief a visit to learn much, and his
ctitics of a generation or so later seem to have made merry over
his adventure. They said the visit "tended to the advantage
neither of the general nor of Rome, beyond the mere extention of
the empire." 2 It was said he came to find pearls; instead of
pearls he found painted savages.
This was a short visit, and there was not time to learn much. But
Caesar learned one or two things that apparently affected his
plans for his second visit.
The following year Caesar came again. This time he brought with
him five legions, i.e. 30,000 soldiers, (or if we accept Gibbon's
findings on the strength of a legion, 63,000 men 3) "a number of
horses equal in number to that which he left on the continent,"
namely 2,000, and 800 ships. 4 Things did not go very well after
his landing. A fierce storm played havoc with his fleet. About 40
ships were lost, and more of the others were damaged. 5 Under
these circumstances, Caesra suspended military operations, set
his soldiers to mend the boats, while he himself beguiled the
weary hours of waiting by writing a description of the country he
had not seen and in delineating the charcter of the men he had
come to conquer. He came, he saw, he "decribed". He wrote:
......
1 "The Gallic War," 36
2 Ibid., 21, footnote.
3 Gibbon, "Decline and Fall of the Roman Enpire," vol.1, p.20
Gohn's Libraries.
4 Caesar, "Gallic War," v.8.
5 Ibid., v.11.
......
"Most of the inland inhabitants do not sow corn, but live on milk
and flesh, and are clad with skins. All the Britains, indeed, dye
themselves wood; 1 which occasions a bluish colour, and have a
more terrible appearance in fight." 2 Or course, we are greatly
indebted to Caesar for placing on record much that he wrote, but
in utter disregard of an abundance of evidence to the contrary
writers on History have perpetuated the painted savage fallacy
on such slender evidence as the above, the evidence of one who
had advanced no further than Kent, and had such little knowledge
of the people whom he describes.
"A kind of conquest Caesar made here; but made not here his brag
Of 'came and saw and overcame.'" 3
It is my purpose to lay before you some of the evidence which
shows that the painted savage idea is not only a fallacy; it is a
libel on a people boasting a high state of civilisation and a
proud degree of culture. Designedly, I give extracts from the
works of others so that my theme may not rest on personal
conjecture. I begin with one of England's great law-givers,
Molmutius, of the fifth century B.C. I shall quote from
"Prehistoric London" by E. O. Gordon, and I shall give the page
references as I proceed.
"The earliest historical record of Winton (Winchester) as a
'Gorsedd,' i.e., a great seat of a monarch and a seat of
government, is in 500 B.C.,
......
1 This is evidently a typographical error for "woad".
2 Caesar, "Gallic War," v.4
3 Cymbeline, iii, I.
......
when, according to local tradition, Dunwal Molmutius made Winton
his capital." (p.83).
"Molmutius' name and fame is more especially associated with the
traditions of Winton (Winchester), the southern capital where his
merits have been publicly recognised. As a roadmaker we have his
work in the seven converging roads like the spokes of a wheel in
the old White City; three of these roads centred in London. For
that Londinium was only second in importance is exemplified by
Winton and London being the only places shown on an Anglo-Saxon
map of the world preserved among the muniments of Hereford
Cathedral." (p.142).
The following selection from the Triads of Molmutius will give
some idea of his laws:
"There are three tests of Civil Liberty: equality of rights -
equality of taxation - freedom to come and go."
"There are three civil birthrights of every Briton: the right to
go wherever he pleases - the right, wherever he is, to protection
from his land and sovereign - the right of equal privileges and
equal restrictions."
"There are three sacred things by which the conscience binds
itself to truth: the name of God - the rod of him who offers up
prayers to God - the joined right hand."
"There are three persons who have a right to public maintenance:
the old - the babe - the foreigner who cannot speak the British
tongue." p.144).
"The Bryn Gwyn (i.e., White Hill or Mound, where the Tower of
London now stands) in Caesar's time, we should remember, was
still in its original condition, simply a green conical mound,
with no building whatever upon it, consecrated to the service of
the Most High, and venerated as the burial place of two of the
most illustrious of our pre-historic British kings, Brutus, the
reputed founder of London, and Molmutius, the 'Solon'
of Britain." (p.154).
"From 'Barddas' (being a collection of original documents
illustrative of the Theology, Wisdom and Usages of the
Bardo-Druidic system published by the Welsh MSS. Society in 1852)
we now learn that the Druidic Gorsedd Laws were incorporated by
the British King Dunwal Molmutius, who lived in the fifth century
B.C., in his famous code.". (p.165).
After research in the British Museum, Mr. Harrison Hill wites:
"The Laws of Dunvallo Molmutius, sixteenth king of the
Britons, who reigned above 400 years before the birth of Christ.
These were the first published laws in Britain, and together with
those of Queen Mercia, were translated by Gildas into Latin
(Usher's 'Primord.' 126, quoted in Wharton's 'Law Lexicon,'
xiiith Edition (1925), p.569). The same information plus an
important statement appears in 'The Law Dictionary': 'These laws
were famous in this land till the time of William the Conqueror.
They were translated out of the British into the Latin tongue'!"
1
......
1 Appendix 'H', in "The Post-Captivity Names of Israel," Dr.
Goard, p. 119.
......
Spencer sang the praises of Molmutius, and Shakespeare puts,
into the mouth of Cymbeline these words:
"Say, then, to Caesar,
Our ancestor was that Mulmutius which
Ordained our laws, whose use the sword of Caesar
Hath too much mangled; whose repair and franchise
Shall, by the power we hold, be our good deed,
Though Rome be therefore angry: Mulmutius made our laws,
Who was the first of Britain which did put
His brows within a golden crown and call'd
Himself a king."
Cymbeline, Act iii, Scene i. 1
A system of jurisprudence implies a standard of education. Before
a man can originate, or codify, a set of laws he requires a
degree of culture commensurate with the task he undertakes.
Further, a degree of culture is implied among the governed. One
of the problems which confronts, us in the government of
untutored Natives is their lack of knowledge of the meaning of
the law which is designed for their good. Since Molmutius,
promulgated laws which survived for at least fifteen hundred
years we, are bound to infer a state of education far removed
from the level of painted savages.
Have we any evidence of such education? We
......
1 There are many forms of the name Molmutius. "Molmutius was
the first to put his brows within a golden crown." Before his
time, there were chiefs who ruled.
......
certainly have. For untold and unknown centuries, the Druids had
operated in this land, and our increasing knowledge of them
bears witness to their culture. In describing the Druids of
Gaul, a description which applies equally to the Druids in
England, Caesar says: "The former (Druids), are engaged in
things sacred, conduct the public and private sacrifices, and
interpret all matters of religion. To these a large number of the
young men resort for the purpose of instruction, and they (the
Druids) are in great honour among them. For they determine
respecting almost all controversies, public and private; and if
any crime has been perpetrated, if murder has been committed, if
there be any dispute about an inheritance, if any about
boundaries, these same persons decide it...." "The Druids do
not go to war.... They (scholars) are said there to learn by
heart a great number of verses; accordingly some remain in the
course of training twenty years. Nor do they regard it lawful to
commit these to writing...." 1 Turning from Caesar to a recent
work on the subject we find supporting evidence. 2 Mr. Dudley
Wright has produced a large and scholarly volume on Druidism from
which I shall now quote, giving, the page references as I
proceed:
"In Britain, the Druidical order is said to have numbered
thirty-one seats of education, each being a Cyfiath, or City, the
capital of a tribe." (p.5)
......
1 "Gallic War," vi, 13,14.
2 "Druidism, The Ancient Faith of Britain," Dudley Wright, 1924.
......
"Repentance and purification were regarded by the Druids as
necessary duties. They observed one day in seven as peculiarly
sanctified and made holy by the Great Creator, and they were wont
to dedicate one-tenth of all their substance to religious
purposes." (p.55)
"They were monogamists and of the highest morality," (p.56)
"The period of novitiate and the character the training of an
aspirant to the Druidical priesthood ... lasted for twenty
years." (p.60) "Four degrees were conferred during the long
novitiate; the first being given after three years study in the
arts of poetry and music, if the candidate, by his capacity and
diligence, merited the honour. The second was conferred after six
years further study, if merited; the third after a further nine
years study; and the final degree, equal to a doctorate, was
bestowed two years later on the completion of the twenty years
course." (p.66)
"Before an aspirant to the priesthood could attain to that
exalted rank, he had to pass through the two preliminary and
definite degrees of Bard and Vate, or Ovate." (p.75)
"The first requisite for admission as a disciple was
unimpeachable moral character, for it was indispensably necessary
that the candidate, above all things, should be above any
criticism as to character and conduct." (p.76)
"Afterwards their calling came to be held in such high esteem
that they were maintained at the expense of the state." (p.76)
"Nine years was generally sufficient for graduation ss a Bard,
but his education was not considered complete, for the purposes
of this graduation, until he had committed to memory 20,000
verses containing, in allegorical language, the tenets of the
Druidical faith." (p.79)
"From the Triads of Dynwal Moelmud, who is said to have written
about four hundred years before the Christian era, we learn that:
'There are three distinguished characters of the art of Bardism.
First, the chief Bard or the free privileged Bard, who obtains
his dignity and privilege through discipline under a master duly
authorised, being a conventional bard. He must preserve every
record of the arts and sciences whilst he should continue in his
office of Bard regularly inducted in dignity and privilege. He
must also keep every record and memorial of the country and tribe
respecting marriage, pedigrees, arms, inheritances, and
privileges of the country and tribe of the Cambrians.'" (p.85)
Thus, we have abundant evidence to show that a high state of
culture existed in this land centuries before Caesar dubbed
the people as painted savages. Unfortunately, the Druids did not
favour writing, and consequently their works have not come down
to us. But we see in the amazing feats of memory a strong
argument in favour of the truth of those traditions which have
come down to us through the ages.
If the Druids left no tomes of learning to show to posterity the
nature and extent of their learning, they left a noble race of
people whose courage in face of difficulty, whose conduct in the
presence of the foe, whose dignified bearing in the day of
adversity is to their eternal honour, and bears witness to the
quality of that instruction and training they had received at the
hands of the Druids.
Fortunately, most of the work of the Roman historian, Tacitus,
has come down to us and bears witness to his own industry and to
the immortal fame of those noble Britons who withstood the
onslaughts of the Roman legions. Tacitus flourished C.A.D.
55-120, so that he was not far removed in time from the events he
so graphically describes in his pages.
TACITUS AND THE BRITISH CARACTACUS
First, let us take his account of the epic struggle between
Caradoc, or Caractacus, to give him his Roman name, and the Roman
legions between A.D.49 and A.D.54.
" . . . . These arrangements settled, Ostorius marched against
the Silures. To their natural ferocity that people added
the courage which they now derived from the presence of
Caractacus. Renowned for his valour, and for various turns of
good and evil fortune, that heroic chief had spread his fame
through the island. His knowledge of the country, and his skill
in all the wiles and stratagems of savage warfare, gave him many
advantages; but he could not hope with inferior numbers to make a
stand against a well-disciplined army. He therefore marched into
the territory of the Ordovicians. 1 Having there drawn to his
standard all who considered peace with Rome as
......
1 The people of North Wales
......
another name for slavery, he determined to try the issue of a
battle. For this purpose he chose a spot where the approach and
the retreat were difficult to the enemy, and to himself every way
advantageous. He took post in a situation defended by steep and
craggy hills. In some places where the mountains opened, and the
acclivity afforded an easy ascent, he fortified the spot with
massy stones, heaped together in the form of a rampart. A river,
with fords and shallows of uncertain depth, washed the extremity
of the plain. On the outside of his fortifications, a vast body
of troops showed themselves in force, and in order of battle.
The chieftains of various nations were busy in every quarter.
They rushed along the ranks; they exhorted their men; they roused
the timid; they confirmed the brave; and, by hopes, by promises,
by every generous motive, inflamed the ardour of their troops.
Caractacus was seen in every part of the field; he darted along
the lines; he exclaimed aloud, 'This day, my fellow-warriors,
this very day, decides the fate of Britain. The era of liberty,
or eternal bondage, begins from this hour. Remember your brave
and warlike ancestors, who met Julius Caesar in open combat, and
chased him from the coast of Britain. They were the men who freed
their country from a foreign yoke; who delivered the land from
taxations, imposed at the will of a master; who banished from
your sight the fasces and the Roman axes; and, above all, who
rescued your wives and daughters from violation.'
The soldiers received his speech with shouts of applause. With a
spirit of enthusiastic valour, each individual bound himself by
the form of oath peculiar to his nation, to brave every danger,
and prefer death to slavery.
"The intrepid countenance of the Britons, and the spirit that
animated their whole army, struck Ostorius with astonishment. He
saw a river to be passed; a palisade to be forced; a steep hill
to be surmounted; and the several posts defended by a prodigious
multitude. The soldiers, notwithstanding, burned with impatience
for the onset... All things, give way to valour, was the general
cry. The tribunes and other officers seconded the ardour of the
axon. Ostorius reconnoitred the ground, and having marked where
the defiles were impenetrable, or easy of approach, gave the
signal for the attack. The river was passed with little
difficulty. The Romans advanced to the parapet. The struggle
there was obstinate, and, as long as it was fought with missive
weapons, the Britons had the advantage. Ostorius ordered his men
to advance under a military shelf, and level the pile of stones
that served as a fence to the enemy. A close engagement followed.
The Britons abandoned their ranks, and fled with precipitation to
the ridge of the hills. The Romans pursued with eagerness. Not
only the light troops, but even the legionary soldiers forced
their way to the summit of the hills, under a shower of darts.
The Britons, having neither breast-plates nor helmets, were not
able to maintain the conflict. The legions, sword in hand, or
with their javelins, bore down all before them, The auxiliaries,
with their spears and sabres, made prodigious havoc. The victory
was decisive. The wife and daughter of Caractacus were taken
prisoners. His brother surrendered at discretion.
"Caractacus fled for protection to Cartismandua, queen of the
Brigantes. But adversity has no friends. By that princess he was
loaded with irons and delivered up to the conqueror. He had waged
war with the Romans during the last nine years. His fame was not
confined to his native island; it passed into the provinces, and
spread all over Italy. Curiosity was eager to behold the heroic
chieftain who, for such a length of time, made head against a
great and powerful empire. Even at Rome the name of Caractacus
was in high celebrity. The Emperor, willing to magnify the glory
of the conquest, bestowed the highest praise on the valour of the
vanquished king. He assembled the people to behold a spectacle
worthy of their view. In the field before the camp the praetorian
bands were drawn up under arms. The followers of the British
Chief walked in procession. The military accoutrements, the
harness and rich collars, which he had gained in various battles,
were displayed with pomp. The wife of Caractacus, his daughter
and his brother, followed next: he himself closed the melancholy
train. The rest of the prisoners, struck with terror, descended
to mean and abject supplications. Caractacus alone was superior
to misfortune. With a countenance still unaltered, not a symptom
of fear appearing, no sorrow, no condescension, he behaved with
dignity even in ruin. Being placed before the Tribunal he
delivered himself in the following manner:
"'If to the nobility of my birth, and the splendour of exalted
station, I had united the virtues of moderation, Rome had beheld
me not in captivity, but a royal visitor and a friend. The
alliance of a prince, descended from an illustrious line of
ancestors; a prince, whose sway extended over many nations, would
not have been unworthy of your choice. A reverse of fortune is
now the lot of Caractacus. The event to you is glorious, and to
me humiliating. I had arms, men and horses; I had wealth in
abundance; can you wonder that I was unwilling to lose them? The
ambition of Rome aspires to universal dominion; and must mankind,
by consequence, stretch their necks to the yoke? I stood at bay
for years; had I acted otherwise where, on your part, had been
the glory of conquest, and where, on mine, the honour of a brave
resistance? I am now in your power; if you are bent on vengeance,
execute your purpose; the bloody scene will soon be over, and the
name of Caractacus will sink into oblivion. Preserve my life, and
I shall be, to late posterity, a monument of Roman clemency.'"
"Claudius granted him a free pardon, and the same to his wife,
his daughter and his brother. Released from their fetters, they
advanced to another tribunal near at hand, where Agrippina showed
herself in state. They returned thanks to her, and paid their
veneration in the same style as they had before addressed to the
Emperor.
The sight was altogether new. A woman, stationed amidst the
ensigns and the armies of Rome, presented a spectacle unknown to
the old republic; but in an Empire acquired by the valour of her
ancestors Agrippina claimed an equal share.
"At the next meeting of the senate, the victory over Caractacus
was mentioned with the highest applause, as an event no way
inferior to what had been seen in ancient times, when Publius
Scipio brought Syphax in chains to Rome; when Lucius Paulus led
Perses in captivity; and when other commanders exhibited to the
Roman people kings and princes at their chariot-wheels." 1
Caradoc proved himself a foe worthy of the highly disciplined
Romans. For nine years he had defied them. In thirty nine
battles they had failed to take him. Base treachery at last
placed him within their power.
His speech before the Roman Tribunal was a noble deliverance
which would do credit to the noblest in the land to-day.
BRITISH PEOPLE OF THE EAST UNDER BOADICEA
WE have seen the spirit of the people of the West; now let us
pass to the East. We have seen the nobility of the man! Caradoc;
now let us look at the quality and spirit of a noble woman,
Boadicea. The following incident took place, according to
Tacitus, during the period A.D.59-62.
". . . . While the Britons were preparing to throw off the yoke,
the statue of victory,
......
1 Annals, xii, 33-38.
......
erected at Camalodunum, fell from its base without any apparent
cause, and lay extended on the ground with its face averted, as
if the goddess yielded to the enemies of Rome. Women in restless
ecstacy rushed among the people, and with frantic screams
denounced impending ruin. In the council chamber of the Romans,
hideous clamours were heard in a foreign accent; savage howlings
filled the theatre, and near the mouth of the Thames the image of
a colony in ruins was seen in the transparent water; the sea was
purpled with blood, and at the tide of ebb, the figures of human
bodies were traced in the sand.
By these appearances the Romans were sunk in despair while the
Britons anticipated a glorious victory. Suetonius, in the
meantime, was detained in the Isle of Mona. In this alarming
crisis, the veterans sent to Catus Decianus, the procurator of
the province, for a reinforcement. Two hundred men, and those not
completely armed, were all that officer could spare. The colony
had but a handful of soldiers. Their temple was strongly
fortified, and there they hoped to make a stand. But even for the
defence of that place, no measures were concerted. Secret enemies
mixed in all their deliberations. No fosse was made, no palisade
thrown up; nor were the women and such as were disabled by age or
infirmity, sent out of the garrison. Unguarded and unprepared,
they were taken by surprise and, in the moment of profound peace,
overpowered by the Barbarians in one general assault. The colony
was laid waste with fire and sword.
"The temple held out, but, after, a siege of two days, was taken
by storm. Petilius Cerealis, who commanded the ninth legion,
marched to the relief of the place. The Britons, flushed with
success, advanced to give him battle. The legion was put to the
rout, and the infantry cut to pieces. Cerealis escaped with the
cavalry to his entrenchments. Catus Decianus, the procurator of
the province, alarmed at the scene of carnage which he beheld on
every side, and further dreading the indignation of a people,
whom by rapine and oppression he had driven to despair, betook
himself to flight and crossed over into Gaul.
"Suetonius, undismayed by this disaster, marched through the
heart of the country as far as London, a place not dignified with
the name of a colony, but the chief residence of merchants, and
the great mart of trade and commerce. At that place he meant to
fix the seat of war; but, reflecting on the scanty numbers of his
little army and the fatal rashness of Cerealis, he resolved to
quit that station and, by giving up one post, secure the rest of
the province. Neither supplications nor the tears of the
inhabitants could induce him to change his plan. The signal for
the march was given. All who chose to follow his banners were
taken under his protection. Of all who, on account of their
advanced age, the weakness of their sex, or the attractions of
the situation, thought proper to remain behind not one escaped
the rage of the Barbarians. The inhabitants of Verulamium, l a.
municipal town, were in like manner put to the
......
1 Now 5t. Albans.
......
sword. The genius of a savage people leads them always in quest
of plunder; and, accordingly, the Britons left behind them all
places of strength. Wherever they expected feeble resistance and
considerable booty, there they were sure to attack with the
fiercest rage.
"Military skill was not the talent of Barbarians. The number
massacred in the places which have been mentioned, amounted to
no less than seventy thousand, all citizens or allies of Rome. To
make prisoners and reserve them for slavery or to exchange them
was not in the idea of a people who despised all the laws of war.
The halter and the gibbet, slaughter and desolation, fire and
sword were the marks of savage valour. Aware that vengeance would
overtake them, they were resolved to make sure of their revenge
and glut themselves with the blood of their enemies.
"The fourteenth legion, with the veterans of One twentieth and
the auxiliaries from the adjacent stations, having joined
Suetonius, his army amounted to little less than 10,000 men. Thus
re-inforced, he resolved without loss of time to bring on a
decisive action. For this purpose he chose a spot--encircled
with woods, narrow at the entrance and sheltered in the rear by a
thick forest. In that situation he had no fear of an ambuscade.
The enemy, he knew, had no approach but in front. An open plain
lay before him. He drew up his men in the following order: the
legions in close array formed the centre; the light-armed troops
were stationed at hand to serve as occasion might require; the
cavalry took post in the wings.
"The Britons brought into the field an incredible multitude. They
formed no regular line of battle.
Detached parties and loose battalions displayed their numbers in
frantic transport bounding with exultation, and so sure of
victory, that they placed their wives in waggons at the
extemities of the plain where they might survey the scene of
action and behold the wonders of British valour.
"Boadicea in a warlike car, with her two daughters before her,
drove through the ranks. She harangued the different nations in
their turn 'This,' she said, 'is not the first time that the
Britons have been led to battle by a woman'. But now she did not
come to boast the pride of a long line of ancestry, not even to
recover her kingdom and the plundered wealth of her family. She
took the field, like the meanest among them, to assert the cause
of public liberty, and to seek revenge for her body seamed with
ignominious stripes and her two daughters infamously ravished,
'From the pride and arrogance of the Romans nothing is sacred;
all are subject to violation; the old endure the scourge and the
virgins are deflowered. But the vindictive gods are now at hand.
A Roman legion dared to face the warlike Britons; with their
lives they paid for their rashness; those who survived the
carnage of that day lie poorly hid behind their entrenchments,
meditating nothing but how to save themselves by ignominous
flight. From the din of preparation and the shouts of the British
army the Romans even now shrink back with terror. What will be
their case when the assault begins? Look round and view
your numbers. Behold the proud display of warlike spirits and
consider the motives for which we draw the avenging sword. On
this spot we must either conquer, or die with glory. There is no
alternative. Though a woman, my resolution is fixed; the men, if
they please, maysurvive with infamy, and live in bondage.'
"In the final onslaught the Romans overwhelmed Boadicea, but not
until they had lost 400 men. Rather than fall into the hands of
her enemies Boadicea committed suicide. 2
A noble Roman matron ä who committed suicide rather than
surrender her virtue to the call of lust earned the praise
of posterity. Shall we blame Boadicea for doing likewise? To us,
at this remote day, it may seem that her wild words and her
ferocious deeds are far removed from those standards we seek to
inculcate; but we must not overlook the insults to her womanhood
and the outrage to her maternal instincts that had driven her to
frenzy.
"Princess! if our aged eyes
Weep upon thy matchless wrongs,
'Tis because resentment ties
All the terrors of our tongues." 3
On the theory of the painted savage less might have been expected
of her than of the Romans. When we have said the most and the
worst we can
......
1 Annals, xiv, 32-35.
2 Annals, xiv. 37.
3 Boadicea, by William Cooper.
......
against her we are left with the solid fact that she was brave
enough to pit the strength of a British Queen against the might
of the Roman legions. The lines of William Cowper were prophetic:
"Regions Caesar never knew, Thy posterity shall sway,
Where his eagles never flew, None invincible as they."
We have taken a sample of the manhood of the West and a sample of
the womanhood of the East. We conclude this section with a sample
of the manhood of the North.
THE MANHOOD OF SCOTLAND
"Among the Chieftains distinguished by their birth and valour the
most renowned was Galgacus,. The multitude gathered round him
eager for action and burning with uncommon ardour. He harangued
them to the following effect:
"When I consider the motives that have roused us to this war;
when I reflect on the necessity that now demands our firmest
vigour, I expect everything great and noble from that union of
sentiment that pervades us all. From this day I date the freedom
of Britain. We are the men who never crouched in bondage. Beyond
this spot there is no land where liberty can find a refuge. Even
the sea is shut against us, while the Roman fleet is hovering on
the coast. To draw the sword in the cause of freedom is the true
glory of the brave, and, in our condition, cowardice itself
would throw away the scabbard. In the battles, which have been
hitherto fought with alternate vicissitudes of fortune, our
countrymen might well repose some hopes in us; they might
consider us as their last resource; they knew us to be the
noblest sons of Britain, placed in the last recesses of the land,
in the very sanctuary of liberty. We have not so much as seen the
melancholy regions where slavery has debased mankind. We have
lived in freedom, and our eyes have been un-polluted by the sight
of ignoble bondage.
"The extremity of the earth is ours: defended by our situation,
we have to this day preserved our honour and the rights of men.
But we are no longer safe in our obscurity; our retreat is laid
open; the enemy rushes on, and, as things unknown are ever
magnified, he thinks a mighty conquest lies before him. But this
is the end of the habitable world, and rocks and brawling waves
fill all the space behind. The Romans are in the heart of our
country; no submission can satisfy their pride; no concessions
can appease their fury. While the land has anything left, it is
the theatre of war; when it can yield no more, they explore the
sea for hidden treasure. Are the nations rich, Roman avarice is
their enemy. Are they poor; Roman ambition lords it over them.
The east and the west have been rifled, and the spoiler is still
insatiate. The Romans, by a strange singularity of nature, are
the only people who invade, with equal ardour, the wealth and the
poverty of nations. To rob, to ravish, and to murder, in their
imposing language, are the arts of civil policy. When they have
made the world a solitude they call it peace.
"Our children and relatives are dear to us all. It is an
affection planted in our breast by the hand of nature. And yet
those tender pledges are ravished from us to serve in distant
lands. Are our wives, our sisters and our daughters safe from
brutal lust and open violation? The insidious conqueror, under
the mask of hospitality and friendship, brands them with
dishonour. Our money is conveyed into their treasury, and our
corn into their granaries. Our limbs and bodies are worn out in
clearing woods and draining marshes; and what have been our
wages? Stripes and insult. The lot of the meanest slave, born in
servitude, is preferable to ours. He is sold but once, and his
master maintains him; but Britain every day invites new tyrants,
and every day pampers their pride. In a private family a slave
who is last bought in provokes the mirth and ridicule of the
whole domestic crew; and in this general servitude, to which Rome
has reduced the world, the case is the same: we are treated at
first as objects of derision and then marked out for destruction.
"What better lot can we expect? We have no arable lands to
cultivate for a master; no mines to dig for his avarice; no
harbours to improve for his commerce. To what end should the
conqueror spare us? Our virtue and undaunted spirit are crimes in
the eyes of the conqueror, and will render us more obnoxious. Our
remote situation, higherto the retreat of freedom, and on that
account the more suspected, will only serve to inflame the
jealousy of our enemies. We must expect no mercy. Let us
therefore dare like men. We all are summoned by the great call of
nature; not only those who know the value of liberty, but even
such as think life on any terms the dearest blessing. The
Trinobantes, 1 who had only a woman to lead them on, were able to
carry fire and sword through a whole colony. They stormed the
camps of the enemy and, if success had not intoxicated them, they
had been, beyond all doubt, the deliverers of their country. And
shall not we, unconquered and undebased by slavery, a nation.
ever free, and struggling now, not to recover but to ensure our
liberties, shall we not go forth the champions of our country?
Shall we not, by one generous effort, show the Romans, that we
are the men whom Caledonia has reserved to be assertors of the
public weal?
"We know the manners of the Romans: and are we to imagine that
their valour in the field is equal to their arrogance in. Time of
peace? By our dissensions their glory rises; the vices of their
enemies are the negative virtues of the Roman if that may be
called an army which is no better a motley crew of various
nations held together by success, and ready to crumble away in
the first reverse of fortune. That this will be their fate, no
one can doubt, unless we suppose that the Gaul, the German and
(with shame I add) the Britons, a mercenary band, who hire their
blood in a foreign service, will adhere from principle to a new
master whom they have lately served and long detested.
They are now enlisted
......
1 The people of Essex under Boadicea.
......
by awe and terror; break their fetters, and the man who forgets
to fear will seek revenge.
"All that can inspire the human heart, every motive that can
excite us to deeds of valour, is on our side. The Romans have no
wives in the field to animate their drooping spirit; no parents
to reproach their want of courage. They are not listed in the
cause of their country; their country, if any they have, lies at
a distance. They are a band of mercenaries, a wretched handful of
devoted men, who tremble and look aghast, as they roll their eyes
around and see on every side objects unknown before. The sky over
their heads, the sea, the woods, all things conspire to fill them
with doubt and terror. They come like victims delivered into our
hands by the gods, to fall this day a sacrifice to freedom.
"In the ensuing battle 1 be not deceived by false appearances;
the glitter of gold and silver may dazzle the eye; but to us it
is harmless, to the Romans no protection. In their own ranks we
shall find a number of generous warriors ready to assist our
cause. The Britons know that for our common liberties we draw the
avenging sword. The Gauls will remember that they once were a
free people, and the Germans, as the Usipians lately did, will
desert their colours. The Romans have left nothing in their rear
to oppose us in the pursuit; their forts are ungarrisoned; the
veterans in their colonies droop with age; in their municipal
towns nothing but anarchy, despotic government, and disaffected
subjects. In me behold your
......
1 About A.D.83.
......
general. Behold army of free-born men. Your enemy is before
you, and, in his train, heavy tributes, drudgery in the mines,
and all the horrors of slavery. Are those calamities to be
entailed upon us? Or shall this day relieve us by a brave
revenge? There is the field of battle, and let that determine.
Let us seek the enemy and, as we rush upon him, remember the
glory delivered down to us by our ancestors; and let each man
think that upon his sword depends the fate of all posterity." 1
The Caledonians were driven back, but the Romans never penetrated
far into Scotland.
I have given these extracts at length because isolated sentences
fail to convey the real significance of the incidents. We see
from the above that in Wales, England and Scotland the leaders
were animated by the same noble sentiments. "After a war of about
forty years, undertaken by the most stupid, maintained by the
most dissolute, and terminated by the most timid of all the
emperors, the far greater part of the island submitted to the
Roman yoke," says Gibbon. 2
But the judgment of Gibbon is not endorsed by Tacitus. "Even
Julius Caesar, the first of the Romans who set his foot in
Britain at the head of an army, can only be said by a prosperous
battle to have struck the natives with terror and to have made
himself master of the seashore. The discoverer, not the conqueror
of the island, he did
......
1 Life of Agricola, chapters xxix-xxxii.
2 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 1, p.ó. Bohn's
Libraries.
......
no more than show it to posterity. Rome could not boast of a
conquest." 1
"When Britain, with the rest of the Roman world, fell to the lot
of Vespasian, the ablest officers were sent to reduce the island;
powerful armies were set in motion, and the spirit of the natives
began to droop. In order to spread a general terror, Petilius
Cerealis fell with sudden fury on the Brigantes...." 2
These extracts make it abundantly clear that the Romans did not
make the mistake of underrating the prowess of the Britons. They
recognised that the Britons were foes worthy of the best Roman
steel. In no sense was Britain conquered either by Caesar or his
successors. At best the Romans only OCCUPIED this land.
"This England never did, nor never shall,
Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror,
But when it first did help to wound itself.
Come the three corners of the world in arms,
And we shall shock them: nought shall make us rue,
If England to itself do rest but true." 3
......
1 Life of Agricola, xiii.
2 Ibid, xvii.
3 Shakespeare, King John, v.7.
.......................................
NOTE:
INDEED TRUE HISTORY TELLS A MUCH DIFFERENT STORY FROM
WHAT SOME HISTORIANS WANT TO PAINT. THEY IT IS WHO ARE
THE PAINTED SAVAGES OF A FALSE HISTORY THEY HAVE TRIED
TO PERPETUATE UPON THE WORLD.
THE ROMANS AT BEST INDEED ONLY OCCUPIED BRITAIN, AND THEY
HAD TO BUILD A WALL (ADRIAN'S WALL IN HISTORY IT WAS
CALLED) TO KEEP THE SCOTS AND PICS FROM COMING SOUTH AND
DRIVING THE ROMANS BACK TO EUROPE.
SOME RECENT MOVIES HAVE BEEN WILLING TO PORTRAY CORRECT
HISTORY OF ROME AND BRITAIN - "THE EAGLE" - "THE CENTURIAN"
- HAVE SHOWN THE BRITISH WERE FAR FROM SAVAGES IN
CULTURE AND THE POWER OF WARFARE. YOU DO NOT RIDE IN
CHARIOTS OF WAR AS BOADICEA DID AGAINST ROME, AND NOT
HAVE SKILLED CRAFTSMEN TO MAKE SUCH CHARIOTS.
IF ALL OF THE NATIONS (TRIBES) OF BRITAIN HAD UNITED AS
ONE ARMY THE ROMANS WOULD NEVER EVEN HAVE OCCUPIED
BRITAIN, BUT WOULD HAVE BEEN SLAUGHTERED EN MASS OR
DRIVEN BACK TO EUROPE.
IT IS NO WONDER THEN THAT BRITAIN BECAME KNOWN AS
"GREAT" BRITAIN, FOR EVEN 2,000 YEARS AGO SHE WAS GREAT,
AND IN THE LATTER END OF THIS PAST 2,000 YEARS SHE
WOULD RISE TO BE THE GREATEST POWER AND INFLUENCE THE
WORLD HAS EVER SEEN. THE SUN AT ONE TIME NEVER DID SET
UPON THE BRITISH COMMONWEALTH OF NATIONS.
AND IT WAS ALL FORETOLD IN THE PROMISES GOD GAVE TO
ABRAHAM, ISAAC, JOCOB, AND JOSEPH, IN THE BOOK OF
GENESIS.
Keith Hunt
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