x
(As Nero fiddled and the city burned) the empire was horribly smitten:
Eighty thousand Romans and their proxies died in Britain.
The island could have been lost for good. Moreover, all this ruin
Was brought upon us by a woman. This, once understood,
Caused no end of shame. Indeed, Heaven gave us indications
Of this calamity beforehand. For at night there was heard
To issue from our buildings of governance in every province
x
Foreign jargon mixed with laughter, and, from the theatres,
Cries and lamentations, though none had uttered words or cried;
Houses pitched into chaos were seen beneath the waters of the Thames,
While between Briton and Gaul the sea turned to blood at high tide.
Reason for war was found in the demand for the sums of cash
That Claudius had used to bribe their foremost chiefs; these sums,
Had to be paid back. Another reason was found in the fact
x
That Seneca, in expectation of receiving interest at a decent rate,
Had advanced the Britons 40 million sesterces (which they did not want).
He’d then abruptly called in this loan, and after that resorted
To indecent measures in exacting it. But the person who was chiefly
Responsible for rousing the people and persuading them
To fight for their country, the one who was thought worthy
To be their leader and who led the conduct of the war,
x
Was Boadicea, wife of the late Icenian king. Boadicea brought
Together a horde, one hundred and twenty thousand strong,
She rode at its head in a chariot, and brought her daughters along.
Fierce in the glance of her eye, tall and terrifying to approach,
Her voice was harsh and commanding. A mass of the tawniest hair
Fell to her hips. A golden necklet graced her neck; and she wore
A multicoloured doublet; over this, a mantle fastened with a brooch.
x
In this, her invariable attire, every fighter knew their chief.
Boadicea ascended a tribunal hill which had been constructed
So that all her troops could be surveyed. Now she grasped a spear
To aid her in inspiring her gathered forces and she spoke:
“Britons, you have learned by experience how different liberty
Can be from slavery. Hence, although, before, some among you may,
Through ignorance of what was best for you, have been deceived
x
By the perfidious pledges of Rome, yet now that you have tried
Both freedom and servitude, grant me how great a mistake you made
In choosing an imported dictatorship over your ancestral way of life,
For you have now come to realize how much better is poverty
With no master to wealth within the shameful bonds of slavery.
For what treatment is there of the most grievous sort that we
Have not suffered ever since these monsters came to Britain?
x
Have we not been robbed of most of our property,
And that the most precious, while for what is left we pay taxes,
Besides pasturing and tilling for them all remaining land?
Do we not pay a yearly tribute for our very bodies?
How much better it would be to have been sold to masters
Once and for all, than, while clinging to mere titles of nobility,
To have to ransom ourselves every year! How much better
x
To have been attacked and finished off than to go about
Weighed down by taxes! And yet, why do I mention death?
For even dying is not free of cost with them; no, you know
What duties we deposit for our dead. Death should be no tythe.
Death frees even those who toil in slavery to others;
Only in the case of these Romans do the very dead remain alive
For their profit. Why is it that, though none of us has coin
x
(How, indeed, could we, or where would we get it?) we are stripped
And despoiled like a brigand’s victims? And why should
These thieves be expected to display restraint as time goes on,
When they have behaved toward us in a foul way at the outset?
Most will show consideration even for the beasts they have netted.
But, to speak plainly, it is we who must own ourselves
Responsible for these ills, in that we allowed them to set foot
x
On our island when they sought to this time – instead
Of expelling them at once – as we did their notorious Julius Caesar –
In that we did not deal with them while they were still at sea,
As we dealt with Augustus and Caligula; nor did we make
Even their attempt to sail here a perilous thing. Now, as a consequence,
Although we inhabit such a large land, a continent encircled
By the sea, although we possess a veritable entirety of our own,
x
So separated by the waves from the rest of humanity
That we have been believed to dwell on a different earth
And under our own sky, and that some of the outside world,
Yes, even their wisest, have not hitherto known for a certainty
Even by what name we’re called, we have, notwithstanding this,
Been despised, been trampled underfoot by men who know nothing else
Than how to take over that which is not their own. However,
x
Though late in the day, and though we have not done so before,
Let us, my countrymen and kin – for I consider you all my kin,
Seeing as we inhabit a single place and are called by a common name —
Let us do our duty today while we still recall what freedom is,
That we may leave to our children, not the mere word
But also its reality. For, if we forget the happy state in which
We were born and bred, what, pray, will our offspring get instead?
x
Reared in wretched bondage? All this I say, not with the purpose
Of inspiring you with a hatred of our present state – that hatred
You already possess – nor with fear for the future – that fear
You already know – but of commending you because we now
Of our own accord choose the right and proper course of action.
Thank you. Thank you all for so readily coming together
With me and with each other. Have no fear whatever
x
Of the Romans; for neither in numbers nor in bravery
Are they superior to us! Protected with helmets, breastplates
And greaves, with palisades, walls and trenches,
They make sure they suffer no harm by the assault of their enemies.
And they are influenced by their fears when they adopt
This risk-insulated way of war in preference to our gut-responsive
Rough but ready action. Such a surplus of courage is ours,
x
Our tents are safer than their walls, our shields our sole defence,
Better than whole suits of mail! Victorious, we capture them,
When overpowered elude them; and if we choose to retreat,
We conceal ourselves in swamps and forests so inaccessible
That we can neither be tracked down nor taken. Not that they
Can give chase, weighted down by armour; nor can they flee;
Only hole-up in some barricaded fort, shutting themselves in a trap.
x
But these are not the only ways in which they are inferior.
There is also the fact that they cannot bear up under hunger,
Thirst, cold or heat. They require shade and covering, they require
Kneaded bread and wine and oil, and if any of these are in short supply
They just curl up and die. As for us, any grass or root serves as food,
The juice of any plant as oil, any water wine, any tree a home.
Furthermore, this region is familiar to us and is our ally, but to them
x
It proves unknown and deadly. As for our rivers, we swim them naked,
Whereas they only cross where they can wade or bring up boats.
Let us, therefore, go against them. Fortune favours the brave.
Show them that they are mere foxes trying to rule over wolves.”
When she had done speaking, she employed a sort of divination,
Letting a hare escape from the fold of her garb; and since it ran on
What they thought the auspicious route, the whole multitude
x
Erupted, and Boadicea, raising her hand toward heaven, said:
“I thank thee, Andraste, and I call upon thee here and now
As woman speaking to woman; for I rule over no burden-bearing
Egyptians as did Nitocris, nor over Syrian merchants as did Semiramis,
Much less over a race like the Romans themselves, effeminates
Who curtsey to Nero – callow as the shallowest of girls.
Witness his lyrical fiddling, and the enhancement of his curls.
x
Those over whom I rule are Britons, men who know not how
To till the soil like serfs or ply a meagre trade, but who are thoroughly versed
In warfare: men who share all things in their lives, even their wives,
So that the latter avail themselves of the same valour as their males.
As Queen of such men and women, I hereby supplicate and pray thee
For victory against an empire insolent, unjust, insatiable and impious!
Can we even call them men? Perverts who bathe in the warm,
x
Eat artificial dainties, drink unmixed wine, anoint themselves with myrrh,
Sleep on soft couches with boys – and boys well past their prime!
Slaves to this fiddler too and such a poor one at that. Wherefore may their
Mistress Domitia cum Nero reign no longer over me or you!
If the slut sings and holds sway over Romans, surely they deserve
To be her slaves, having for so long submitted to her song?
For us, dearest Andraste, be thou alone our victorious leader!”
x
x
The complete story can be found in Book 21 of The Runiad, which can be read on this Heyzine Link.
Scroll along the bar below the text to the contents page, for the page number where book 21 begins, then continue scrolling along until you get to that page.
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