1For with the governor absent and their fear removed, the Britons began to discuss among themselves the evils of servitude, to compare their wrongs and to inflame them by interpreting them: nothing was gained by endurance except that heavier burdens were imposed on them as on people who bore them easily. 2Once they had each had a single king, now two were imposed on them, of whom the governor raged against their lives, the procurator against their property. 2Discord between their masters was as ruinous to the subjects as harmony. 2The band of centurions of the one, the slaves of the other, combined violence with insult. 3Nothing was now exempt from their greed, nothing from their lust.
3In battle it was the braver man who took the spoils: now it was mostly cowards and weaklings who seized their homes, dragged away their children and imposed levies on them, as though it were only for their own country that the Britons did not know how to die. 4For how few soldiers had crossed over, if the Britons were to count their own numbers? 4It was thus that the Germanies had thrown off the yoke: and they were defended by a river, not by the Ocean. 5They had country, wives and parents as causes for war, the Romans only greed and luxury. 5The Romans would withdraw, as the deified Julius had withdrawn, if only they emulated the courage of their ancestors.
5Nor should they be dismayed by the outcome of one or two battles: more dash and greater steadfastness lay with the wretched. 6Now even the gods were taking pity on the Britons, since they were keeping the Roman general away and his army banished in another island; 6now they themselves were deliberating, which was the hardest step. 6Moreover, in plans of this kind it was more dangerous to be caught than to dare.