1'Whenever I consider the causes of the war and our own necessity, I have great confidence that this day and your unity will be the beginning of liberty for the whole of Britain: for we have all of us never known servitude, and there are no lands beyond us, and not even the sea is safe, with the Roman fleet threatening us. 2Thus battle and arms, which bring honour to the brave, are also the safest course even for cowards. 3Earlier battles, in which the struggle against the Romans was waged with varying fortune, had their hope and their reserve in our hands, because we, the noblest of all Britain and therefore dwelling in its innermost sanctuary, and not looking upon the shores of the enslaved, kept even our eyes unpolluted by the touch of tyranny.
4Us, the furthest of lands and the last of the free, our very remoteness and the obscurity of our name have defended until this day: and everything unknown is taken for something magnificent: but now the end of Britain lies open, there is no longer any people beyond us, nothing but waves and rocks, and the Romans, more hostile still, whose arrogance you would vainly try to escape by submission and restraint. 6Robbers of the world, now that lands have failed them as they lay everything waste, they are searching the sea too: if an enemy is rich, they are greedy, if poor, they crave glory; neither the East nor the West has sated them: alone of all men they covet wealth and want with equal passion.
7To carry off, to butcher, to plunder they call by the false name of empire, and where they make a desert, they call it peace.