1They received the speech eagerly, as is the custom of barbarians, with singing, roaring and discordant shouts. 1And now there were columns on the move and the flash of arms as all the boldest ran forward; 1at the same time the line was being drawn up, when Agricola, thinking that his soldiers, though in high spirits and scarcely held back by the fortifications, should still be fired further, spoke as follows: 'This is the seventh year, comrades, since by your courage, under the auspices of the Roman empire, and by my loyalty and effort, you have conquered Britain. 2In so many campaigns, so many battles, whether there was need of bravery against the enemy or of endurance and toil almost against nature itself, neither have I been dissatisfied with my soldiers nor you with your general.
2So we have both gone beyond the limits, I of former governors, you of earlier armies, and we hold the end of Britain not by report and rumour, but with camps and arms: Britain has been found and subdued. 4Often indeed on the march, when marshes or mountains and rivers were wearing you out, I used to hear the voices of all the bravest: "When shall we be given the enemy, when a battle?" 4They are coming, driven out of their hiding places, and your prayers and your courage have free scope, and everything is easy for the victors and the same things are against the vanquished. 5For just as to have covered so long a march, to have come through forests, to have crossed estuaries, is fine and glorious as we advance, so for those in flight the things that are most favourable today will be most dangerous; 5for we do not have the same knowledge of the country or the same abundance of supplies, but we have our hands and our arms, and in these everything.
6As for me, I long ago decided that neither for an army nor for a general is it safe to turn their backs. 6Therefore an honourable death is better than a shameful life, and safety and honour are found in the same place; 6nor would it be inglorious to have fallen at the very end of the earth and of nature.