1If new peoples and an unknown army stood against you, I would encourage you with the examples of other armies: as it is, count up your own distinctions, question your own eyes. 1These are the men who last year attacked a single legion by stealth at night, and whom you defeated with a shout; 1these are the readiest to run of all the Britons, and that is why they have survived so long. 1Just as, when men penetrate forests and glades, all the bravest animals rush against them, while the timid and sluggish are driven off by the mere sound of the column, so the fiercest of the Britons have long since fallen, and what remains is a crowd of cowards and the fearful.
2If you have at last found them, it is not that they have made a stand, but that they have been caught; 3their desperate plight and extreme fear have rooted their bodies to this spot, on which you may win a fine and spectacular victory. 3Have done with campaigns, crown fifty years with one great day, prove to the state that neither the delays of the war nor the causes of rebellion could ever be blamed on the army.'