You frequently command our legions yourselves:
you govern this and other provinces yourselves.
you govern this and other provinces yourselves.
Tacitus
Roman generals and officers originally set foot in your
country and the rest of Gaul from no motives of ambition, but at the
call of your ancestors, who were worn almost to ruin by dissension.
The Germans whom one party summoned to their aid had forced the yoke
of slavery on allies and enemies alike. You know how often we fought
against the Cimbri and the Teutons, with what infinite pains and with
what striking success our armies have undertaken German wars. All that
is notorious. And to-day it is not to protect Italy that we have
occupied the Rhine, but to prevent some second Ariovistus making
himself master of All Gaul. [436] Do you imagine that Civilis and his
Batavi and the other tribes across the Rhine care any more about you
than their ancestors cared about your fathers and grandfathers? The
Germans have always had the same motives for trespassing into
Gaul--their greed for gain and their desire to change homes with you.
They wanted to leave their marshes and deserts, and to make themselves
masters of this magnificently fertile soil and of you who live on it.
Of course they use specious pretexts and talk about liberty. No one
has ever wanted to enslave others and play the tyrant without making
use of the very same phrases.
'Tyranny and warfare were always rife throughout the length and 74
breadth of Gaul, until you accepted Roman government. Often as we have
been provoked, we have never imposed upon you any burden by right of
conquest, except what was necessary to maintain peace. Tribes cannot
be kept quiet without troops. You cannot have troops without pay; and
you cannot raise pay without taxation. In every other respect you are
treated as our equals.
You frequently command our legions yourselves:
you govern this and other provinces yourselves. We have no exclusive
privileges. Though you live so far away, you enjoy the blessings of a
good emperor no less than we do, whereas the tyrant only oppresses
his nearest neighbours. You must put up with luxury and greed in your
masters, just as you put up with bad crops or excessive rain, or any
other natural disaster. Vice will last as long as mankind. But these
evils are not continual. There are intervals of good government, which
make up for them. You cannot surely hope that the tyranny of Tutor and
Classicus would mean milder government, or that they will need less
taxation for the armies they will have to raise to keep the Germans
and Britons at bay. For if the Romans were driven out--which Heaven
forbid--what could ensue save a universal state of intertribal
warfare? During eight hundred years, by good fortune and good
organization, the structure of empire has been consolidated. It cannot
be pulled down without destroying those who do it. And it is you who
would run the greatest risk of all, since you have gold and rich
resources, which are the prime causes of war. You must learn, then, to
love and foster peace and the city of Rome in which you, the
vanquished, have the same rights as your conquerors. You have tried
both conditions. Take warning, then, that submission and safety are
better than rebellion and ruin. ' By such words as these he quieted and
reassured his audience, who had been afraid of more rigorous measures.
country and the rest of Gaul from no motives of ambition, but at the
call of your ancestors, who were worn almost to ruin by dissension.
The Germans whom one party summoned to their aid had forced the yoke
of slavery on allies and enemies alike. You know how often we fought
against the Cimbri and the Teutons, with what infinite pains and with
what striking success our armies have undertaken German wars. All that
is notorious. And to-day it is not to protect Italy that we have
occupied the Rhine, but to prevent some second Ariovistus making
himself master of All Gaul. [436] Do you imagine that Civilis and his
Batavi and the other tribes across the Rhine care any more about you
than their ancestors cared about your fathers and grandfathers? The
Germans have always had the same motives for trespassing into
Gaul--their greed for gain and their desire to change homes with you.
They wanted to leave their marshes and deserts, and to make themselves
masters of this magnificently fertile soil and of you who live on it.
Of course they use specious pretexts and talk about liberty. No one
has ever wanted to enslave others and play the tyrant without making
use of the very same phrases.
'Tyranny and warfare were always rife throughout the length and 74
breadth of Gaul, until you accepted Roman government. Often as we have
been provoked, we have never imposed upon you any burden by right of
conquest, except what was necessary to maintain peace. Tribes cannot
be kept quiet without troops. You cannot have troops without pay; and
you cannot raise pay without taxation. In every other respect you are
treated as our equals.
You frequently command our legions yourselves:
you govern this and other provinces yourselves. We have no exclusive
privileges. Though you live so far away, you enjoy the blessings of a
good emperor no less than we do, whereas the tyrant only oppresses
his nearest neighbours. You must put up with luxury and greed in your
masters, just as you put up with bad crops or excessive rain, or any
other natural disaster. Vice will last as long as mankind. But these
evils are not continual. There are intervals of good government, which
make up for them. You cannot surely hope that the tyranny of Tutor and
Classicus would mean milder government, or that they will need less
taxation for the armies they will have to raise to keep the Germans
and Britons at bay. For if the Romans were driven out--which Heaven
forbid--what could ensue save a universal state of intertribal
warfare? During eight hundred years, by good fortune and good
organization, the structure of empire has been consolidated. It cannot
be pulled down without destroying those who do it. And it is you who
would run the greatest risk of all, since you have gold and rich
resources, which are the prime causes of war. You must learn, then, to
love and foster peace and the city of Rome in which you, the
vanquished, have the same rights as your conquerors. You have tried
both conditions. Take warning, then, that submission and safety are
better than rebellion and ruin. ' By such words as these he quieted and
reassured his audience, who had been afraid of more rigorous measures.
