Calgacus

Calgacus was a chieftain in Caledonia. In AD 43 Emperor Claudius ordered an invasion of Britain. At that time the people were ruled by several different kings. Most of these kings decided not to oppose the invasion. Caratacus was the leader of British resistance. No other ruler or war leader is mentioned as playing any part in military operations at that time. Eventually he was forced to retreat to the mountains of north Wales. (1)

In AD 83 Gnaeus Julius Agricola brought his Roman Army to Caledonia. Calgacus and his 30,000 men army fought the Romans at the Battle of Mons Graupius in northern Scotland. (2) The battle appears to have "broken resistance to Rome in the north for almost two decades, inaugurating a military occupation of most of what is now lowland Scotland whose effectiveness, until early in the next century, was constricted only by the availability of manpower." (3)

Tacitus, the Roman historian claims that Calgacus made a speech after his defeat: "To all of us slavery is a thing unknown; there are no lands beyond us, and even the sea is not safe, menaced as we are by a Roman fleet. And thus in war and battle, in which the brave find glory, even the coward will find safety. Former contests, in which, with varying fortune, the Romans were resisted, still left in us a last hope of succour, inasmuch as being the most renowned nation of Britain, dwelling in the very heart of the country, and out of sight of the shores of the conquered, we could keep even our eyes unpolluted by the contagion of slavery. To us who dwell on the uttermost confines of the earth and of freedom, this remote sanctuary of Britain's glory has up to this time been a defence. Now, however, the furthest limits of Britain are thrown open, and the unknown always passes for the marvellous. But there are no tribes beyond us, nothing indeed but waves and rocks, and the yet more terrible Romans, from whose oppression escape is vainly sought by obedience and submission. Robbers of the world, having by their universal plunder exhausted the land, they rifle the deep. If the enemy be rich, they are rapacious; if he be poor, they lust for dominion; neither the east nor the west has been able to satisfy them. Alone among men they covet with equal eagerness poverty and riches. To robbery, slaughter, plunder, they give the lying name of empire; they make a wasteland and call it peace." (4)

Primary Sources

(1) Gordon S. Maxwell, Calgacus : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

Calgacus [Galgacus] (fl. c.AD 83/4), chieftain in Caledonia, was the British war leader whom Tacitus represents as exhorting the confederate host which opposed a Roman army under Cn. Julius Agricola at the battle of Mons Graupius...

Calgacus is the earliest of only four named personages to figure in the history of Roman Scotland, and significantly, like the others, he bore a recognizably Celtic name, the equivalent of Calgaich, meaning ‘swordsman’ or ‘swordbearer’ - an element occasionally found in Irish Gaelic place names.

Of Calgacus's status no more is known than that of all the chieftains (duces) present at the battle, he was "the foremost in courage and the noblest in birth", but the words put into his mouth by Tacitus identify him as supreme commander. Beyond that, his pre-battle speech largely reflects sentiments moulded in contemporary schools of rhetoric in Rome: similar expressions of defiance and condemnation of the pax Romana are attributed by Julius Caesar to Critognatus at Alesia in 52 BC, and by Tacitus to the German leader Arminius in AD 16. Calgacus, of whom no more is heard, may have fallen, with many of his followers, on the field of battle.

(2) Calgacus, quoted by Tacitus, in his book, On the Life of Julius Agricola (AD 98)

Whenever I consider the origin of this war and the necessities of our position, I have a sure confidence that this day, and this union of yours, will be the beginning of freedom to the whole of Britain. To all of us slavery is a thing unknown; there are no lands beyond us, and even the sea is not safe, menaced as we are by a Roman fleet. And thus in war and battle, in which the brave find glory, even the coward will find safety. Former contests, in which, with varying fortune, the Romans were resisted, still left in us a last hope of succour, inasmuch as being the most renowned nation of Britain, dwelling in the very heart of the country, and out of sight of the shores of the conquered, we could keep even our eyes unpolluted by the contagion of slavery. To us who dwell on the uttermost confines of the earth and of freedom, this remote sanctuary of Britain's glory has up to this time been a defence. Now, however, the furthest limits of Britain are thrown open, and the unknown always passes for the marvellous. But there are no tribes beyond us, nothing indeed but waves and rocks, and the yet more terrible Romans, from whose oppression escape is vainly sought by obedience and submission. Robbers of the world, having by their universal plunder exhausted the land, they rifle the deep. If the enemy be rich, they are rapacious; if he be poor, they lust for dominion; neither the east nor the west has been able to satisfy them. Alone among men they covet with equal eagerness poverty and riches. To robbery, slaughter, plunder, they give the lying name of empire; they make a wasteland and call it peace.

References

(1) Cassius Dio, Roman History (c. AD 215)

(2) Gordon S. Maxwell, A Battle Lost: Romans and Caledonians at Mons Graupius (1990)

(3) Gordon S. Maxwell, Calgacus : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(4) Calgacus, quoted by Tacitus, in his book, On the Life of Julius Agricola (AD 98)