29 Early in the summer Agricola
sustained a domestic affliction in the loss of a son born a year before, a
calamity which he endured, neither with the ostentatious fortitude displayed by
many brave men, nor, on the other hand, with womanish tears and grief. In his
sorrow he found one source of relief in war. Having sent on a fleet, which by
its ravages at various points might cause a vague and wide-spread alarm, he
advanced with a lightly equipped force, including in its ranks some Britons of
remarkable bravery, whose fidelity had been tried through years of peace, as
far as the Grampian mountains, which the enemy
had already occupied. For the Britons, indeed, in no way cowed by the result of
the late engagement, had made up their minds to be either avenged or enslaved,
and convinced at length that a common danger must be averted by union, had, by
embassies and treaties, summoned forth the whole strength of all their states.
More than 30,000 armed men were now to be seen, and still there were pressing
in all the youth of the country, with all whose old age was yet hale and
vigorous, men renowned in war and bearing each decorations of his own.
Meanwhile, among the many leaders, one superior to the rest in valour and in
birth, Galgacus by name, is said to have thus harangued the multitude gathered
around him and clamouring for battle:—
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