25 In the summer in which he
entered on the sixth year of his office, his operations embraced the states
beyond Bodotria, and, as he dreaded a general movement among the remoter
tribes, as well as the perils which would beset an invading army, he explored
the harbours with a fleet, which, at first employed by him as an integral part
of his force, continued to accompany him. The spectacle of war thus pushed on
at once by sea and land was imposing; while often infantry, cavalry, and
marines, mingled in the same encampment and joyously sharing the same meals,
would dwell on their own achievements and adventures, comparing, with a
soldier’s boastfulness, at one time the deep recesses of the forest and the
mountain with the dangers of waves and storms, or, at another, battles by land
with victories over the ocean. The Britons, too, as we learnt from the
prisoners, were confounded by the sight of a fleet, as if, now that their
inmost seas were penetrated, the conquered had their last refuge closed to
them. The tribes inhabiting Caledonia flew to
arms, and with great preparations, made greater by the rumours which always
exaggerate the unknown, themselves advanced to attack our fortresses, and thus
challenging a conflict, inspired us with alarm. To retreat south of the
Bodotria, and to retire rather than to be driven out, was the advice of timid
pretenders to prudence, when Agricola learnt that the enemy’s attack would be
made with more than one army. Fearing that their superior numbers and their
knowledge of the country might enable them to hem him in, he too distributed
his forces into three divisions, and so advanced.
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