Gaius Suetonius Paulinus

Mark Ford

Gaius Suetonius Paulinus

at that time

controlled Britain. According

to rumor, which loves to pit

one man against another, he had grown deeply envious

of Corbulo, and yearned to equal

his rival's recovery of Armenia

by himself gloriously putting to the sword

some foreign adversary. Therefore, fixing

on the isle of Anglesey, where many refugees

had sought safety, he had constructed an armada

of flat-bottomed boats, and these conveyed

his foot soldiers across the treacherous（奸诈的）, shallow

sound. His cavalry（骑兵，装甲兵） had to ford

the cold waters on their mounts, and even,

in the deeper parts, to swim beside their horses.

Along the shore, near

the tideline, men

waited, bristling with（充满，密集） weapons, and weaving

between them, women in funereal black

like Furies, hair

hanging down, brandishing torches. And Druids, everywhere

Druids, shrieking, hands lifted

to the heavens, stunning the invaders with their harrowing

curses ... dismayed

and paralyzed, even the battle-hardened quailed, seemed

almost to offer up their bodies for slaughter; until,

roused by their general, and urging

themselves not to be daunted by a band

of fanatical（狂热的） women, they advanced

and attacked, decimating

all they encountered, slashing and burning, setting

alight the foe with the flames

of their own torches ... Victory

accomplished, a garrison（要塞，卫戍部队）

was established and the island's

sacred groves razed: for those savages would drown

their altars in human blood and consult their gods by probing

the entrails of butchered prisoners. It was,

however, while he was busy

accomplishing all this, that Suetonius learned of a sudden

rebellion, of unspeakable

mayhem（故意伤害罪）, of terror engulfing the skeleton

army he'd left to defend

the colony's main province.