Sublime

It is from the mouth of Calgacus that we hear the immortal words about the Caledonians being ‘the last of the free . . . shielded before today by the very remoteness and the seclusion for which we are famed . . . Romans . . . Robbery, butchery, rapine . . . they create a devastation and call it peace’.

We might, for example, cite the attack by the Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta I on the vaunted Hittite forces. His defeat of their army, at the end of the thirteenth century BC during Tudhaliya IV’s reign, may in turn have emboldened the neighboring Kashka to subsequently attack and burn the Hittite capital city of Hattusa.

It was Agricola who had headed north to subdue the Celtic Caledonian tribes. Tacitus wrote De vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae – ‘About the life and character of Julius Agricola’ – to heap praise upon his wife’s father. Part of the sucking up required ensuring the great general was challenged by worthy foes, and Calgacus – literally, ‘the swordsman’