View source for Calgacus

{{Short description|Caledonian chief at the AD 83 Battle of Mons Graupius}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
[[Image:Calgacus.JPG|thumb|upright=1.3|19th-century print depicting Calgacus delivering his speech to the Caledonians.]]
According to [[Tacitus]], '''Calgacus''' (sometimes '''Calgacos''' or '''Galgacus''') was a chieftain of the [[Caledonian Confederacy]] who fought the [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] army of [[Gnaeus Julius Agricola]] at the [[Battle of Mons Graupius]] in northern [[Scotland]] in AD 83 or 84. His name can be interpreted, though not attested, as [[Common Brittonic|Brittonic]] *{{lang|cel-x-combrit|calg-ac-os}} "possessing a blade, a swordsman", and may be related to the [[Scottish Gaelic|Gaelic]] {{lang|gd|calgach}} "fierce, prickly".{{cn|date=October 2025}} Whether the word is a name or a title is unknown.<ref name=penelope>[http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/britannia/monsgraupius/calgacus.html Calgacus]</ref>

==Biography==
He was the first [[Caledonia]]n to be recorded in history.<ref name=penelope/> The only historical source that features him is [[Tacitus]]' ''[[Agricola (book)|Agricola]]'', which describes him as "the most distinguished for birth and valour among the chieftains". Tacitus wrote a speech which he attributed to Calgacus, saying that Calgacus gave it in advance of the [[Battle of Mons Graupius]]. The speech describes the exploitation of Britain by Rome and rouses his troops to fight.

The following excerpt is from the speech attributed to Calgacus by the historian Tacitus in the ''Agricola'', but most historians{{examples|date=August 2015}} note that since Calgacus was fighting Tacitus' father-in-law, [[Gnaeus Julius Agricola]], in the battle, the reader should assume some bias:<ref>Duncan B. Campbell, Mons Graupius AD 83, Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2010</ref>

{{blockquote|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 solitude and call it peace.<ref>[[Tacitus]], ''[[Agricola (book)|Agricola]]'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0081%3Achapter%3D30 30]</ref>}}

Calgacus is not mentioned during or after the battle, and he is not named as one of the [[hostages]] Agricola took with him after putting the Caledonians to flight. Both Calgacus and the speech may be figments of Tacitus's invention.<ref>Braund, David ''Ruling Roman Britain: Kings, Queens, Governors and Emperors from Julius Caesar to Agricola'' Routledge; 1 edition (5 Sep 1996) {{ISBN|978-0-415-00804-4}} pp.8, 169</ref><ref>Wooliscroft, D. J.; Hoffman, B. ''Rome's First Frontier; the Flavian Occupation of Northern Scotland'' Tempus (June 1, 2006){{ISBN|978-0752430447}} p.217</ref>

His speech is often quoted as "they make a desert and call it peace".<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://timesonline.typepad.com/dons_life/2006/07/they_make_a_des.html |title=A Don's Life |access-date=2013-12-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131211121326/http://timesonline.typepad.com/dons_life/2006/07/they_make_a_des.html |archive-date=2013-12-11 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
*[http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/imperialism/readings/agricola.html Calgacus's Full Speech to his Troops (A.D. 85)]

{{Scotland during the Roman Empire}}

[[Category:Pictish people]]
[[Category:Celtic warriors]]
[[Category:Scotland in the Roman era]]
[[Category:1st-century monarchs in Europe]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Place of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Year of death unknown]]


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