American Calgacus

In the year 98 A.D. Gaius Cornelius Tacitus wrote a biography of his father-in-law, Gnaeus Julius Agricola a famed general of Rome and Governor of Britain. In this biography Tacitus creates a speech for Calgacus, the leader of the Caledonians (Scottish Celts) which he gives prior to the Battle of Mons Graupius, a battle which temporarily subdued Caledonia for the Romans.

While Tacitus worshiped his father-in-law, he nevertheless eloquently criticizes the tyranny and the corruption of the Empire through the words of the Caledonian chieftain. In fact much of the bitterness felt by Tacitus was due to Agricola's ill treatment at the hands of the Emperor Domitian and not so much an indictment of the Empire in general.

Regardless of Tacitus' mindset or the reality of Calgacus, the fictional speech of the chieftain invokes startling parallels to our current situation. I do not mean to say that there is a one for one ancient for modern parallel for each element of Calgacus' oration and the issues facing us in Appalachia and the United States, but similarities are such that I think a comparative examination is warranted. It may just be a coincidence but the fact that the Caledonians were Celts and the Appalachians are largely descended from Anglo-Celts is interesting. In addition the Empire took the Republic (the public thing) and distorted it. Alarmingly our American Republic is founded on those original Roman ideals.

To keep from interrupting the flow of the speech and to allow the readers to enjoy Tacitus' ancient work, I am using hypertext links to link to annotations I have written.

Most of the translation by  Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb

29.  .  .  . 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 valor and in birth,  Calgacus by name, is said to have thus harangued the multitude gathered around him and clamoring for battle: --

30. “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 succor, 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 defense. Now, however, the furthest limits of Britain are thrown open, and the unknown always passes for the marvelous. 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 (progress); they make a wasteland and call it peace (security).

31. “Nature has willed that every man’s children and kindred should be his dearest objects. Yet these are torn from us by conscriptions to be slaves elsewhere. Our wives and our sisters, even though they may escape violation from the enemy, are dishonored under the names of friendship and hospitality. Our goods and fortunes they collect for their tribute, our harvests for their granaries. Our very hands and bodies, under the lash and in the midst of insult, are worn down by the toil of clearing forests and morasses. Creatures born to slavery are sold once and for all, and are, moreover, fed by their masters; but Britain is daily paying for the enslavement of her own  people. And as in a household the last comer among the slaves is always the butt of his companions, so we in a world long used to slavery, as the newest and most contemptible, are marked out for destruction. We have neither fruitful plains, nor mines, nor harbors, for the working of which we may be spared. Valor, too, and high spirit in subjects, are offensive to rulers; besides, remoteness and seclusion, while they give safety, provoke suspicion. Since then you cannot hope for quarter, take courage, I beseech you, whether it be safety or renown that you hold most precious. Under a woman’s leadership the Brigantes were able to burn a colony, to storm a camp, and had not success ended in supineness, might have thrown off the yoke. Let us, then, a fresh and unconquered people, never likely to abuse our freedom, show forthwith at the very first onset what heroes Caledonia has in reserve.

32. “Do you suppose that the Romans will be as brave in war as they are licentious in peace? To our strifes and discords they owe their fame, and they turn the errors of an enemy to the renown of their own army, an army which, composed as it is of every variety of nations, is held together by success and will be broken up by disaster. These Gauls and Germans, and, I blush to say, these Britons, who, though they lend their lives to support a stranger’s rule, have been its enemies longer than its subjects, you cannot imagine to be bound by fidelity and affection. Fear and terror there certainly are, feeble bonds of attachment; remove them, and those who have ceased to fear will begin to hate. All the incentives to victory are on our side. The Romans have no wives to kindle their courage; no parents to taunt them with flight, man have either no country or one far away. Few in number, dismayed by their ignorance, looking around upon a sky, a sea, and forests which are all unfamiliar to them; hemmed in, as it were, and enmeshed, the Gods have delivered them into our hands. Be not frightened by the idle display, by the glitter of gold and of silver, which can neither protect nor wound. In the very ranks of the enemy we shall find our own forces. Britons will acknowledge their own cause; Gauls will remember past freedom; the other Germans will abandon them, as but lately did the Usipii. Behind them there is nothing to dread. The forts are ungarrisoned; the colonies in the hands of aged men; what with disloyal subjects and oppressive rulers, the towns are ill-affected and rife with discord. On the one side you have a general and an army; on the other, tribute, the mines, and all the other penalties of an enslaved people. Whether you endure these for ever, or instantly avenge them, this field is to decide. Think, therefore, as you advance to battle, at once of your ancestors and of your posterity.”

30.  Our position as Appalachians and Americans is not exactly the same as the Caledonians. The Caledonians (Picts) were never a part of Rome. We however are proud members and even authors of the American Republic. Our conflict is caused by the forces that would subvert the Republic into an empire ruled by corporate fascists. We in Appalachia have the added burden of being attacked by well-meaning but no less destructive parties who would try to form us Appalachians into their image. Modern entertainment, academia and other “socially progressive” types  are among those entities.

For the purposes of our comparison Britain should stand for all of America and Caledonia should represent Appalachia or at least in my mind I see these comparisons. The union is all of us who wish to preserve the American Republic and the Appalachian culture, region and people.

As the Caledonians we have no place to run. We are surrounded but sadly, unlike the Caledonians we do know the slavery of the Empire. After years in the auto plants of Detroit and in hillbilly ghettos we know that we have no place to go. Those folks who are likely to stand back and wait for better times to come may soon realize that those better days may not come without a fight.

Even with the poverty and the harsh and danger drift mining we have been lucky to live in a mostly unspoiled region where we have been able to maintain our unique culture. This remoteness has worked against us as it has made it easy for outsiders to portray us as wild and wonderful. And savage. The outsiders will take our wild and wonderful land because we are too savage to know how to best use its resources. Billboards, gambling dens and vacation home resorts for wealthy outsiders are just as ugly to the Appalachian soul as a strip mine.

They have found ways of making money off of the rich and the poor alike in this country. It would seem however that the middle class is a bothersome target and thus must be destroyed. McMansions and Hummers for those who have managed to jump over the yeoman and Wal-Marts for the poor dumb bastards who are stuck in a perpetual cycle of employed poverty.

31.  Certainly the relationships to family and friends are the most important element of a human beings existence and this has been true forever, but given the lack of material wealth and other items that may dull the luster of these treasures, Appalachians seem to build their lives more on these relationships than other groups.

So with community and family being the only wealth that most Appalachians own, it is all the more terrible to have those family members “torn” from them as economic exiles. Readin, Rightin, Route 23 or as my dad would call them Michatucks. Indeed our current struggle may be seen as beginning with World War II and the migrations to the factories of the mid-west. There had always been a movement of Appalachians from the hills but those prior to the great migration of the 40s were due more to our natural wonder lust and less to economics.

Tacitus' Roman sexism is visible in the second sentence of paragraph 31. As far as I know both men and women are equally susceptible to being seduced by the trappings of a conquering power.

All of our wealth is collected and sent away. Rarely are our natural resources kept in the region to be turned into finished goods and to provide additional employment for our people. Unlike Caledonia we do have mines. Mines that  kill our laborers quickly or slowly or mines that destroy our hard won homeland. As for the harbors and fruitful plains; no we have little to offer other than the timber which cannot be replaced a lifetime if clearcut.

Another contrast between the Caledonians and the Appalachians is that even after being “a slave” in the Empire for many generations Appalachians are still “the butt of his companions.” Our valor is valued by the masters but only as it is useful to them. The Sergeant York Syndrome is praised in the country's newspapers while the slaughter at Blair Mountain is relegated to obscure history books.

Sexism is again obvious in Tacitus as he fails to call Boudica the Queen of the Icenii by name and incorrectly sites the Brigantes as the tribe of Celts that destroyed three Roman cities. It would have been nearly impossible for a Roman man to imagine a woman as a military general.

32.  The military-industrial complex and the corporate fascists are so far removed from the struggles of the average person that they always feel at peace. Their greed  can go unchecked by any fear that they may be punished. Their sons and daughters do not regularly die on the battlefield and their children certainly do not smother in coal mines. What type of resolve could we actually expect from these people if we were to wake up and fight like the lives of our children depended on it?

The corporate fascists take advantage of our fractious nature. They are benefited by the divisions between the blue collar classes not just of Appalachia but in the entire nation. As long as the promise of better times ahead can be held out to the working classes as a carrot these competing groups will look at each other with suspicious eyes while assuming that they can, through either hard work or luck or cheap trick move up the socio-economic ladder. Once it becomes clear that success is not so easily won and that the promise of betterment cannot be used to bind the working poor (slave) to the classes above, the various blue collar groups will look at each other with more brotherly eyes.

These bonds are beginning to crack. Social security, almost constant natural disasters, impossible energy costs, reduced moral status among the nations of the world and out of control national debt will make it impossible for the corporate fascists to keep regular Americans satisfied with bread and circuses or the promise of Bling.

It is to our advantage that we still have a homeland. The pawns of the new Empire have had their sense of home torn from them by corporate transfers or economic migrations. They do pine for bygone ages and for small towns with comfortable main streets but grandma is in Florida waiting for the next big one and the main street of their hometown has been bulldozed to build a CVS. Their children have never known a hometown other than a subdivision with playground equipment that has already been destroyed by the disaffected skaterats. How is it that groups like the Amish can not only survive in our modern world but actually grow in number. Hell, returning to a traditional Appalachian life doesn't even require that you give up your satellite dish. Eventually the only advantage that the elite of the Empire have over us blue collar types is money and after your first 10 million it all just becomes numbers. Money can buy power but only from those willing to sell it.

If we stand and fight all the other peoples of the old Republic will remember what they have lost and join us. And we really have no other choice but to fight as the alternative is unthinkable to the Appalachian. We can tell ourselves that we have to follow that job so that we can prepare for our retirement but if social security which is central to working class people is gutted, then what is the use? Not only will we be supporting a system in the short term that will not be there for us, we will be destroying our community and family which were in the past the very institutions that we relied on to care or us in our old age. The masters will blather on about getting back to such community based care, but their greed makes it impossible for communities to build sustainable solutions. If both parents  must work to pay for basics such as health care, how is there any time to devote to the traditional community service? Of course this point is moot when folks are forced to move from their ancestral homes in order to find work. The community is already destroyed and such traditional options are not possible in the new plastic communities where folks average only four years before moving.

The current weapons and wounds of this war are as of yet not that terrible. To be a spear-man or shield-maiden in this war one need only speak his or her mind. The Internet serves the Empire as well as the Rebel yet our chariots seem to make better use of this highway. If the craftsmen leave Rome for the hills then Rome will be forced to come to the hills for her labor. Beyond our ability to keep the issues of fair wages, environmental destruction and cultural assassination in the public discourse and our freedom to move back home, we have our vote. If we make it clear that our agenda cannot be changed no matter how much money is spent in the media we can make our representatives fear our wrath. Nothing stops us from becoming the lobbyist.

Entering this fight will currently not cost you life or limb, but being complacent and worrying about issues that act only as diversions have cost the lives of Appalachians and other Americans. Fight now while all the swinging and shooting is being done with words. Fight now so that your children never have to face down a tank with nothing but a shopping bag in their hands.