The cries of Tacitus, against Roman oppression of Romans set the stage for the oppression of Britain by that same predacious system.

“We should have lost our memories as well as our voice had it been so easy to forget as to be silent.”

-2

“… the mind and its pursuits can easily be crushed then brought to life again. Idleness gradually develops a strange fascination of its own, and we end by loving the sloth that we once loathed.”

-3

“By those very accomplishments he [Agricola’s father] incurred the wrath of the emperor [Claudius] Gaius; he was ordered to impeach M. Silanus, and was executed for refusing.”

-4

He was tempted to drink deeper of philosophy than was permitted a Roman… age and discretion cooled his adore; and he recalled the hardest lesson of philosophy—a sense of proportion.”

-4

“… he was possessed by a drive for military glory—a thankless passion in an age in which a sinister construction was put upon distinction…”

-5

“… a good wife deserves more than half the praise, just as a bad one deserves more than half the blame.”

-6

“He was afterwards chosen by Galba [an emperor maligned by historians] to check over the gifts in the temples; and by diligently tracing stolen objects he repaired the losses inflicted on the State by all the temple-robbers except Nero.”

-6

This had to have threatened powerful interests and exposed the lines of currency inflation and off shoring of treasury reserves and have made enemies who, individually outlived emperors, and whose institutions pre-dated and would outlive Rome.

Chapter 7 describes that Agricola’s widowed mother, living in exile at the edge of Britain, around Cornwall, was then murdered by the barbarian Otho’s pirate fleet. Agricola then becomes involved with the subduing and conquest of Britain, a second time.

“… by his efficiency in carrying out orders, and by modesty in reporting his accomplishments, he won distinction without arousing jealousy.”

-8

Chapter 9 describes how Agricola behaved as a civic official and avoided contention by being grave on duty, jovial off duty, and by avoiding all debate and politics.

Chapter 10 describes the geography of Britain and that a discourse on Ocean is outside the scope of his history.

In Chapter 11 race is not the monolithic Celtic realm extolled by current histories: “The reddish hair and large limbs of the Caledonians proclaim a German origin; the swarthy faces of the Silures, their tendency for the hair to curl, and the fact that Spain lies opposite [on the sea road], all lead one to believe that the Spaniards crossed in ancient times… people nearest the Gauls [Britons] likewise resemble them… but the Britons show more spirit: they have not yet been made weak by a protracted peace.”

Modern ethnologists have long disagreed, proclaiming Germans blond. This will be addressed in Germania as another symptom of our imposed failure to see Antiquity from the vantage provided by its writers, instead being fixedly mesmerized by the backward projection of Modernity, a key aspect of the Lie we are born and weened under, making mere omission and occasional revelation but dull darts, incapable of piercing the shield of our shared delusion.

Tacitus does much to correct the false assumption about our past—and his—that have been cultivated since his own time.

Chapter 13 introduces the partially broken Celtic character, “The Britons readily submit to military service, taxes, and other obligations imposed by government, so long as there is no abuse. That they bitterly resent; for they are broken into obedience, but not yet slavery.”

It is inferred above, and will be illuminated below, that there is a subconscious drive in Civilization to bend all men until they break and in its automated image remake.

Chapter 14, “An example of the long-established Roman practice of using even kings to make others slaves.”

Agricola does not explicitly connect the enslavement of Romans by their government early on, with their outward conquests, but here makes a series of wonderful implicit connections, ever conscious it seems of the book burning “executioners.”

Chapter 15 begins with “the Britons,” as they “canvas the woes of slavery…”: “We gain nothing by submission but heavier burdens… We used to have one king, now we have two, the governor to wreak his fury on our life blood, and the procurator, on our property. Whether our masters argue or agree with one another, our bondage is equally ruinous. The governor has centurians to impose his will, the procurator, slaves…”

The use of slaves to enslave is the most ancient form of living shackles upon the human spirit.

“It is mostly cowards and shirkers who seize our homes, abduct our children and conscript our men… we have country, wives and parents to fight for; the Romans have nothing but greed and self-indulgence.”

Chapter 16 begins the revolt: “They hunted down the Roman troops in their scattered posts, stormed the forts, and assaulted the colony itself, which they saw as the citadel of their servitude… The barbarians now learned, like any Romans, to condone seductive vices…”

Chapters 17 and 18 describe the Roman situation.

Chapter 19 describes Agricola’s rise as the heroic rescuer of the system which thirsted for his demise: “He made no use of freedmen or slaves for official business.” For slaves and those released from slavery by their master, who remains the master of their heart, releases into the power structure the most remorseless and least empathetic actors to act as the smoothest gears in the machine designed to erase all decent things.

“… he put an end to the tricks of profiteers, which were more bitterly resented than the taxes themselves.” The tricks were then described as very much like the sutlers contracted by British Companies from among Hebrew merchants in the 1600s and 1700s to supply soldiers and sailors. This abuse, the starving of the fighting men, caused the Great Age of Piracy, as even captains revolted against such an evil system. Tacitus describes intentional diversion of rations to distant posts so that up-charges could be added “...to line a few men’s purses.”

In Chapter 20 corruption is fixed as new Governor Agricola’s main enemy, and that he won over soldiers and Britons because, “… the negligence and arbitrariness of governors had been as much feared as war.”

In Part 3, Chapters 21 thru 46 will continue with Tacitus, either quoting, paraphrasing or framing his own criticisms of his nation of Rome, in the words of barbarian enemies he and Agricola fought against and in many cases enslaved. Rome is depicted as a wicked social construct designed to break the human spirit in between the anvil of moral vice and material force, to reforge humanity into something automatically, culturally, spiritually, ethically and racially pliable in the web-spinning and lever-pulling hands of the unseen collaborators who ruled the men who “ruled” the world.