Gaius Suetonius Paulinus

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.