8 AWARDED FOR VALOUR
his task of founding a new city. War is a hateful but necessary thing to
Aeneas; despite his prowess at arms, he would rather be honored for the
fulfillment of his duty toward his gods, the state, and his family than to be
remembered as the slayer of men.^13
Tacitus’s eulogy of his father-in-law Julius Agricola provides an example
of the Imperial Roman hero:
His first military service was in Britain under Suetonius Paulinus, a
conscientious and cautious general, when he had been chosen to be the
latter’s aide; his performance satisfied his commander. Agricola did not
behave with the license of young men who turn their military service
into dissipation, nor did he, displaying no energy, take advantage of his
rank as tribune and his inexperience to pursue his personal pleasure and
obtain leaves of absence.^14
Summed up in these few taciturn lines are the basic virtues of the Roman
hero: duty, personal honor, and service to the state. No greater accolade
could be ascribed by Tacitus than the phrase ‘his performance satisfied his
commander.’
On the opposite face of the classical coin were the native heroes of Britain
resisting Roman expansion. None became more famous than the warrior
queen of the Iceni, Boudicca.
In Boudicca we see a heroine who required several centuries passage to
be rehabilitated into the pantheon of British folk-heroes. Some 500 years
after her death the monk Gildas referred to her as a ‘treacherous lioness
[who] slaughtered the governors left to give fuller voice and strength to
Roman rule.’^15 Writing in the dawn of the Middle Ages, it is understandable
that he might wax nostalgic for the stability of imperial law. No positive
mention was made of the warrior queen until she re-emerged as a minor
nationalistic heroine during the reign of Elizabeth I, only to fall into ill-favor
once again in the seventeenth century.^16 Milton’sHistory of Britaindismissed
her as the nadir of civilization, a madwoman who compared poorly with
the male heroes who had previously resisted the Romans:
Hitherto what we have heard of Cassibelan, Togadumnus, Venusius, and
Carattacus hath bin full of magnanimitie, soberness, and martial skill: but
the truth is that in this battel, and whole business, theBritansnever more
plainly manifested themselves to be rightBarbarians; no rule, no foresight,
no forecast, experience or estimation, either of themselves or of their
Enemies; such confusion such impotence, as seem’d likest not to a Warr,
lily
(lily)
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