Caratacus

Caratācos, or in Latin Caratacus or Caractacus, was a king of the Catuvellauni during the mid-1st century AD. His attempt to halt the Roman invasion of Britain ended in defeat and captivity.

Quotes

• Si quanta nobilitas et fortuna mihi fuit, tanta rerum prosperarum moderatio fuisset, amicus potius in hanc urbem quam captus venissem, neque dedignatus esses claris maioribus ortum, plurimis gentibus imperitantem foedere in pacem accipere.
  • Had my lineage and rank been accompanied by only moderate success, I should have come to this city as friend rather than prisoner, and you would not have disdained to ally yourself peacefully with one so nobly born, the ruler of so many nations.
  • Tacitus Annales, Bk. XII, ch. 37; translation from The Annals of Imperial Rome, trans. Michael Grant, (Harmondsworth: Penguin, [1956] 1971) p. 267.

• Habui equos viros, arma opes: quid mirum si haec invitus amisi? Nam si vos omnibus imperitare vultis, sequitur ut omnes servitutem accipiant?
  • I had horses, arms, men, wealth. Are you surprised I am sorry to lose them? If you want to rule the world, does it follow that everyone else welcomes enslavement?
  • Tacitus Annales, Bk. XII, ch. 37; translation from The Annals of Imperial Rome, trans. Michael Grant, (Harmondsworth: Penguin, [1956] 1971) p. 267.

• Ειτα ταυτα και τα τοιαυτα κεκτημένοι των σκηνιδίων ημων επιθυμειτε.
  • And can you, then, who have got such possessions and so many of them, covet our poor huts?
  • Cassius Dio Roman History Bk. LXI, ch. 33, sect. 3c; translation from John Creighton Coins and Power in Late Iron Age Britain (Cambridge: CUP, 2000) p. 92.
  • Said after having seen Rome for the first time.