08

DEFEAT AND DEATH OF BOADICEA

波阿迪西亚之变

assembly, meeting.　　　　　　　　　massacre, kill; slay.
destroying, slaying.　　　　　　　　　revenge, desire to repay injury.
fragments, broken parts.　　　　　　　shrieking, screaming wildly.
grapple, close; struggle.　　　　　　　ventured, dared; made bold.

BOANICEA APPEALLING TO THE BRITONS.

1. A little later, a British lady was daring enough to face and fight the Romans. Her name was Boadicea, and she was Queen of the Iceni. While the Roman governor was away in the island of Mona, engaged in destroying the Druids, who had fled to the oak forests there, this brave woman stirred up her people in Norfolk to war.

2. She had good reason to make war against the Romans. Her husband had died a little earlier, and had left half his wealth to them, in the hope that they would let his widow and orphan daughters live on the rest. But the greedy Romans took the whole, and whipped this British queen with rods, when she ventured to ask for that which was her own.

3. This was more than she could bear; and when she drove in her chariot to a great assembly of British warriors, and, spear in hand, told them the shameful tale, they raised a yell of revenge, and rushed off to burn the Roman towns and massacre the people. Seventy thousand were killed before the governor got back with his soldiers. And then, of course, there was a great battle.

4. The battle was fought somewhere on the low shore of Essex. The Roman governor placed his men with their backs to the sea; and the Britons in a countless swarm came on, thinking that they had hemmed their enemy at last into a fatal corner. So sure, indeed, were the islanders of winning the battle,that they brought their wives and daughters to look on from a line of cars, which bordered the edge of the plain. But the Romans, forming themselves into a body like a wedge, made so fi erce a charge that they broke the British line and drove the fragments back on the cars.

5. And then what a scene of confusion there was! Britons, with their blue breasts bare, and their yellow locks matted with blood, trying all that wild bravery could do against the well-trained Romans—women shrieking and wringing their hands, or, forgetting their sex in the horror of the time, rushing to grapple in deadly fight with the Roman soldiers—noise and slaughter everywhere—and everywhere the Roman sword drinking blood, and spilling life upon the grass.

6. When Boadicea, who had come to battle dressed as for a festival, in a robe of bright colours, a loose fl owing cloak, and a golden collar, saw the slaughter of her people and the speedy ruin of all her hopes, she did what heathens thought it very noble to do, —she put an end to her life by swallowing poison.

中文阅读

1. 不久之后，一位英勇无比的不列颠女人又与罗马人展开了对决。她的名字叫波阿迪西亚，是爱西尼部落的王后。当罗马统治者深入蒙那岛，任意屠戮躲入橡树林的德鲁伊僧侣时，这位英勇的女人便站了出来，鼓动她在诺福克的人民参加战斗。

2. 与罗马人开战，她有充分的理由。她的丈夫早前去世，留下一半财产，希望她们孤儿寡母能赖以过活。但贪婪的罗马人却将财产全部抢走了，当她向他们索要属于她的那一部分时，他们不仅不给，还用鞭子狠狠抽打她。

3. 这让她出离愤怒，于是她驾着战车，拿着长矛，组织了一次不列颠勇士的集会。会上她讲述了这段屈辱的故事，听者无不振臂高呼复仇。他们冲向罗马人的据点，肆意杀人放火。在罗马人回马应战之前，一共有七万人被杀。当然，之后便是大战降临。

4. 公元61年，这场大战发生在埃塞克斯的低浅海岸附近。罗马人背对大海迎战，无数的不列颠人蜂拥而至，可以设想，他们几乎包围了敌人并把他们逼入死角。不列颠人的胜利几乎已经注定，所以他们把妻女们都带来，让她们在排成一列的轿子里，远远地在海滩边缘观看他们的胜利。但是这时罗马人团结一致、背水一战，变成一个楔子阵型，以凶猛的战法突破了不列颠人的防线，最终把不列颠的残兵败将击退到了轿子边缘。

5. 接下来场面更加混乱！不列颠战士们光着膀子，黄色头发沾满血迹，拼尽他们最大的勇气与训练有素的罗马人进行搏斗。女人们尖叫着与敌人扭打，有的更是在惊惶中忘记了自己的性别，冲向罗马士兵与他们一决生死。然而罗马的刀剑却所向披靡，草地上到处都躺着不列颠人的遗体。

6. 决战之时，波阿迪西亚像迎接节日庆典一样，穿着一套鲜艳亮丽的礼服，雅致飘逸的披风衬托着金色的衣领。当她看见她的人民惨遭如此屠杀，她的希望立即全然破灭。于是她按照异教徒认为的高贵的方式了结了生命，服毒自杀了。