iam Suetonio errant quarta decima legio cum vexillaries vicensimae et e proximis auxiliaries, decem ferme milia armatorum: comnetendere et acie congredi parat. eligitque locum angustis faucibus et a tergo silvis clausum; sciebat enim nihil hostium esse nisi in fronte, et apertam esse planitiem sine menu insidiarum. igitur legionarii instructi sunt frequentes ordinibus, levi armature circumstante; equites conglobate pro cornibus adstiterunt. at Britannorum copiae passim per catervas et turmas exultabant, tanta multitude quanta non alias, et animo adeo feroci ut coniuges quoque testes victoriae secum traherent, plaustrisque imponerent quae ad extremam planitiem posuerant.

Now, Suetonius had the fourteenth legion with detachments of the twentieth and auxillaries from neighbouring areas, about ten thousand armed men. He prepared to make haste and join battle. And he chose a place with narrow defiles and shut off from the rear by woods. For he knew that there was nothing of the enemy except in front of him and the plain was open without the fear of ambush. Therefore the legionaries were drawn up in close formation, with lightly armed troops stationed around; the massed cavalry stood by on the wings. But the forces of the Britons were rushing about wildly everywhere in groups of infantry and troops of cavalry, as great a crowd as at no other time and in such ferocious spirit that they brought with them their wives also as witnesses of their victory, and they put them in wagons which they had placed at the edge of the plain.