Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.

[Renatus]

I suspect Paulinus was quite a bit further south before he heard about the disaster of the Ninth though. He had already been appraised of the threat to Colchester, and I would guess that he would be intending his forces to converge in that region rather than further north.

My guess is that Paulinus intended to combine his force with that of Cerialis and (a) to launch a combined attack on the Iceni homeland, thus drawing Boudica away from Colchester or (b) to interpose himself between the rebels and Colchester or © to raise the siege of Colchester. In the event, Cerialis did not wait for him, either because of his natural impetuosity or because the rebels moved faster than anticipated and he felt that he had to go to the aid of Colchester as quickly as possible.

I was thinking a bit more about the idea raised somewhere above of a final battle in the Essex region . . . it seems to me quite possible that having (for example) withdrawn first to St Albans and sent his refugees northward from there, he could then have marched eastwards into the hinterland of the rebel advance and positioned himself directly behind them - this would have forced the Britons to turn back from plundering the Thames valley in order to protect their rear.

How do you envisage the destruction of Verulamium fitting into this? Boudica's main force attacking it and then following Paulinus eastwards? A breakaway group being responsible, while Boudica moved north-east to challenge Paulinus? Or simply a local uprising?

Essentially, I don't like the idea. I know I keep harping on about reinforcements but going east separates Paulinus from his main sources of support. All there was in the east were the remnants of the Ninth, which was something of a broken reed and which may, even so, have had some role as a blocking force to prevent tribes moving down from the north. Perhaps this role was why Cerialis seems to have taken only half the legion to Colchester.