Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.

[Nathan Ross]

why take that route?  There is a road between Mancetter and Leicester that cuts out that dog-leg:

Mancetter to Colchester via Leicester = 105 miles (approx.)

OK, I see this a lot better now, thanks. What are using to calculate your distances - mapping tool?

So if we assume that Paulinus went that way, and met Cerialis - or survivors of his army - at or around Godmanchester as they retreated, how long would it take Paulinus to reach London on the direct road south that passes through Braughing?

How does this fit with trying to meet up with reinforcements from the west? I know you're considering that the Second legion were only a garrison detachment, but we know they were at least intended to join Paulinus somewhere, and didn't. Perhaps others too, from the south Wales border or Alchester. How could they be expected to play a part if Paulinus was over in the east of the country? Not by going up to High Cross, surely - the only other road option is Akeman Street to St Albans and east - which would perhaps make St Albans a better rendezvous point...

sent him a written report and rejoined his remaining part-legion to await further instructions.

We don't know enough about this to speculate, and Cerialis doesn't seem to play a decisive role in what follows. But I'd be surprised if a Roman commander with troops (I meant the cavalry, not the remainder of his legion) would march five or six days away from the enemy while his own chief was advancing in the opposite direction! Cerialis would have sent a tribune or a messenger to summon the rest of his men, I would think. But it doesn't matter too much.

what is open country now may have been heavily forested in the 1st century.

Yep. I've already suggested that the Dunstable site was backed by woodland, which apparently survived into the middle ages.

This Aldbury site has the advantage of being surrounded by forested hills (quite possibly the same in the 1st century), except for a gap to the north-west, to one side of the rear of the Roman position, which would allow for a clear retreat if necessary. Of course, there could originally have been trees there too!