02-16-2018, 09:50 AM
Renatus wrote:
I'm afraid that this does not work for me. If Paulinus moved south (as he would be doing, if he ended up at West Wycombe), he would not only be moving away from his main source of reinforcements, the legions coming down from North Wales, but would be allowing the Britons to get behind him and cut him off from them. If he really felt that the potential battle sites in the Tring area did not give him the protection he needed, he would have little alternative but to go west and meet his reinforcements on or near the Fosse Way at Cirencester.
I agree
If (as i am surmising) however he felt that he would be exposed at Tring because of the tribes to the North he could not use Akeman Street to get to Alchester and then on to Cirencester and safety but would have either had to use the Lower Icknield Way to get to Dorchester on Thames or the road from Fleet Marston on Akeman Street to Dorchester on Thames as these were the only alternate western routes available to him.
If that was the case it would seem logical that he would head from Dorchester over the Thames through the Goring Gap at Streatley and then down to Silchester and on to Cirencester that way. (or he could have crossed the Thames and gone across country along the Thames to Lechlade and then on to Cirencester)
My supposition is that he changed his mind and went down the well known and established trading route which was the valley from Saunderton to West Wycombe, High Wycombe and Hedsor Wharf and take the Camlet Way to Silchester (which for the purposes of this exercise I am assuming was "safe") and then on to Cirencester. (The Wendover valley would have taken him away from Silchester back East)
At some point early on he decided that he needed to face the Brythons or realised that this was a great place to give battle and where he could control the flow of water from West Wycombe where the river Wye rises and flows southwards and there was an excellent site where he could do the most damage by using the landscape to his advantage.
The fact that the Upper Icknield Way runs at the back of the battle field of the Brythons and where the wagons would have been stationed was just pure luck so that he could inflict such a massive defeat but of course he had already defeated the army before they tried to escape....
I'm afraid that this does not work for me. If Paulinus moved south (as he would be doing, if he ended up at West Wycombe), he would not only be moving away from his main source of reinforcements, the legions coming down from North Wales, but would be allowing the Britons to get behind him and cut him off from them. If he really felt that the potential battle sites in the Tring area did not give him the protection he needed, he would have little alternative but to go west and meet his reinforcements on or near the Fosse Way at Cirencester.
I agree
If (as i am surmising) however he felt that he would be exposed at Tring because of the tribes to the North he could not use Akeman Street to get to Alchester and then on to Cirencester and safety but would have either had to use the Lower Icknield Way to get to Dorchester on Thames or the road from Fleet Marston on Akeman Street to Dorchester on Thames as these were the only alternate western routes available to him.
If that was the case it would seem logical that he would head from Dorchester over the Thames through the Goring Gap at Streatley and then down to Silchester and on to Cirencester that way. (or he could have crossed the Thames and gone across country along the Thames to Lechlade and then on to Cirencester)
My supposition is that he changed his mind and went down the well known and established trading route which was the valley from Saunderton to West Wycombe, High Wycombe and Hedsor Wharf and take the Camlet Way to Silchester (which for the purposes of this exercise I am assuming was "safe") and then on to Cirencester. (The Wendover valley would have taken him away from Silchester back East)
At some point early on he decided that he needed to face the Brythons or realised that this was a great place to give battle and where he could control the flow of water from West Wycombe where the river Wye rises and flows southwards and there was an excellent site where he could do the most damage by using the landscape to his advantage.
The fact that the Upper Icknield Way runs at the back of the battle field of the Brythons and where the wagons would have been stationed was just pure luck so that he could inflict such a massive defeat but of course he had already defeated the army before they tried to escape....
Deryk
