01-12-2021, 10:14 AM
(01-12-2021, 01:18 AM)Steven James Wrote: Can it be confirmed with certainty the distance between the main army and Suetonius was 250 miles? If Suetonius did make such a long journey with only his guard cavalry, it would not be the first time.
We don't know how far it was, since the entire episode is fictional.
Anglesey to London is about 250 miles. Wroxeter to London is about 150. But the point is that nowhere do we read that Suetonius Paulinus did such a thing - he marched to London with his troops, that's all. And the idea that he did not, but instead undertook some reckless mounted recon mission, is disproved by Tacitus's own estimate of the general's military reputation in later years: "he was naturally inclined to delay, and a man who preferred cautious and well-reasoned plans to chance success... thinking that it was soon enough to begin to conquer when they had made provision against defeat" (Histories, II.25).
Nathan Ross