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Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.
Quote:So the question is still did he go to London with a relatively small mobile force to have a look at the situation... I am certain we don't have an answer to that question.

I am certain we do. Paulinus had scouts to 'look at the situation' for him; he went to London to fight a battle, not just look around. This, I'm afraid, is no longer a question, whatever 'Tim' might think!



Quote:a muster point for not only the big forces such as Legio II

This assumes that the whole of Legion II were available; I'm increasingly convinced by the idea that they were only a veterans detachment, maybe a thousand men or so, left under the praefectus castrorum to guard the camp while the main legion were with the army in north Wales. Bringing a relatively small force to a rendezvous point either on the southern stretches of Watling or at London itself would pose few difficulties, I'd say.



Quote:his slow moving column

Roman legionaries were trained to march at full pace 24 Roman miles a day (22.068 modern miles). This makes them, over long distance, faster than any other moving body of the era, including cavalry and excepting only messengers using horse relays. Certainly at least twice as fast as the Britons. Paulinus had a considerable movement advantage.

When Paulinus evacuated London, those who went with him ("those capable of accompanying the march") were not just people able to march at that speed - something many untrained civilians would have found difficult, but not impossible - but those unable or unwilling to abandon their homes, families, and most of their possessions.

As Tacitus says, those who remained "had been detained by the disabilities of sex, by the lassitude of age, or by local attachment". So there is no need, I think, to assume that the people who followed the army were having to keep up with galloping horsemen, or were expecting to march for three straight days or more into the Midlands.
Nathan Ross
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Messages In This Thread
Re: Calling all armchair generals! - by Ensifer - 03-11-2010, 03:13 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-18-2012, 06:26 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-19-2012, 12:02 AM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-19-2012, 02:50 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-19-2012, 05:40 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-19-2012, 11:26 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-24-2012, 05:11 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-24-2012, 09:42 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-24-2012, 10:10 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-25-2012, 03:11 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-25-2012, 03:25 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-25-2012, 08:36 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-26-2012, 02:57 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-27-2012, 01:50 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 08-05-2012, 02:24 PM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-07-2014, 02:18 PM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-08-2014, 01:50 AM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-11-2014, 02:03 AM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-18-2014, 07:54 AM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-20-2014, 02:37 AM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-25-2014, 08:29 AM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Nathan Ross - 03-22-2015, 02:00 PM

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