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Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.
#42
Quote:Dunstable to Towcester is 30 miles straight up Watling Street, seems like a reasonable tab for an infantry day.
30 miles in a day would be feasible for a legionary force at full stretch, although 18 (20 Roman miles) seems to have been a more usual longer march. Based on the distances between marching camps in Scotland (for example), 10 miles would appear to be reasonable in hostile territory.

But Paulinus in his retreat from London was conveying a large number of civilian refugees, probably unable to march at legion speed (albeit "those capable of accompanying the march" Annals 14.33) and dragging a quantity of wagons etc with them. This would surely slow him down.

Quote:Why do you think Paulinus was slow with rear guard contact? Can you provide the quote?
It's a brief note in the annoyingly vague Dio description:

[Paulinus, after leaving London] "was not willing to risk a conflict with the barbarians immediately, as he feared their numbers and their desperation, but was inclined to postpone battle to a more convenient season. But as he grew short of food and the barbarians pressed relentlessly upon him, he was compelled, contrary to his judgment, to engage them." (Dio, Roman History 62.8.1)

The reference to delay also turns up in Tacitus ("he prepared to abandon delay and contest a pitched battle" 14.34). This implies that whatever Paulinus was doing, he wasn't doing it very quickly!

The barbarians 'press(ing) relentlessly upon him' suggests to me that the withdrawal from London was something more of a fighting retreat. It could be that the 'hostile population' along Watling street were the ones doing the pressing, but the advance guard of Boudica's force would seem more likely.

Here's an interesting thing though - Dio says that Paulinus 'grew short of food'. Why would this be? He'd just left London, after all, the depot for food supplies for the army of Britain. In the London destruction layer dated to the period of the revolt, there was a large quantity of burnt grain, and furthermore this grain was of a type (identifiable by the shape, or something - I've lost the reference I'm afraid) only grown on the continent during this period. So this was Roman grain, in Roman warehouses, being destroyed. We know that Boudica's force had deliberately not planted crops before going on the rampage (Tacitus 14.38), presumably intending to seize Roman supplies - so why would they burn the grain in London?

So did Paulinus burn the supplies, to avoid them falling into the hands of Boudica? Did Paulinus, in fact, burn London itself? Could the note in Tacitus about him saving the country 'at the cost of one town' mean that after evacuating London he deliberately destroyed it in the path of the enemy, scorched-earth style?

If so, it was careless of him not to take enough grain to feed his own men... There's another possibility - Decianus Catus, the Procurator, fled London upon news of the sack of Colchester, 'unnerved by the disaster' (Tacitus 14.32). Could Catus have ordered the grain supplies torched before he left? Was this why Paulinus later found himself unable to feed his troops?

There is a case, maybe, for Paulinus clearing out of London in a hurry, destroying whatever grain he couldn't carry with him and retreating back up Watling street (or even westwards) in the face of the advancing enemy. The 66-odd miles up to Towcester and beyond could have been covered in three days of forced marches. This would take him deep into Catavellauni territory though, and we don't know what their attitude to Rome was at the time - hostile, probably, following Tacitus...

Hmm, once more into the vortex of speculations... Confusedmile:

EDIT - out of interest, here's Tacitus' description of Suetonius Paulinus, from the Histories (2.25): "he was naturally inclined to delay, and a man who preferred cautious and well-reasoned plans to chance success." Tacitus also notes that Paulinus "was regarded as the most skilful general of the time" (2.32 - the W.H. Fyfe translation reads 'cleverest') - since he wouldn't have had any chance to exhibit this skill or cleverness since his time in Britain, we must assume that that this reputation was won there. So whatever the Roman commander did in his operation against Boudica, it was (or was later perceived to be) skillful or clever...

- Nathan
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 Nathan Ross - 05-27-2011, 04:19 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

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