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Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.
Quote:That said, crops planted in October would not be available for harvesting until the following spring, so... it would have been imperative for them to have seized enough to see them through the winter.
True, but they'd have to plant the crops in October all the same, or they wouldn't have any food the following spring! They couldn't live forever off Roman plunder :wink:

Quote:I somehow do not see Boudica chasing Paulinus up Watling Street in order to bring him to battle - much better to draw him to her by attacking one of his allies.
'Chasing' sounds a bit frenetic! 'Advancing towards' might be preferable - it's only 30 miles from London to Dunstable (for example), or 8 if we bring Boudica and her main force up to St Albans. Three days by cart, with pauses for looting and pillaging? :-)

*Edit - one more point: I think the surrender of both London and St Albans would already have proved that Paulinus had no qualms about sacrificing land, lives and property. By comparison, Cogidubnus and his people would have appeared very expendable.

Quote:Nick Fuentes saw the final battle taking place in the vicinity of Virginia Water.
I still think Fuentes might have been on the money with this one. I've searched OS and terrain maps all along the Roman road from Staines to Silchester, and only the Virginia Water area has anything like the differences in elevation required to fit our 'defile'. Trouble is, as I've said before, this area is covered in roads and railways and suburbia, with a massive 18th century forest park and ornamental lake stuck in the middle of it! If the battle site lies west of here, it's either a) well to the west, beyond Silchester, b) south - a site on the south downs might be feasible, or c) the terrain was a lot less pronounced than Tacitus implies...

Quote:Is 80,000 dead the correct number or not?
It's probably an exaggeration (besides, who would be counting? seventy-one thousand six-hundred and one, seventy-one thousand six-hundred and two, etc...). But I think we can safely assume a high casualty rate - for one battle to break a rebellion of this size, it must have been massively destructive. Besides, Boudica apparently survived the fight, and could have regrouped her warriors if they weren't all dead, scattered, demoralised and running for their lives...
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 Nathan Ross - 04-25-2012, 10:50 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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