Thread Rating:
  • 4 Vote(s) - 5 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.
Quote:From what Tacitus states... the Procurator robs the aristocracy blind and this must be over a reasonable time to have the effect Tacitus states.
Yes, the events that T describes happened after the death of Prasutagus, which surely happened a number of months before the revolt broke out. The Romans appear to have believed that with the death of the king all their client treaties were void and Iceni lands should fall to the imperial domain. The depredations described in these excerpts will have been enough to show the Iceni what they might expect under direct Roman control.

Quote:To keep an army sitting around doing nothing was logistically unwise and expensive in food terms and why attack London anyway?
I wondered some time ago why Boudica and co apparently spent so long reaching London after burning Colchester. I think the answer is not that complicated: a vast tribal host will move very slowly at the best of times, and with the attractions of a fallen city and a surrounding network of Roman colony settlements to plunder, they would hardly be 'sitting around'! Dio, I think, actually mentions religious ceremonies and sacrifices: whether we believe this or not, I think the Britons would have had plenty to keep them occupied.

As for London - it was a small settlement at this date, but appears to have been the seat of the procurator (Colchester being the governorial capital). So the hated Decianus was there - or his office at least. It was also an army supply dump: the destruction layer dating to the revolt includes substantial quantities of burnt grain originating from the continent. So the Britons could have combined business with pleasure, so to speak, in destroying the place (unless, as I believe, Paulinus did it first by torching the grain stores, with the fire spreading to the civilian settlement).

Quote:The Iceni would have waited to ambush them as they entered their territories and the first force sent against them (the Ninth were ambushed in this way) although the Iceni territories were not the target and Colchester was, the Iceni were not to have known this.
The Roman road from Longthorpe/Leicester doesn't appear to pass through Iceni territory, and if Cerealis was heading directly and rapidly to Colchester he surely wouldn't have paused to harass the natives. That being the case, I don't really see why anyone would assume he was going anywhere except Colchester - and since there was a large rebel force already there, it's most obvious to assume that they, or a subgroup of them, were the ones who ambushed the ninth.

Quote:As an aside wouldn't the Iceni have sowed winter wheat in the Autumn and not the Spring?
Yes. The summer harvest was sown in the spring (this was the one the Iceni neglected) and the winter harvest in the autumn (so they would have needed to return home by then to sow it). There was a discussion on harvests earlier in this thread.
Nathan Ross
Reply


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
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Nathan Ross - 08-22-2012, 02:21 AM
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

Possibly Related Threads…
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Armchair Wall walking mcbishop 3 3,479 01-11-2012, 03:22 AM
Last Post: Vindex

Forum Jump: