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Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.
Nathan wrote:


1. The Iceni didn't need to 'take back their land' - at this point, the only Romans in their territory would be small groups sent by the procurator, probably land surveyors assessing for tax purposes, freedmen and soldiers grabbing whatever Decianus felt might be portable: plunder, certainly, but not yet occupation. These groups, being mobile, would certainly have hightailed it to Colchester at the first sign of trouble, taking their loot with them. If the Iceni wanted vengeance, rather just to be left alone, they'd have to leave their own territory to get it...

I think that Tacitus implies more than just a set of tax gatherers more like a set of thugs reducing rich families and owners to penury. To indicate slavery is pretty harsh and obviously Tacitus is not impressed at what is happening in either the Iceni or Trinovante territory. We are not sure about the vengeance just a tribe of set of people taking back what was theirs originally.

Nathan wrote:


2. Tacitus says the Iceni neglected to plant summer crops before the revolt. This means they were intending to leave their land, for a season at least, and planning to find grain elsewhere - Roman supplies surely. So there would be no reason for them to return home to their fallow fields, and plenty of reason for them to go after the Roman supply dumps.


Does he actually say "summer crops"?

"Nothing however distressed the enemy so much as famine, for they had been careless about sowing corn, people of every age having gone to the war, while they reckoned on our supplies as their own."

If this was the winter wheat this would make sense. Tacitus is indicating it was because they went to war that they did not sow the crops, not because they were going to go to war. I think that there is a fundamental difference. Also it would have been pretty noticeable that the Tribes weren't planting crops, which you would have thought would have sent alarm bells ringing......?


Nathan wrote:

3. The Trinovantes had plenty of opportunities for attacking Colchester before this. They did not, IIRC, participate in the Iceni revolt of 47. So why did they rise in 61? The Iceni crossing their borders bent on revolt, swelling their numbers and bringing rousing stories of Roman injustice may have been a cause.

The AD47 revolt was due to the removal of arms by a friendly power. The Iceni had never fought the Romans, had agreements with them and thought they were their allies. The Trinovantes were never in that league, had no weapons and were in effect part of the Roman Province and were at that time perfectly happy with what was going on. The fremoval of their lands etc. wasn't happening at that time.

Nathan wrote:


4. At the final battle the Britons were more numerous than ever. Coordinating a big multi-tribe group would be very difficult, especially if they were splitting up into smaller groups and wandering about the country. Smaller groups could be destroyed piecemeal. Far more likely that Boudica and the other leaders kept them together in one mass (more a swarm than an army, but cohesive at least).


I have a feeling that we underestimate the Brythons as a fighting force because the Romans were so good. At the battle of the Medway which lasted for 2 days there were supposed to be some 160,000 Brythonic warriors so the Brythons were used to massing huge numbers agt a particular muster.

There is an underlying problem. Who provided the glue that held all this together?

John1 / Nathan wrote:

A little harsh considering I haven't posted my alien invasion theory yet!!!

Ah yes, but I haven't posted my theory that Tacitus himself burned London as part of the publicity campaign for his new fictional epic 'The Histories', sequel to his blockbuster 'Agricola' - he was the Dan Brown of his day...



Sense at last!!!!! :?
Deryk
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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
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Deryk - 08-22-2012, 04:17 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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