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Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.
Hi Renatus

Many thanks for the posts. At the end of this I expect we are going have to agree to differ on our interpretations but it is worth exploring all sides.

Renatus wrote.

The abandonment of London looks like a desperate measure that would only have been taken as a last resort, such as an imminent attack. There would have been no point in leaving it otherwise. As to the Britons, they were on a roll after their successes at Colchester and against the Ninth Legion. It is unlikely that they would have hovered on the outskirts of London waiting for Paulinus to move. Seeing that he had insufficient troops, they would surely have attacked. If they had retired to protect their homelands, they would have been miles away from London and no immediate threat.

The proposition here is that Paulinus when in London is under immediate threat but that is not necessarily the case.

Paulinus may have some flaws but he was one of, if not the best general of his generation. This was not a man who needed to take "desperate measures"; he planned for all eventualities.

I suppose we should ask ourselves why did he go to London in the first place? Was it because that was where he was to meet the Second or perhaps where he expected the Procurator to be so that Paulinus could get up to date information of the situation?

Once again there was no one there. Not the Second and not the Procurator, most of the portable wealth would have been loaded onto ships, the rich and powerful would also have gone and London was left probably with no government to speak of.

His original plans of marching on the Brythons to force them to fight him were in chaos and London was obviously undefendable.

To say that the Brythons were “hovering on the outskirts of London” is not my interpretation but that they were in fact defending their borders and ready to move to intercept his column/s on the march.

After 17 years of watching how the Romans operated (which was to march on an enemy’s territory to force them in a battle to defend it) the Brythons had changed their tactics to one of guerrilla fighting and siege warfare. They had obviously been successful at this as the Romans after 17 years still had not conquered the far West or the North.

Also to assume that the Brythons were savages and uneducated would seem to go against what archaeology has unearthed.

The Brythons were expecting the other Legions from the West to join Paulinus and march on their territories to exact revenge, as would have been a typical Roman tactic (exactly what the Ninth did).

It is my supposition that Tacitus tells us of SP’s dilemma, the risk of advancing on the Brythons with too few men and get caught out like the Ninth, try to defend London once the Brythons realised that no one was coming to re-inforce him or to abandon London to its fate after destroying the armouries and any grain that was left so that the Brythons would have to re-provision to continue their journey past London.

The latter option allowed him to choose a better place to defend, buy him time to get re-inforcements at a “later time”.

Renatus wrote:

I assume that by "small army" and "scanty numbers" you are referring to Ann. 14.36 (modica manus)
and Ann. 14.33 (infrequentia militis) respectively. The second of these, dealing with troops in London, need only mean 'insufficient number of soldiers'.


We both agree that he had insufficient men to carry out his preferred options.

Although like most people I think that DIo’s numbers are suspect, I think that the increased number of Brythons refers to just before the final battle and includes a number of tribes.

Regarding the site – I totally agree with you unless some huge confirmation is found and that is unlikely however at least we can narrow down the sites – or find others?

Kind Regards - Deryk
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
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Deryk - 09-25-2012, 06:13 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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