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

........nor indeed that any of the British leaders were experienced in the sort of long-distance warfare of strategy and manoeuvre that Paulinus seems to have engaged in.

Yet a century earlier Caratacus and his brother waged a war in Kent that utilised tribes from the Cirencester area and from around the country.....

Nathan wrote:

Holding a huge and diverse rebel army together and directing it from place to place must have been an extremely difficult business.

Absoloutely!

Nathan wrote:

....some groups falling out about war aims, others wanting to return home with their loot, others going off plundering on their own account, etc. For this reason, I also tend to think that the British would need to stick fairly close to their own homelands, and not, for example, head off into the west with the sole object of locating and fighting the Romans (I've never been much taken with this 'duel' theory!)

This is embarrassing! I have to agree again – yet this also supports John’s thoughts that some of the army went home after defeating the Ninth.

Nathan wrote:

Perhaps we could best imagine the movement of the Britons as less like a disciplined army (John's notorious 'parade') and more like a swarm of bees? They mass around one particular location - Colchester, or London - drawn by the promise of plunder, then afterwards disperse into a multitude of smaller bands, spreading across the countryside in all directions before once more coalescing around a new location.

One of the best ideas yet!

This really opens up some alternatives that is worth giving considerable thought to.

Nathan wrote:

Paulinus could only decisively strike at them if he could force them all together in one place - and so we get the plain and the defile...

Not totally convinced of this. (Thank goodness! Smile ) Tacitus states that he didn’t have enough troops when he was in London and only when he was reinforced did he decide to give battle.....but Dio of course states that “as he grew short of food and the barbarians pressed relentlessly upon him, he was compelled, contrary to his judgment, to engage them”

This seems like two opposing arguments

It seems to me that SP could not force the Brythons to give battle – they could have just dispersed or gone around a prepared position – it wasn’t like Thermopylae where the blockade had to be faced.

In my opinion why the Brythons had to attack was because they had no option, they couldn’t leave an army in their rear as they returned home - a subtle but important difference.

This of course implies that they weren't chasing the Roman Army but were dispersing - it also implies that there was a large "core" of the army that was returning home.

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 - 09-08-2013, 02:39 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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