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Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.
Quote:Tacitus states that... only when he was reinforced did he decide to give battle....

Just to be annoyingly accurate - Tacitus doesn't state that! ;-)

Suetonius had the fourteenth legion with the veterans of the twentieth, and auxiliaries from the neighbourhood, to the number of about ten thousand armed men, when he prepared to break off delay and fight a battle
(Annals, 14.34). That's all - no mention of reinforcements gained or awaited, or explanation for the 'delay'. As Michael has said, it's probable that he was waiting for more men, but not certain.


Quote:
Deryk post=343884 Wrote:This seems like two opposing arguments
Not necessarily.

There is a difference of interpretation though, I think. Paulinus comes off a lot better in the Tacitus version, for a start!

Has anyone read any theories about where Dio was getting his information from?* He could have just read Tacitus and embroidered it with fictional details, but some of the things he mentions (the 'three divisions' thing, and Paulinus running short of food) serve little dramatic purpose and seem to derive from some other source...

Either way, Dio's account at least leaves a shadow of doubt over Paulinus's conduct in the runup to the battle, and the reason for his 'delays' - was it strategy, or just uncertainty?

* EDIT - I notice that GW Townend in 1961 (Traces in Dio Cassius of Aufidius, Cluvius and Pliny, Hermes 89) suggests that Dio relied mainly on two authors, one racy and scurrilous (who he names as Cluvius Rufus) and the other a sober annalist (who he proposes was the Elder Pliny). Interestingly, Tacitus probably had access to the same sources, along with (so Syme reckons) the autobiography of Suetonius Paulinus himself... Hmm!
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 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 Nathan Ross - 09-08-2013, 04:11 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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