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Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.
Quote:It's not certain which towns are meant.
Colchester is almost certainly one. The other could be London or St. Albans. I would opt for London.



Quote:In Agricola (1.5), T writes only of 'colonies burnt' (incensae coloniae). Confusing, as there was only one colony, Colchester... :unsure:
This is rhetoric. In the same passage, he refers to "intercepti exercitus", 'armies intercepted', and we know of only one legion, the Ninth, being intercepted.



Quote:Suetonius, in Nero 34, writes of "a great disaster in Britain, where two of the principal towns belonging to the Romans were plundered" (clades Britannica, qua duo praecipua oppida magna civium sociorumque caede direpta sunt). But is that translation quite accurate? Surely 'civium sociorumque' means something like 'of citizens and allies'? This might suggest that Colchester (of citizens) and Verulamium (of 'allies') was intended.
Adopting my usual policy of literal translation, I would render this passage as, 'a British disaster, in which two principal towns full of citizens and allies were laid waste with slaughter'. This could, therefore, refer simply to the populations of both towns, without differentiating between them. The translator in the Loeb edition thinks that the towns are Camulodunum and Verulamium but they could equally well be Camulodunum and Londinium.



Quote:Cassius Dio (62.1) writes that "a dreadful disaster occurred in Britain: two cities were sacked..." This is very similar to Suetonius's version - Dio wrote in Greek, but they could have both drawn on the same Latin source. In which case it would be the same two cities - Colchester and St Albans. But Dio probably didn't actually know exactly which two cities his source was referring to!

He goes on to say (62.7) that Boudica was able to "to sack and plunder two Roman cities, and, as I have said, to wreak indescribable slaughter…" I don't know whether the Greek text is as certain about the status of the cities as the translation implies! If so, Dio could just be assuming that both cities were Roman, or explicitly referring to Colchester and London.
Dio goes on, in Paulinus' speech before the battle (62.9), to speak of two cities being burned, one having been betrayed and the other abandoned to the rebels. We have discussed this before and I have suggested that this refers to Colchester and London respectively. In the Greek, the word translated as 'cities' is, in each of these instances, poleis.
Michael King Macdona

And do as adversaries do in law, -
Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.
(The Taming of the Shrew: Act 1, Scene 2)
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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 Renatus - 09-10-2013, 11:12 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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