Thread Rating:
  • 4 Vote(s) - 5 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.
1. What you mean by the 'parade theory'. I know what I think you mean but I do not want to pre-empt your reply.
Parade Theory, a description of the dominant movement model that has been applied to this campaign since before Websters time. The theory is there was a single unified block of Britons moving together en masse along a known linear route.

2. What your objections to it are.
a) It assumes a single group can be brought together in an effective force at the same time , this doesn't account for the reported increase in numbers over the campaign. Furthermore it does not recognise the logistic effort that would be required to keep such a host together in the field for the weeks the theory implies.
b) the roman road network is new, small, inappropriate for hordes with carts and plays entirely into the Romans geography and control mechanisms. Whilst some Roman Roads followed older routes there would be many pre-Roman routes that were equally or better suited to the nature of the group and the direction of travel, hence my interest in river vallies.
c) it does not account for different groups acting in different ways, different squadrons of Iceni heading off fast in very different directions and torching distant places. If this is the case, the burning of London and St Albans does not reflect a map of consequential movement, as "parade-istas" assume, but a series of isolated incidents in no particular order undertaken by different groups with different approach routes and speeds.

3. What you propose as an alternative.
see "c" above. With the addition that the majority of the group that hit Colchester in a rage returned home with plunder before setting off on a second broader expedition drawing new recruits and family from home. This group/groups could have advanced on Roman territory on a very different timeline and along very different routes ie through the Fens via Stonea or via Ely, hence my interest in the Fens. Once in Fenland, which is looking increasingly like Iceni territory, they would have the upper hand.

4. Assuming (as I do) that Church Stowe is integral to your theory, how it fits into it.
The parade theory outrageously, and unnecessarily, simplifies the geographies and potential strategic options of the campaign. Church Stowe sits in a cluster of proposed sites, but well south of Mancetter that is still the favoured location by an academia unwilling to challenge the 50 year old Mancetter dogma. CS has probably the best topographic fit of all nominees to date, it is close to/on the known Roman route, there are features that might be interpreted as Roman field fortifications, but critically it sits at the junction between the known Roman route and the Nene valley one of the key northern routes into Iceni territory. This location makes it a point where the Romans can strike into a vacated Iceni homeland and a point which, if they pass, they risk exposing their rear. So on many points CS is a very strong site and strategic candidate but a poor fit for the parade accolites as it is too far north if the only route available is Watling Street. So I bend the approach theories to fit a good site and it would seem you don't have to bend them very far to make CS a good candidate either by a real Iceni approach from the East, a threatened Iceni approach from the East or a real Iceni approach from the south by extending the linear parade into a circular parade.

I don't contend CS is the site, but I use CS as a test of strategic assumptions, this is helping me make new large scale observations about the site and it's context. Ultimately in CS we have a very interesting landscape that needs to be understood better. This debate is good for that, Boudicca or no Boudicca, it is throwing up new strategic identities for the site. Maybe the blatant use of the B word will one day justify the resources to look at the known features as has happened at Mancetter, Cuttle Mill and Dunstable. Merely talking about the site at the Warwick conference has engaged a whole new range of people with Church Stowe.
Reply


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 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
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by John1 - 03-11-2015, 11:30 AM

Possibly Related Threads…
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Armchair Wall walking mcbishop 3 3,479 01-11-2012, 03:22 AM
Last Post: Vindex

Forum Jump: