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Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.
(11-30-2015, 10:57 AM)Renatus Wrote: London would be irrelevant until he knew that Colchester had fallen and that the rebels were moving in that direction... he was going the wrong way.

If he did then try to link up with Paulinus, he clearly failed or we would have heard of the involvement of his legion in the final battle.

I don't quite follow your first point - once Paulinus knew that Colchester had fallen, why would he not head for London? It's a moot point anyway, as we know that's what he did... (see below)

The second point is fair enough. Although I was assuming that Cerialis would only have escaped the battle with his cavalry (auxiliaries, plus his own mounted Equites Singulares) rather than elements of the Ninth. Would his duty not have been to report to his senior commander as soon as possible?


(11-30-2015, 09:20 AM)John1 Wrote: It would seem cavalier rather than cautious to advance further south than the Nene.

Although we know (unless we disregard Tacitus) that this is precisely what he did... The note in Annals about P wondering whether to choose London as a battle site, and looking around at his 'scanty force of soldiers' would be absurd if he only had a 'small unit' or cavalry bodyguard with him - of course he wasn't going to fight a battle with them!

And if he'd already decided to base himself somewhere further north, then he'd already made the decision not to fight at London - so why bother going there? While I think you make perhaps the best case here for the notorious 'cavalry dash' (as opposed to Webster et al, who make no case!), I'm afraid it's still pretty untenable based on the evidence we have.


(11-30-2015, 09:20 AM)John1 Wrote: Given the daily habit of digging in this would seem the obvious course of action.

Marching camps, yes. But fighting from inside fortifications was not Roman practice if they had a choice in the matter, and I've already quoted a reference to Roman disdain for the practice. The final conflict with Boudica was a field battle, not a siege, and Paulinus was forced to it - he had not prepared for it in his chosen position for a long time beforehand.

There is the note in Histories about Paulinus 'preparing the field' before Ad Castores in AD69 - I would take this to mean cutting down trees or hedges that might have provided cover for the enemy, not digging his men into fortifications. Nothing in the following battle indicates this.


(11-30-2015, 09:20 AM)John1 Wrote: bottling himself up in the Dunstable pit and trusting to luck

Nope. As I pointed out above, there was no reason for Paulinus to move into position in the Manshead 'pass' before the Iceni were committed to their approach route. Before that, he could base himself at Tilsworth (site of a 1st century Roman settlement with water supply and what could be traces of several marching camps) and send his scouts to watch the Iceni advance. Only when the Iceni were within a few miles of the position would he need to march a couple of hours south (perhaps under cover of darkness) and block their route.

These three maps, covering the 24 hours or so leading up to the battle, should show what I mean:

   


(11-30-2015, 09:20 AM)John1 Wrote: there are no traces of anything after two years of the BF Trust snooping around, so it would appear to be another unprovable site.

The BF Trust survey was denied access to the grounds of Manshead school by the local council, so could only investigate the margins of the proposed battle area.

Besides, as I've said, there are very few known ancient and medieval battle sites that have yielded any archeological traces. Cannae - a much greater slaughter - has produced nothing at all. So the lack of finds should not discount any site.
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 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
RE: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand. - by Nathan Ross - 11-30-2015, 01:30 PM

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