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Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.
(12-01-2015, 11:34 PM)Renatus Wrote: the distance is about 56 miles.  So, at 20 miles a day, a little under 3 days.

That would work fine then - if Cerialis was defeated around the 20th (using my hypothetical timeline!), he could have met Paulinus at Godmanchester on the 21st or 22nd, and Paulinus could still have reached London by the 26th, ahead of the Iceni.



(12-01-2015, 11:51 PM)Theoderic Wrote: the site was “sheltered in the rear by a thick forest” or “closed in the rear by a forest”, unless this can be translated differently.

Aha - you're right. 'Closed in the rear by a wood' (a tergo silva clausum). There probably was woodland behind the Dunstable site, but was it 'closed'? I like to think the point was that it would hinder attempts by the enemy to outflank the position.



(12-01-2015, 11:51 PM)Theoderic Wrote: the whole site and the whole Roman Army could have been surrounded by Brythons 25 deep with only 140,000 warriors

As you know, I don't believe there were anything like that number of warriors!



(12-01-2015, 11:51 PM)Theoderic Wrote: It was the wagons in this case that were the difference which stopped the Brythons from escaping

Wouldn't that affect your Tring site too? Plus there's always the idea of Britons fleeing instinctively to the wagon park to protect their families - the wagons perhaps don't actually have to seal off the plain...


(12-01-2015, 11:51 PM)Theoderic Wrote: Spring wheat is as far as I can ascertain planted in February or the latest March

It looks like you're using modern estimates. Mine are perhaps little better, but I was going on medieval ones, for which we have more information than for ancient practices, but which are perhaps close enough.

This site, for example, considers that the year's work did not begin until March 25th, with the spring crop being planted in April. While this guy in 1808 was still planting barley in Berwickshire until the middle of May!

I'm still very unsure about this issue, but Tacitus is quite definite that the problem was with planting (because the people had gone to war), not harvesting. Also that the rebels wanted to seize Roman grain.

So why would they plan on getting Roman grain, rather than planting their own, if both winter and spring crops would have been ready for harvest in late summer of 61? A winter crop planted in autumn 61 could not have been harvested before July 62, so unless we're postponing this famine period another 12 months (by which time Paulinus had been superceded) it surely can't have been the winter crop that was neglected?

(* there's always the possibility that the winter of 60-61 was particularly bad (perhaps it killed Prasutagus?...) and the Britons knew they were going to lose most of their winter crop. So their drive to rebellion may have been aided by the prospect of a hungry year, and the tempting granaries of Roman Britain...)
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 - 12-02-2015, 12:44 AM

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