Thread Rating:
  • 4 Vote(s) - 5 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.
(12-02-2015, 01:05 PM)Theoderic Wrote: Cerialis after his defeat was penned up in a fort rather than had escaped back to his Legion.

Ceralis flees to 'the camp' after the battle (Cerialis cum equitibus evasit in castra et munimentis defensus est) and Boudica later says that "a legion which dared to fight has perished; the rest are hiding themselves in their camp" (cecidisse legionem, quae proelium ausa sit; ceteros castris occultari). The word casta could refer either to a marching camp or to a legion fort, I think. Or both - in the first case, perhaps, Cerialis escapes to his marching camp, but the second reference is to the remains of the Ninth legion back at Longthorpe. I don't think there's any way we can know though... As you say, he quite probably wasn't present at the final battle.


(12-02-2015, 01:05 PM)Theoderic Wrote: Even if there were only half the numbers Aldbury would have been surrounded…

I'd give them a lot less than half. Dio's figures are notoriously exaggerated (as with my most Roman historians!) - remember that he claimed 50,000 Roman soldiers died during Severus's campaign in north Britain, and without fighting a single major battle!

If we take Dio's figure as the total of the British host (although how anyone was supposed to calculate it I don't know!), then a quarter to a fifth of them could be warriors - fifty-sixty thousand. That in itself is a huge army.



(12-02-2015, 01:05 PM)Theoderic Wrote: although his regime was harsh the Brythons suffered far more from a famine which they had brought upon themselves

Yes, that sounds right. 'It was their own fault' sort of thing. And the 'ravaging with fire' could cover the destruction of crops in the fields (in which case Tacitus is being doubly disingenuous!).
Nathan Ross
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
RE: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand. - by Nathan Ross - 12-02-2015, 02:00 PM

Possibly Related Threads…
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Armchair Wall walking mcbishop 3 3,480 01-11-2012, 03:22 AM
Last Post: Vindex

Forum Jump: