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Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.
The timeline of the whole affair is fascinating. However - this is just an idea of my own - The Trinovantes were the ones who had had enough of the veterans, they weren't bothering the Iceni. Only when the loans from Claudius and Seneca were called in, (one could suspect that Claudius practically bought a number of tribes instead of defeating them) and probably around the time that Prasutagus died, did the Roman rule really start to bite. I find it interesting that Catus Decianus came with a small force to collect the money. Now it would have been very stupid on the part of Suetonius to go off on campaign if he had known that Decianus was off to get the money - tax gathering was an ideal way to take money for yourself without anyone being the wiser. Every Roman would know that. So is it the case that Decianus waited until PS had gone off and then hurried off to augment his income?

Another idea - please drive it into the ground is it is too ridiculous - but why could there not have been some planning for the rebellion? The Trinovantes, the Coritani , Iceni and perhaps even the tribe that appears to have boxed in the IInd? For all we know Boudica came from Devon/Dorset and might have contacts there. Plenty of time after a confab with the three tribes above to send a messenger and start the rebellion.
Now surely there wasn't much point in the Iceni helping the Trinovantes, rather ( think of Varus) the Iceni would have had word from the Coritani if and when the IXth got ready, ideal ambush and it obviously worked. Presumably the Coritani then made sure that what was left of the IXth stayed in either Longthorpe (which is more or less Peterborough?) or Lincoln?

Surely the rebels wanted to engage with Suetonius as soon as possible. It would work to his advantage not to do so. I've read in several accounts that St. Albans wasn't necessarily put to the sword by the rebels at least not to the extent that Colchester and London were. The long delay before they take London is a puzzle. Either they sat there waiting in St. Albans to intercept them on Watling Street, or they waited elsewhere.
In any case, they didn't take London until Suetonius had left there and the cavalry dash is really not an option. Logistics are, the warehouses in Southwark were burnt, but not necessarily by the rebels in my opinion. They had perhaps not expected Suetonius to go as far south as London in the first place. In which case, his withdrawing south or south-west, towards Cogidubnus' territory would surely have been a useful move? Towards more food, possibly there was a loyalist Regni army the other thing is: (Annals) 'Suetonius collected the fourteenth brigade and detachments of the twentieth, together with the nearest available auxiliaries - amounting to nearly ten thousand armed men - and decided to attack without delay. '
(Hunt says: this last part was not true at all. He was sensibly seeking the advantage of a good defensive position, where he could wait for his enemies to come to him on ground of his own choosing').
In addition to that there must have been an opportunity for the Classis Britannica to sail from Anglesey to at least the area of Poole harbour? Even though it is rarely mentioned I recall one mention of it somewhere! in relation to the Anglesey expedition.
I still think - thanks to Steve Kaye - that withdrawing south/west was easily the best thing PS could do, he would engage on a site of his own choice, one that would be unfamiliar to the rebels
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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 Alecto - 09-12-2016, 10:14 AM

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