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Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.
Nathan wrote:

If the Iceni tried to re-arm in preparation for their revolt, how long would it have taken them? What access did they have to good quality metal for making blades and armour? Presumably they still had hunting weapons, and agricultural implements they could use (or forge their ploughshares into swords - if they even had iron ploughshares...). But helmets and armour would have been in short supply until after the fall of Colchester.


I don’t think that it is at all unreasonable to think that the Iceni could have re-armed. 

History teaches us that that the clandestine rebuilding of the military happens when treaties are deemed unfair by the beaten, Germany 1918 – 1933 for example.

The Brythons had a thriving trading relationship with the continent so access to required resources may not have been that hard and the Iceni were not poor and were probably not that well monitored being a Client Kingdom under a trusted ally.

It is also not that difficult in an industrial environment of metal making (which they appear to have been highly skilled) not to conceal the making of a sword amongst the more everyday items.

Of course they could have just smuggled them in from Gaul over the years.

Nathan wrote:

I like to think that, as you've suggested yourself, the Brit.Mus 'Tring helmet' might have been plundered from Colchester by one of the rebels, and later discarded close to the battle site!

This is very plausible but would the Brythons have fought in armour or with helmets at all?

It is noticeable that often when the Roman and Brythonic infantry fight,  the Brythons lose and then run away to fight again another day.

Now you would expect the chariots and cavalry of the Brythons to do this against Roman infantry but not the Brythons on foot. So there must be a reason and it is probably because the Roman soldiers were weighted down with armour whereas the Brythons were not.

It was the Roman cavalry that often sealed the defeat of the Brythons by riding down the fleeing.   

Nathan wrote:

Did the Britons really have 'chariots' at the last battle, as Dio says? Or were they using light farm carts adapted for war, as the Adamklissi metopes seem to show the Sarmatians or Dacians doing?
 
This is a difficult one but some experimental archaeology has been done and is worth reading from this link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/trail/archa...n_02.shtml

Nathan wrote:

*Incidentally, I was reading through T's Agricola and found this interesting snippet, from Calgacus's pre-battle speech: "All the incentives to victory are on our side. The Romans have no wives to kindle their courage; no parents to taunt them with flight; many have either no country or one far away." (Omnia victoriae incitamenta pro nobis sunt: nullae Romanos coniuges accendunt, nulli parentes fugam exprobraturi sunt; aut nulla plerisque patria aut alia est.)

The mention of 'wives' (coniuges, again) here - presumably at the battle - may be significant. But notice that the Caledonians appear to have brought their 'parents' along too!


Again I am not sure of the interpretation here. 

I read it…. not that the wives were on site in this instance (although that specfic reference is made at Boudica’s last battle) but that the Romans were an invading force – it was not their land, they didn’t live here – they were a professional army with no roots in this country and therefore no family interests to protect.
 
Renatus wrote:

And remember that Tacitus states in relation to the Boudican revolt that those of all ages had gone to the war (omni aetate ad bellum versa, Annals 14.38).

You are correct – it is specific BUT this could very well mean that men from boys to the more mature for example 10 years – 55 years and young women. Child soldiers are still used to this day but Roman troops did not consist of these age groups on the whole.

I think that this statement only applies to the final battle.  


I still do not subscribe to the argument that babes, very young children, young girls or the elderly would have gone to war specifically to fight. 

The only time this happens is when a tribal migration is opposed (Julius Caesar) and this does not appear to be that.
Deryk
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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 Theoderic - 09-18-2016, 11:07 AM

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