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Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.
(03-13-2017, 02:52 PM)Robert Vermaat Wrote: it read to me more like an explanation in hindsight, because if literally true, it looks like the Romans wanted to provoke an uprising by all means possible. Since they clearly were not anticipating one, the 'ravaging of the Iceni court' was either a very very stupid mistake or it was invented to explain what happened.

Perhaps. Although governments throughout history have often done things which seem immensely foolhardy and counterproductive in hindsight, and indeed to many people at the time... (no comment on current events, of course! [Image: wink.png] )

In this case, the authorities 'on the ground' in Britain were apparently responding to instructions from Rome - both from Nero (who seems to have had little idea of the consequences of his decisions) and from Seneca (eager not to lose his huge investments).

We don't know to what extent the implementation of these instructions was in the hands of Decianus and Paulinus - nor whether those instructions were carried out too forcefully. But even the rape of Boudica's daughters might have been policy - to render them unmarriageable, and their portions of their father's inheritance (which would have passed to their future husbands) worthless. A deliberate act of punishment, rather than provocation.

But, again throughout history, imperial powers have often underestimated the anger of their colonised subjects, and the ability and willingness of those subjects to organise themselves and rise up against oppressive foreign rule.
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 - 03-13-2017, 09:58 PM

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