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Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.
(12-20-2017, 08:50 AM)kavan Wrote: What was the state of the roads in 61 AD?

(12-20-2017, 09:12 AM)David Scothorn Wrote: The majority of roads we know today were probably not even fully surveyed, let alone built... Perhaps the estimates of travel time is far too short.

I wondered about the roads too. I think we can fairly safely say that the main 'military infrastructure' roads would be in place by mid-century: the ones that led from London to the legion bases on the frontier. So - Watling Street ok, the Fosseway and the road to Colchester, the Portway heading west. We know from the paper that David provided above that Alchester was built cAD44, so Akeman Street would be serviceable, and probably linked with the fortresses around Gloucester and Usk.

Beyond that we probably can't be too certain. Would the Via Devana and Ermine Street have been in place by that time? Presumably if there were Roman bases around Lincoln by AD60 they would have constructed a road to get there, but which route would they have followed?

As for travel times - possibly too short, yes, although as I say Watling would have been in use at the time so Paulinus could have followed that at least.

A lot of travel estimates for the initial 'movement' phase of the campaign rely on the idea that Boudica and her rebels swooped down on Colchester and then London in a sort of Blitzkreig advance, and that the Romans would have to race to get ahead of them. This isn't necessarily the case - the rebels could have lingered, spread out, or moved off in various directions. That would at least give Paulinus - and maybe Cerealis too - far more time to get to where they needed to be.

But a shorter time and distance calculation would mean that the second phase of the campaign - after Paulinus's evacuation of London up the final battle - would be even more likely to have happened in the close vicinity of London; neither of the opposing sides would have been moving quickly enough to have got anywhere very far from there in the time they had available.

(Of course, it would all have been quicker by tube! As this rather neat (if perhaps speculative) map makes clear: Roman Roads in 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 - 12-20-2017, 12:10 PM

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