02-09-2018, 02:21 PM
Nathan wrote:
Meanwhile, I was thinking a bit more about the defeat of Petillius Cerialis and the Ninth as they tried to relieve Colchester at the start of the revolt. Tacitus tells us that the 'victorious Briton' defeated Cerialis, presumably meaning the same force that had just sacked the city. So Cerialis's column could have got quite close to Colchester when they were defeated - perhaps even to the edge of the city itself.
Certainly it is a possible scenario although if there were the numbers of Brythons that are mentioned it would seem to be a suicide mission to send 2,000 (or even 4,500) infantry against such a host in the open field, let alone when they had a defensive position to protect them.
I seems to me that for some reason that eludes us the Romans totally underestimated the forces that were unleashed against them. This was not only the Brythonic tribal armies but a popular uprising of a people who saw their land being taken from them by another state that would totally destroy their way of life not just at the aristocratic level but much farther down the pecking order affecting everyone.
Tacitus states:
“......all the chief men of the Icenians were stripped of their family estates, and the relatives of the king were treated as slaves. Impelled by this outrage and the dread of worse to come — for they had now been reduced to the status of a province — they flew to arms, and incited to rebellion the Trinobantes and others, who, not yet broken by servitude, had entered into a secret and treasonable compact to resume their independence. The bitterest animosity was felt against the veterans; who, fresh from their settlement in the colony of Camulodunum, were acting as though they had received a free gift of the entire country, driving the natives from their homes, ejecting them from their lands, — they styled them "captives" and "slaves," — and abetted in their fury by the troops, with their similar mode of life and their hopes of equal indulgence.”
Even in our day and age, if people were stripped of their homes and their living there would be widespread uprisings and insurrection but to do this especially to a proud race of independent peoples, rebellion was almost guaranteed.
Meanwhile, I was thinking a bit more about the defeat of Petillius Cerialis and the Ninth as they tried to relieve Colchester at the start of the revolt. Tacitus tells us that the 'victorious Briton' defeated Cerialis, presumably meaning the same force that had just sacked the city. So Cerialis's column could have got quite close to Colchester when they were defeated - perhaps even to the edge of the city itself.
Certainly it is a possible scenario although if there were the numbers of Brythons that are mentioned it would seem to be a suicide mission to send 2,000 (or even 4,500) infantry against such a host in the open field, let alone when they had a defensive position to protect them.
I seems to me that for some reason that eludes us the Romans totally underestimated the forces that were unleashed against them. This was not only the Brythonic tribal armies but a popular uprising of a people who saw their land being taken from them by another state that would totally destroy their way of life not just at the aristocratic level but much farther down the pecking order affecting everyone.
Tacitus states:
“......all the chief men of the Icenians were stripped of their family estates, and the relatives of the king were treated as slaves. Impelled by this outrage and the dread of worse to come — for they had now been reduced to the status of a province — they flew to arms, and incited to rebellion the Trinobantes and others, who, not yet broken by servitude, had entered into a secret and treasonable compact to resume their independence. The bitterest animosity was felt against the veterans; who, fresh from their settlement in the colony of Camulodunum, were acting as though they had received a free gift of the entire country, driving the natives from their homes, ejecting them from their lands, — they styled them "captives" and "slaves," — and abetted in their fury by the troops, with their similar mode of life and their hopes of equal indulgence.”
Even in our day and age, if people were stripped of their homes and their living there would be widespread uprisings and insurrection but to do this especially to a proud race of independent peoples, rebellion was almost guaranteed.
Deryk
