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Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.
(12-02-2018, 01:16 PM)Renatus Wrote: Nathan has identified the passage in Tacitus. It is in Suetonius' pre-battle speech to his soldiers and is pure rhetoric. The wording is important: plus illic feminarum quam iuventutis adspici (literally, 'See there more of women than of the warrior'). The use of the genitive plural (feminarum) and genitive singular (iuventutis) is significant. He is referring to the character of the rebel army, not its composition. Moreover, femina can mean, not just 'woman', but an effeminate male. So, what Suetonius is saying, in not particular PC terms, is in effect, 'Look at that lot! They're not soldiers; they're a bunch of poofs! Show 'em a sword and they'll leg it!'

First, purely unconnected with the battle I'm interested in the women (who isn't?) - but I hadn't noticed this about women at this battle so thanks.

And to the person who said: "no one assumes Watling St." or something similar - I met a very very ardent person online who would not accept that it wasn't on Watling St. They got very upset when I refused to accept it was on Watling St.

On the placing - I can't see anything that says the battle was held directly after St.Albans. In contrast, it seems to be quite an extended period (Paulinus was thinking of waiting till another season). That's plenty of time to move almost anywhere in Britain. It then becomes easier to say where it wasn't - because some places would very likely have got mentioned: it wasn't near the coast, it wasn't near a large river or other obvious named geological feature. It wasn't near a named town/fort, and it wasn't on a major road between towns. It was somewhere very nebulous with no nearby features that Roman readers would have heard of.
Oh the grand oh Duke Suetonius, he had a Roman legion, he galloped rushed down to (a minor settlement called) Londinium then he galloped rushed back again. Londinium Bridge is falling down, falling down ... HOLD IT ... change of plans, we're leaving the bridge for Boudica and galloping rushing north.
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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 MonsGraupius - 01-10-2019, 01:39 AM

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