Thread Rating:
  • 4 Vote(s) - 5 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.
Renatus wrote:

Accordingly, it is reasonable to accept that his account is likely to bear some resemblance to reality.  I do not see the Romans emerging from the defile until the Britons were in retreat, after which they carved into them without giving them the opportunity to regroup. 

The more you delve into how the Roman army prevailed in this engagement, the more you realise the importance of the topography.

Seutonius Paulinus was a great general, one of the best, if not the best of his generation according Tacitus. He would have realised that that just bursting out of the defile onto a flat plain into a host he would have been surrounded. This is probably why he abandoned both London and St Albans as he would have been surrounded and like the 9th Legion, slaughtered (although my preferred version of events is that they were ambushed near Wixoe).

He could not rely on the baggage train being there to act as a convenient barrier so he must have had some topographical features that helped him. Also on a flat plain the people would not be able to see the battle properly so it would indicate that the wagons were on raised ground that surrounded the position .

Renatus wrote

It is important to remember that Boudica's forces were not trained soldiers but essentially civilians in arms.  They had not engaged in serious warfare for a generation and, up to that point, had encountered no serious opposition.  In their one engagement with a Roman army, Cerialis's part-legion, they had easily prevailed.  It would have come as a complete shock to be confronted by battle-hardened legionaries, fresh from campaigning in Wales.

I am going to partially agree with you here.

I think that we tend to forget that it was only 18 years before this engagement that Aulus Plautius brought his Legions to Britain and encountered stiff resistance, 14 years previously that the Iceni had their weapons confiscated which led to an uprising and and as you say, the recent defeat of the Brythons in the West that Seutonius Paulinus had just completed.

They had managed to keep 4 full Legions occupied for 18 years and even after this defeat managed to keep on being a thorn in the side of the Governor for a while before peace negotiations were in place.

The Brythonic society had a warrior class based around their chiefs as standard and it is doubtful that these had all become farmers or that the skills were not handed down father to son or daughter.

I see this Brythonic army as similar to Harold’s at Hastings where he was supported by his Earls, Thegns and Housecarls that formed the core of the military and the Fyrd (farmers) that were called on as necessary. Obviously fighting styles were very different, there was no shield wall by Boudicca and her men.
 
You are right that predominantly the bulk was made up of non warriors but the elite would have put up a stern fight even against the battle hardened soldiers of Rome, after all 400 were killed but of course that pales into insignificance in comparison to the Brythons killed.

The farmers would have been the weak link because they would have lacked discipline (as at Hastings) but also because they were only in the field for limited periods before they had to return home to plant or harvest.
Deryk
Reply


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 - 03-08-2021, 05:11 PM

Possibly Related Threads…
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Armchair Wall walking mcbishop 3 3,479 01-11-2012, 03:22 AM
Last Post: Vindex

Forum Jump: