Thread Rating:
  • 4 Vote(s) - 5 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.
(03-08-2021, 05:11 PM)Theoderic Wrote: 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 .

The position of the wagons might be quite an important factor. I think we've been assuming that they were arranged in a big arc around one end of the battle site - this is the way that Webster's plan of Mancetter had it, mainly as he needed it that way - there was no other way of enclosing such a flat open area.

Tacitus's text does rather suggest this as well - the wagons (plaustrae) were 'placed on the extreme edge of the plain' (super extremum ambitum campi posuerant), and the 'surrounding vehicles... made it difficult to escape' (difficili effugio, quia circumiecta vehicula saepserant abitus).

But how easy would it have been to arrange a large number of baggage carts into the sort of arena or viewing stand that Webster shows in his plan? How long might it have taken? How easily could these wagons have been driven off roads or tracks, across country and up hillsides? Would the Britons really have dispersed their baggage camp over such a wide area, and at such difficulty, with the enemy in sight?

As I've suggested before, the presence of wagons, wives, etc would have impeded the flight of the defeated Britons wherever they were placed, as the fugitives would not want to abandon them. And most of the sites we've been discussing have quite a constricted 'plain' anyway, with high ground on either side that would effectively impede any wide spectrum of retreat for wheeled vehicles. Having a single mass of wagons and carts and families acting as a sort of 'plug' sealing the main route of access to the site would form just as effective a barrier as the sort of enveloping screen that both Tacitus and Webster imply.
Nathan Ross
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 Nathan Ross - 03-09-2021, 09:37 AM

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: