Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.

[Nathan Ross]

20000 is a problem as that dont leave hardly any Aux for any other legions in Britain, but hey ho he established a loC and loS back to Wroxeter which as a years supply for a legion, but now has to maintain,20,000 or 4 times what it expects to support, Wroxeter Legionary fort now contain, 990000lbs to sustain this level of manpower you want him to have... 3960000lbs of manpower rations, 200000lbs of water is 4160000lbs. 5000 mules at 190lbs is 950000 leaves 3210000lbs, everyone gets to carry 17 days extra rations, of 748000lbs, leaving 2462000lbs to be on carts, so at 1050lbs a 4 wheeled wagon, thats 2344 wagons pulled by 4700 oxen. Easy they had the 17 days on them from day one, or you need more carts. Nose to tail thats c12 miles of carts, 7 miles of mules and 2 miles of manpower.

By your estimates it would have been impossible for any Roman army to operate in Britain or anywhere else for any length of time.

Meanwhile, I suggest you leave off the ad hominem attacks and ridiculous accusations - which have no place here - and come up with something of your own to contribute.

I repeat - If you still do not believe that this is plausible, provide an alternative.

We also know from Tacitus that when the revolt was finally over, some 2,000 Legionaries had to be drafted in from Germania... Many experts state that the majority of these were for Legio IX HISPANA... Legio IX could not have 2,000 dead. The math's simply do not add up.

I'm not sure that Cerialis wouldn't have brought half his legion with him, even if he had to leave the other half to guard the northern approaches. If he was marching into enemy territory he surely would have taken all his available troops?

But you're right that Tacitus doesn't explicitly say that the 9th lost 2000 men: "...two thousand legionaries, eight cohorts of auxiliaries, and a thousand cavalry. On their arrival the men of the ninth had their number made up with legionary soldiers." So some of the 2000 could have gone to make up losses in other legions, as you suggest.

I do wonder whether Cerialis would have marched without any orders from his senior, Paulinus, though - if he did, he would probably have received greater blame for what subsequently happened. His reckless advance on Colchester reads a bit more like the act of an ambitious subordinate interpreting his orders liberally, rather than an entirely independent action. Then again, we know so little about how orders and requests were passed up and down the chain of command.