10-09-2021, 11:09 PM
(10-09-2021, 10:47 PM)Renatus Wrote: A tribal revolt broke out while the governor Suetonius Paulinus was campaigning on Anglesey. He was in the final stages of that campaign when the news reached him. He made his way through hostile territory to London and in the meantime Colchester was sacked and the Ninth Legion was severely mauled.
Good summary.
Most of our ideas about the chronology of all this, going back to Mommsen and Haverfield, assume that Boudica and co moved against London directly after the fall of Colchester and the defeat of Cerialis, which leads to the question of how Paulinus got to London before them.
Reading back through T, though, I notice that he doesn't explicitly say that. He has Decianus flee in alarm - presumably from London - which suggests that the rebels are close at hand, but doesn't confirm it.
If Boudica remained in the vicinity of Colchester for some time after the fall of the city, or her followers perhaps made an initial move north-west, towards Godmanchester or even Longthorpe, then Paulinus could have marched directly down to London at a much less hurried pace. (I think John and Deryk might have suggested something like this in the past)
That would stretch out the campaign itself over a longer period though, with corresponding problems about sailing seasons and troops movements - unless the war began earlier, with the Iceni for some reason totally abandoning their harvest and beginning the revolt in mid summer?
Nathan Ross
