Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.

[Nathan Ross]

Nathan has proposed that the revolt broke out after the harvest of AD61.  This is not impossible but one has to be careful. 

I also suggested that the harvest that year might have been particularly poor - that could be why the Romans were already importing food from the Mediterranean (which had an earlier harvest), and the Britons 'reckoned on our supplies as their own' (Tac. Ann 14.38).

Perhaps the Iceni harvested whatever they could of the depleted crop in August, just enough to sustain them until they seized Roman provisions, and took most of it with them when they departed for the war. This would have been supplemented with whatever they captured at Colchester and London. But the whole lot would have been lost at the final battle, with the capture and destruction of the baggage train.

The survivors who straggled back to Iceni country would have had only the remaining seed corn left to sustain them over the winter, and Roman reprisals could, as you suggest, have destroyed that too. By the beginning of following year, famine would already be setting in. Any Iceni who refused to throw themselves on Roman mercy or the charity of neighbouring tribes, or to again take up arms and attack Roman depots, would have starved.

it leaves little time in the rest of 61 for the events described by Tacitus

Yes, you're probably right. The mission of Polyclitus in particular was more likely the following spring, with the appointment of Turpilianus in the early summer. For the rest, though, I still think there would be time in the autumn of the year.

We have been assuming, I think, that the reinforcements from the Rhine armies must have been sent in response to a request from Paulinus. But Tacitus says they were sent by the emperor. This could be merely a formality of expression, but Catus Decianus would also have sent a report when he fled Britain himself, presumably detailing the loss of Cerialis's force, and it would have arrived in Rome some time before any requests from Paulinus.

So the troops from the Rhine could have been despatched by imperial order to reinforce the army in Britain, before Paulinus himself had even fought his battle against Boudica, giving them far more time to cross the Channel and join him before the close of the sailing season.

However, if we really need Paulinus to be the one requesting the reinforcements, a message sent from London on September 18th could have reached Rome in 14 days inclusive, covering the 1048 miles at an average of 75 miles per day. At the same speed, a message from Rome could have covered the 875 miles to Cologne in 12 days (three days slower than a message by a much longer route in January AD69).

Presuming the governors in Germania had been forewarned by Paulinus and could get their troops on the road at once, they could have covered the 240 miles from Cologne to Boulogne and still reached the Channel by the last day of October, with ten days before the close of the sailing season.