Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.

[Nathan Ross]

If it is the case that it was the end of September / beginning of October that Colchester was burnt, the continuation of the war makes it more likely to run into the following year, with the associated actions.

Indeed it does! And I would say mid October looks more likely, if the evidence of the soft fruit can be taken into consideration.

That presents us with (potentially) a radical rethink of the campaign timeline, with implications (gasp!) for the final battle site...

The revolt would begin in September AD60, after the harvest, with Suetonius Paulinus still detained in North Wales. Colchester would be attacked and conquered and Cerialis defeated in mid October AD60.

Paulinus would march his men down to London - perhaps in cautious stages - in late October and November. The attack on London would then fall perhaps in mid November AD60.

We would then have a hiatus period of several months over the winter, with the rebels holding all of the east and most of the south of Britain, and Paulinus... somewhere else... 'delaying' and trying to gather his troops.

The final battle - which Dio says Paulinus was 'inclined to postpone... to a more convenient season' (he would have prefered to wait until summer?) but decided he had to fight anyway, 'contrary to his judgment' - would then be in spring of AD61, perhaps March. And it could have happened more or less anywhere, although the general area of the Chilterns and the routes west still seems most likely.

The mopping-up campaign with the army 'brought together... to finish the war' would then extend through AD61, with Classicanus's arrival, the mission of Polyclitus, the reinforcements sent from Germany and the loss of the ships all happening at intervals over the summer before the troops go into new winter quarters in early autumn. Shortly after this, Paulinus would be replaced by Turpilianus, in or around September AD61.

(with the Iceni attacking Colchester in October, of course, they would be missing their sowing season for that autumn, and perhaps the following spring as well if the battle happened then. Famine by summer AD61 would be assured...)

Problems with this: 1. Why would Catus Decianus flee to Gaul if London was not under direct threat? 2. Why did Suetonius Paulinus only have 10,000 men at the final battle if several months had passed since his retreat from London, enough time to be reinforced by the entire Twentieth Legion, and for Paulinus to overrule Postumus and summon the Second Legion as well?