Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.

[Nathan Ross]

I cannot fathom how you would come to that view.

Because that is what the evidence says. Cartimandua was a Roman client ruler, backed by Roman power. The Romans were not obliged to treat all native queens in the same way, and nobody would expect them to do so.

If you want to conjure up a Brigantian revolt to support your theories, you will need more than just bluster!

they were the cavalry, which is what everyone maintains was with Suetonius.

Not around here they don't!

WHERE IS YOUR CAMP? Where is even the slightest evidence of any encampments between London and the army in Wales?

Unless you believe that Paulinus flew down to London in a single day, or that his army - along with every other Roman force from the conquest until the end of Roman power in Britain, including the troops you want to have at Silchester - moved about the country without making camps anywhere, then you must accept that there are temporary marching camp sites - probably a great number of them - all over England and Wales which have left no archaeological trace.

The only Roman fortification in the area known to have been occupied in c.AD60 is the vexilation fortress at Alchester. Which is quite near Tring and St Albans.

Suetonius was safe behind the walls of Calleva

He certainly was not. The walls of Silchester were not built until the early 3rd Century.

Of course not, they would go back and forth with the baggage train...

Extraordinary idea!

In reality, Roman armies moved much faster than five miles a day - sometimes three to five times as fast, and there are accounts of them covering long distances in this way. There are also reliable accounts of medieval and early modern armies, not specially trained for distance marching and often using wheeled transport, covering fifteen to twenty miles a day for several days running.

However, many people trying to promote the debunked 'cavalry dash' theory feel compelled to invent reasons for the Roman army to crawl across country at a snail's pace, while the Iceni and others hare about the place laying ambushes and sacking towns...

The two options from Calleva, is that Boudica crosses ... perhaps around Oxford... or that Suetonius cross the Thames above Goring and then heads toward Boudica... he would have made for some crossing point between Goring and Oxford... probably chose an obscure ford to cross the Thames, of which there are a number... there were other fords every few miles... This places him at the foot of the Chiltern hills ...

This is quite interesting, and not too crazy. However, we would have to ask what Boudica and her army were doing up around Oxford. Where were they going, and what was their objective?

If they just wanted to attack the Romans they could have marched west from London to the Thames and found one of those many fords you mention. The river might have held them up for two or three days while they found a viable crossing point, but not the several weeks that Paulinus would need to concentrate his army around the undefended town of Calleva. Then they would be across and into open country, with the strategic advantage over Paulinus.

Also, if Paulinus himself needed to cross the river to attack Boudica, why would the Iceni not hold the fords against him? They had a vast advantage of numbers, and could have put guards at every crossing and swarmed the Romans when they tried to get across.