Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.

[Nathan Ross]

I missed the new text that must have become available with Catus heading to St.Albans ...

Catus Decianus had sent the only troops he had with him to Colchester, where they were wiped out. He had not a single soldier remaining, and so had little choice but to flee to Gaul.

Suetonius Paulinus, on the other hand, had a fully equipped Roman expeditionary force of c.5000 men with him, with cavalry and scouts, when he arrived in London. He was several days ahead of Boudica's advance and had the strategic advantage. His force could move at 16-18 miles a day - 22 at full pace if required - and he knew that additional troops from North Wales and the Welsh frontier would be able to reinforce him provided he maintained his lines of communication along Watling Street and Akeman Street.

That is what he did, and that is why the battle was fought in the vicinity of St Albans, and that is why St Albans is the only place Tacitus mentions besides Colchester and London.

The Thames was defended as far as Goring ...

By whom? Suetonius's 'cavalry bodyguard'? Or his 2-mile-per-day infantry? Hmm.... Not likely!

I could argue using "Pharsalus" defence: where we know there was a sizeable Roman battle and where, but no artefacts have been.

Or Cannae. Or the vast majority of battle sites from the ancient and medieval era, which have turned up not the slightest scrap of surviving evidence.

there are good sites where artefacts have been found which I think have more credibility.

That at least is certainly true!