04-07-2023, 12:07 PM
The earlier discussion and Duncan MacKay's interpretation of the circumstances leading to the final battle are predicated on the rebels desire to return to their homeland. The route via the Icknield Way would apply to the Iceni but the Trinovantes and other tribes (if any) would presumably have to take different routes.
As I have argued previously, I consider this unlikely. If the object of the revolt was to drive the Romans out of the province, Boudica would need to maintain the momentum of her earlier successes in order to encourage other tribes to join the rebellion. If she simply returned home, the tribes might consider it to be merely a local affair that need not involve them. Moreover, in doing so, she would hand the initiative to the Romans. Suetonius would consolidate his forces and launch a massive retaliatory raid into Iceni territory. The cause would be lost.
Having destroyed the two Roman centres, the colony of Camoludunum and the major entrepot of Londinium, her next targets would probably be those tribes perceived to be pro-Roman, thereby inducing them to change their allegiance and persuading the tribes still sitting on the fence as to where their future interests lay. If the Catuvellauni fell into this category, as the making of their tribal capital of Verulamium into a municipium would seem to imply, the attack upon it could be seen as the first step in this process. As I have also suggested, her following targets could be the Dobunni, who never resisted the Romans, or the Atrebates, whose king Cogidubnus had remained steadfastly loyal up to the time when Tacitus was writing. This would take her west, not east.
Suetonius, if he had based himself in the area of Tring, could make a stand there or withdraw westwards to maintain a distance between himself and the advancing rebels. However, he might instead have moved northwards up the Icknield Way towards Ivinghoe, which could place him in that vicinity but only if there were a suitable defile there to match Tacitus' description. In such a case, Boudica could well have felt obliged to follow him, rather than leave a substantial Roman force threatening her rear.
As I have argued previously, I consider this unlikely. If the object of the revolt was to drive the Romans out of the province, Boudica would need to maintain the momentum of her earlier successes in order to encourage other tribes to join the rebellion. If she simply returned home, the tribes might consider it to be merely a local affair that need not involve them. Moreover, in doing so, she would hand the initiative to the Romans. Suetonius would consolidate his forces and launch a massive retaliatory raid into Iceni territory. The cause would be lost.
Having destroyed the two Roman centres, the colony of Camoludunum and the major entrepot of Londinium, her next targets would probably be those tribes perceived to be pro-Roman, thereby inducing them to change their allegiance and persuading the tribes still sitting on the fence as to where their future interests lay. If the Catuvellauni fell into this category, as the making of their tribal capital of Verulamium into a municipium would seem to imply, the attack upon it could be seen as the first step in this process. As I have also suggested, her following targets could be the Dobunni, who never resisted the Romans, or the Atrebates, whose king Cogidubnus had remained steadfastly loyal up to the time when Tacitus was writing. This would take her west, not east.
Suetonius, if he had based himself in the area of Tring, could make a stand there or withdraw westwards to maintain a distance between himself and the advancing rebels. However, he might instead have moved northwards up the Icknield Way towards Ivinghoe, which could place him in that vicinity but only if there were a suitable defile there to match Tacitus' description. In such a case, Boudica could well have felt obliged to follow him, rather than leave a substantial Roman force threatening her rear.
Michael King Macdona
And do as adversaries do in law, -
Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.
(The Taming of the Shrew: Act 1, Scene 2)
And do as adversaries do in law, -
Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.
(The Taming of the Shrew: Act 1, Scene 2)
