Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.

[Nathan Ross]

In terms of the terrain analysis ...I'm wondering if the selection criteria are too exclusionary.

This is always going to be a problem. Our only source for the lie of tha land, of course, is Tacitus - who wasn't there. We must assume that the battle was described to him by an eye-witness (Agricola?) - but that would have been twenty or more years later...

We might imagine the conversation:

Agricola: Now then, let me show you the position... Old Suetonius was up here, where I've placed the salt shaker, and on either side there were trees - I'll put the broccoli along there to mark it out... And our line was drawn up in this defile between, just here, where I've placed these asparagus stalks. See what I mean?

Tacitus: Oh yes! (scratches on wax tablet - trees, defile)

Agricola: Now, the Brits... well, they were all over the table, I mean the plain, just here. I'll sprinkle these snail shells about to represent them. Right! So on they come - right against our line - we charge forward in the old wedge... and BLAM BLAM BLAM! As you can see, smashed snail shells all over the shop!

Tacitus: Very clear, father-in-law. Fancy another bowl of wine?

And so on... Also - what might look like a wooded defile to a footsore Roman soldier at ground level might appear to us today, after de- or re- forestation, and with the benefit of aerial views and accurate terrain mapping, as a mere undulation in the fields...