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Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.
Quote:I was wondering if perhaps anyone has a view on whether there were two armies working in concert, with the Iceni and the Trinovantes destroying the forts early in the campaign (perhaps as a practice run against the Romans), the Trinovantes destroying a virtually undefended Colchester and the Iceni then ambushing and destroying a depleted Ninth Legion.

That's what I think is the most likely configuration of the tribes. The Iceni clobbering the 9th somewhere east of Watling Street and north of Suetonius' then position, might help explain why he marched on to London (with his full army), i.e. he had to go south because the Iceni could cut his northern retreat route. The Iceni then followed him to London and destroyed St. Albans as they passed. Then with the Iceni north of London and the Trinovantes approaching from the east the only routes of retreat left to S. are south or west.

Quote:The other point that I have difficulty with is the concept that the Brythons would have advanced on London when they must have known that Seutonius Paulinus would try to bring them to battle in the typical Roman style, leaving their homelands undefended.
Suetonius' original 'enclosing' plan failed - 9th destroyed, 2nd disobeying orders - therefore the Brits had to destroy the one remaining army in the field. The Brits cannot sit and wait in their homeland for the Romans to regroup (which might have taken until the following year), they had to chase and destroy S. The minor forts are of no consequence, a dangerous strategic distraction. It seems to me that we all have difficulty fully appreciating the death struggle that the uprising represents - it is 'total war', similar to that in the Soviets in WWII. Whichever side loses will be annihilated (warriors, Legionaries, wives, followers, sons and others enslaved). The leaders on either side viscerally understood that. The Brit leaders must drive their horde(s) to catch and destroy S. and then push westwards into the military zone hoping that a general uprising then takes place and the Ordovices etc. join in destroying the remaining Roman forces in the western fortresses.


Quote:What they would not have allowed for was the Romans retreating.
Possibly not allowed for but that is what happened - you could almost conclude that the Brits early success drove them to their own destruction. That is, if S. had managed to bring together all his units in the east then the Brits might have been capable of a second Teutoberg, on prepared ground, somewhere in East Anglia, Cambridgeshire or Essex. Maybe that was the Brit Plan A but it didn't transpire and they had to implement Plan B, follow and destroy S.

John1, you list Silchester as a contender for the battle site but, unless you are thinking of the fiction author 'who shall not be named', I don't know anyone who supports that idea. Now, if you had written, 'somewhere west of Silchester' .......

By the way, I attended the Silchester Open Day yesterday and got into conversation with one chap on a display. He confirmed what I think you all know but it's worth restating:
1) all buildings at a chronostratigraphic level 55-80AD destroyed/burnt
2) wells destroyed/in-filled at the same level
3) 10 year hiatus of rebuilding after the destruction and then along a new alignment.

I'm hoping Prof. Fulford is going to write a third Britannia monograph covering this period. I have a horrible feeling that Insular IX won't supply any further evidence to tighten that date range and we may have to wait some years for another area to be opened-up and excavated.

And, John, 'get thee behind me Satan' and stop teasing me with the temptation to name my favourite site. In anycase, I don't have one.

WARNING: Self-publicising about to start!
Deryk, Cunetio is a very good candidate - number 10 in my list of 118 possible battle sites. Much of the Kennet valley is of candidate material and I had to try hard to limit the number of possible sites there by thinking that S., with the spare time he had available while waiting for the Brit horde, would have chosen the best-of-the-best. By the way, Wessex Archaeology have now published their report on the Time Team Cunetio excavations in 2009 - available here.

Nathan, your comments on the worth of Tacitus are spot on and thanks for the dating (60 or 61 argument).

Regards, Steve Kaye
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Messages In This Thread
Re: Calling all armchair generals! - by Ensifer - 03-11-2010, 03:13 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-18-2012, 06:26 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-19-2012, 12:02 AM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-19-2012, 02:50 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-19-2012, 05:40 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-19-2012, 11:26 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-24-2012, 05:11 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-24-2012, 09:42 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-24-2012, 10:10 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-25-2012, 03:11 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-25-2012, 03:25 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-25-2012, 08:36 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-26-2012, 02:57 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-27-2012, 01:50 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 08-05-2012, 02:24 PM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-07-2014, 02:18 PM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-08-2014, 01:50 AM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-11-2014, 02:03 AM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-18-2014, 07:54 AM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-20-2014, 02:37 AM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-25-2014, 08:29 AM

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