Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.

[Renatus]

I would assume that he principally took Roman citizens with him. Loss of citizen lives, especially after the fall of Colchester, would blacken his reputation much more than the loss of a flimsy little trading settlement or two...

I'm not sure about the "flimsy little trading settlement" but I certainly agree with you about the citizens.

Actually, if P was after reinforcements, surely finding a safe central location and staying there waiting for them to come to him would be preferable to heading off across the map looking for them? We've already discussed the difficulties of long-distance coordination...

I'm not suggesting that Paulinus was wandering about, hoping to bump into his reinforcements one day. He would have stipulated a rendezvous where everyone was to assemble. There are a few possibilities. He might not have reached it himself before being forced to give battle; he might have had one or more places in mind but kept being forced further and further on by the advancing rebels; or (and I suspect that Deryk might argue this for his site at Cunetio, given what he says of its communications) he had arrived at the rendezvous but the rebels kept on coming, so that what he had intended to be an assembly point became a battle ground. On co-ordination, I imagine that there would be a constant stream of dispatch riders passing to and fro, so he had a pretty good idea where his reinforcements were and how likely it was that they would arrive in time to support him.


Just to throw a further spanner in the works, another scenario occurred to me as I was preparing my summary. I have not thought it through thoroughly, so I don't know if it would work and I'm certainly not going to the barricades over it. However, I offer it for consideration.

Paulinus expected that sacrificing London would satisfy the rebels and that, after sacking it, they would return home with their plunder. Accordingly, he took the civilians to Verulamium, the nearest substantial Roman settlement, and then continued along Akeman Street towards the military zone in the west to rally his troops. Unfortunately for the civilians, Verulamium was the rebels' next target after London. Having attacked and plundered the municipium, the rebels themselves set off along Akeman Street, aiming for the territory of the Dobunni. Is there a site between St Albans and Cirencester that would match Tacitus' description?

I can see a couple of weaknesses. First, the Romans had a substantial military presence across the Severn in South Wales, so the rebels would be heading straight for an area of Roman military activity: into the lion's jaws, you might say. However, their tails were up: they had sacked three towns without effective opposition, they had defeated one legion and had another on the run. They probably thought that they were invincible. Secondly, why would they go for the Dobunni? Corinium was not yet founded, so there was no Roman settlement to plunder. However, the Dobunni had surrendered to the Romans without resistance and may have prospered as a consequence. They may, therefore, have opposed the rebellion, although this is pure speculation. Generally, they were a tribe friendly to the Romans that deserved a good kicking.

Anyway, that is the suggestion. What do you think?