11-05-2014, 10:19 PM
thanks for taking the bait after such a long time, I really appreciate it, very charitable.
Nathan wrote;
"If Boudica and her army, which included large numbers of carts, were at point A (London, or St Albans)"
The only Point A we know of was Colchester. London and St Albans need not have been a full horde or even a quarter horde. I doubt it was scorched earth in London and St Albans on the Roman part but maybe one could go that far to make the point.
Since the Romans had constructed a good road, Watling Street,
How good was it at the time? great in plan but a bit rubbish in terms of ups and downs for your ox cart, and particularly useless if most of you were never in London or St Albans. Relying on brand new/incomplete but securely watched enemy infrastructure surely not agood idea. Had the folkways/navigation really been abandoned 15 year into the occupation?
I see no reason why Boudica and her people would not use it
unless they were in Colchester and Thetford at the time, in which case it would be entirely irrelevant.
but I do not consider that the two or three days needed to get from London to Dunstable presents any logistical difficulties
me either, but what about 4-5 days to Mancetter? where is the break point? maybe the Nene or the Ouse from where they could float back home?
"Nor would it be a 'parade' of any sort!"
Men, women & children in the biggest festival of their day, buoyed by victory and a fair bit of wine, not to mention the freshly pillaged fancy dress. Sure the hard core wouldn't be parading but I imagine the baggage train, if it existed, was a bit of a carnival. carnival = parade? come on lets agree if it existed it was a parade... :wink:
"Did they just scatter in all directions"
I doubt that. I imagine the original units that hit Colchester were based on some kind of territorial or clan definition so returned home via their units told their dads, uncles, brothers, cousins, aunties etc of the walk over in Colchester and the fun the lads were probably having torching London and St Abans with no resistance. Then all made their way west to the rv close to where the roman force had been scouted. Most probably up the Nene and Ouse valleys as the Wash/Fens prohibited any mass move further north.
Roman cavalry have made mincemeat of them in the process
not if their heads were on sticks at Bartlow and their buddies were in full flight to Longthorpe and thence to the main roman muster somewhere up the Nene.
Dunstable remains my second preference, but on site it looked hard/impossible to guarantee the opponents couldn't take the ridge by simply moving east or west leaving any defending force in the defile in more of a trap than a secure position. Even if the romans held the pass they would have had to be able to defend it from either north or south as neither could effectively be "closed off at the rear by woods".
David I suspect the paper may answer some of your points, and others are unanswerable.
Nathan wrote;
"If Boudica and her army, which included large numbers of carts, were at point A (London, or St Albans)"
The only Point A we know of was Colchester. London and St Albans need not have been a full horde or even a quarter horde. I doubt it was scorched earth in London and St Albans on the Roman part but maybe one could go that far to make the point.
Since the Romans had constructed a good road, Watling Street,
How good was it at the time? great in plan but a bit rubbish in terms of ups and downs for your ox cart, and particularly useless if most of you were never in London or St Albans. Relying on brand new/incomplete but securely watched enemy infrastructure surely not agood idea. Had the folkways/navigation really been abandoned 15 year into the occupation?
I see no reason why Boudica and her people would not use it
unless they were in Colchester and Thetford at the time, in which case it would be entirely irrelevant.
but I do not consider that the two or three days needed to get from London to Dunstable presents any logistical difficulties
me either, but what about 4-5 days to Mancetter? where is the break point? maybe the Nene or the Ouse from where they could float back home?
"Nor would it be a 'parade' of any sort!"
Men, women & children in the biggest festival of their day, buoyed by victory and a fair bit of wine, not to mention the freshly pillaged fancy dress. Sure the hard core wouldn't be parading but I imagine the baggage train, if it existed, was a bit of a carnival. carnival = parade? come on lets agree if it existed it was a parade... :wink:
"Did they just scatter in all directions"
I doubt that. I imagine the original units that hit Colchester were based on some kind of territorial or clan definition so returned home via their units told their dads, uncles, brothers, cousins, aunties etc of the walk over in Colchester and the fun the lads were probably having torching London and St Abans with no resistance. Then all made their way west to the rv close to where the roman force had been scouted. Most probably up the Nene and Ouse valleys as the Wash/Fens prohibited any mass move further north.
Roman cavalry have made mincemeat of them in the process
not if their heads were on sticks at Bartlow and their buddies were in full flight to Longthorpe and thence to the main roman muster somewhere up the Nene.
Dunstable remains my second preference, but on site it looked hard/impossible to guarantee the opponents couldn't take the ridge by simply moving east or west leaving any defending force in the defile in more of a trap than a secure position. Even if the romans held the pass they would have had to be able to defend it from either north or south as neither could effectively be "closed off at the rear by woods".
David I suspect the paper may answer some of your points, and others are unanswerable.
