03-08-2015, 10:07 PM
Quote:Possibly a hated Governor protected by a small army
It seems that the procurator, Decianus, was more the focus for native hatred (which makes it even more likely that Boudica and her main army would have gone to London, his headquarters, to find and execute him...) Paulinus, we are told, had spent two years fighting the Welsh tribes, and while he may have made trips to London or Colchester, he quite possibly spent much of his time with the army in Wroxeter etc, and so may have been unknown to the Iceni. Any links they might have had with the druids on Anglesey are conjectural, I think.
The more I think about this, the more I'm inclined to believe (again!) that a Roman withdrawal westwards from London would be the most sensible option. But there's always Paulinus's military cleverness, and the possibility of outflanking - he had to position his army somewhere that the Britons had to fight him. Retreating ahead of them would have posed them no threat. Hanging on their flank, threatening their scouts and supply lines, potentially blocking their route home, might have been a more strategic option... But I'm circling over old ground again here!
Quote:Stonea Camp would have been in the middle of the Wash
Yes, good point. There would surely have been trackway across the fens, so it wasn't an impassible marsh or inlet of the sea. Perhaps the later reprisal campaigns were conducted against rebels hiding out in the fenlands, like Hereward the Wake...?
Nathan Ross