01-11-2016, 01:06 AM
(01-11-2016, 12:35 AM)John1 Wrote: Location and topography, it's that geography thing again
But without Tacitus's narrative (which tells us that the rebels threatened London after Colchester, causing Paulinus to withdraw, and (probably) thereafter attacked St Albans, giving us some sort of coordinates for our hypotheses) then we have little idea of the location at all.
And without Tacitus's description of the battle site it would be pointless to try and identify it. No defiles or plains, no wagons - nothing. We may as well assume that there was no final battle, or that it happened just outside London, or even at Colchester. Or in Thetford for that matter.
So both location and topography rely almost entirely on our written sources. You cannot have the one without the other.
Nathan Ross