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Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.
Quote:
Renatus post=311397 Wrote:How, however, could Paulinus guarantee that Boudica would return home when no crops had been planted and her people would have to face the winter without food?
Autumn planting season? Unless we assume that the Iceni intended to abandon their lands and let them lie fallow all year, they would have to return at some point in late summer to sow crops and vegetables for the winter. Denied the suppies they were expecting in London, this would have been a pressing issue!
I don't know enough about ancient agriculture to say whether or not crops suitable for autumn planting were available at that time or not but, even assuming that they were, the impression given by Tacitus is that the Iceni simply went on the rampage without any thought of husbandry, relying upon seizing what they wanted when and where they could. I note the time-scale that you posted earlier but the impression that I have is that this all happened well on into the year and the time for any autumn planting may have passed. I still think that Boudica's strategy (if she even had one) would have been to raid the territory of the Atrebates for supplies, if necessary.

Quote:
Renatus post=311397 Wrote:Paulinus could ensure that, in travelling north himself, he did not get too far ahead of Boudica's band, so that, if she made an unexpected change of direction, he would be able to give chase and overhaul her slower-moving column.
I agree. Besides which, Boudica could only advance westwards at the risk of putting her force between two Roman legions - II Augusta somewhere ahead and Paulinus to the north, ready to fall on the British rearguard. Not a pleasant situation for the leader of a tribal horde. Paulinus being 'skillful', perhaps?
This seems to suggest that Paulinus induced Boudica to follow him by threatening her rear. I doubt whether this would have had that effect. So far as the Britons were concerned, they had no cause to worry: they had overwhelming numerical superiority, everything had gone their way so far and they had trounced the legion that that had sought to challenge them. They would have been confident of dealing with anything the Romans threw against them, from whatever direction.

Quote:Another point - Dio says that Paulinus was running short of supplies himself. How could this be if he was marching into the friendly agricultural territories to the west? He also made sure, in chosing his battle site, that he had no enemies to his rear - not a consideration if he was in allied territory. These points only make sense if he had withdrawn north, into the disputed and potentially hostile land beyond St Albans...
Dio's comment about supplies need only mean that the food that the Romans carried with them was running out. Given time, Paulinus may well have been able to negotiate with friendly local tribesmen for supplies but time was one thing he did not have. Furthermore, he could not risk alienating another tribe by foraging in their territory. Tacitus speaks of his choosing a battle-site with a forest at his rear, so that he would only have to face an enemy to his front, but this, I suggest, means no more than that he wanted to ensure that none of Boudica's force circled around and attacked him from behind, not that there was a threat from hostile locals.

The weakness of the case that I have made for the northern route is that it postulates that Paulinus was luring Boudica into a trap on a strategic, as opposed to a tactical, level. The sources indicate the contrary, that he was forced into battle against his will by lack of supplies and the proximity of the enemy (Dio) or that he had decided, for whatever reason, that he could delay no longer (Tacitus). If he had taken the western route, this could mean (as suggested in an earlier post) that he had given up waiting for legio II to join him or, if he had taken the northern route, that he had summoned forces from North Wales but they were taking too long to arrive. Neither of the sources make this last point and it is stretching the evidence too far to place any reliance upon such a suggestion.

It is implicit in all this that I still favour the theory that both Paulinus and Boudica, for their separate reasons, were moving west, not north.
Michael King Macdona

And do as adversaries do in law, -
Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.
(The Taming of the Shrew: Act 1, Scene 2)
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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 Renatus - 04-24-2012, 10:09 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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