Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.

[Nathan Ross]

You have troops galloping up and down Watling Street

Certainly not. I would suggest that no galloping took place...

We have Paulinus beginning the campaign in Anglesey, and Boudica in Colchester. He gets to London before her - how? (it was an attempt to answer this question that led to the creation of the 'cavalry dash' idea by Professor F Haverfield in c.1913)

So Paulinus needs to get to London (probably at a speed of c.20 miles per day by road: Roman standard, following Vegetius - no galloping required), and then leave London again, before Boudica gets there. That's time constraint 1.

Once he's done so, the final battle needs to be concluded with enough of the summer remaining for messages and orders to pass between Britain, Rome and the Rhine, reinforcements to come from the Rhine and an imperial investigation mission to travel from Rome to Britain and back. All before the end of the sailing season in the autumn. That's time constraint 2. And Paulinus has to fight his battle before reinforcements from North Wales could reach his new position too.

Try working out the movement times and distances and you'll see that the active campaigning period has to be very brief, if we are to make sense of the sources, which simply do not allow for anything longer than that.

But perhaps if you could give us some idea of the timespan you have in mind it might help the discussion?