Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.

[Nathan Ross]

I see the commander of the small military force in the colony sending out riders to seek aid... Cerialis may have set out immediately to nip the revolt in the bud

Possibly, yes, although all of this has to go in the 'things we don't know' pile!

Tacitus only mentions the colonists informing Catus Decianus. Presumably he would then have informed Paulinus, and perhaps Cerialis too if he was elsewhere. There might have been a chain of command problem with the colonists writing to Cerialis directly? Would Cerialis even have been able to act without orders from Paulinus?

T later stresses 'with what a serious warning the rashness (temeritas) of Petilius had been punished', which implies he was acting on his own initiative. But this might just mean he pressed on too fast with the vanguard and left himself without support, or failed to take proper precautions when advancing into enemy territory. (Or, of course, Tacitus could simply be developing his implied link between Suetonius Paulinus and Fabius Maximus 'Cunctator', with Cerialis cast in the role of Minucius...)

As for Lincoln - it seems the current thinking is that it was already a legion base by c.AD61. Although, like so much we've been discussing, the dispositions and strengths of various legions at the time of the revolt are still very cloudy!