Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.

[Nathan Ross]

This is a novel way of locating the battlefield.

Hi Martyn - I've now read your whole piece (thanks for removing the caps!), and I congratulate you on a thorough and detailed presentation. I too think Alchester played a part in this campaign, although more as a potential last resort for Paulinus than a battle location, and that Akeman Street was important too.

Several people here have attempted reconstructions of the campaign, leading to a proposed battle site, based on logistics, march speed and distance, chronology, even seasons and timing of messages to Rome and reinforcements to Britain. It does seem the best way of doing it - precisely such a consideration led to Webster's (faulty, I think) identification of Mancetter as the site.

One thing that any strategist or general must do is pay very close attention to available intelligence. In our case this is difficult, as we have only one dubious report (Tacitus) partly corroborated and partly contradicted by an even more dubious one (Dio). In the circumstances, with so much information missing or unclear, I would not say that we can be certain about any of this. All we can do is make guesses.

With regards to Tacitus's intelligence, though, it seem to me that you have changed the order of events quite dramatically, and I do not know why. Your ordering, upon which you base your campaign chronology, appears to be as follows:

1. Iceni turn on Roman moneylenders and Catus Decianus flees to Gaul.

2. People at Colchester ask for help and are sent 200 men (by whom though?).

3. Cerealis and IX Hispana march from Longthorpe and are ambushed and destroyed.

4. Paulinus launches his attack on Anglesey.

5. Colchester is sacked by the rebels.

6. Paulinus learns of the revolt, breaks off his operations in Wales, and rushes down to London.

The rest of the movements and counter-movements proceed from there.


However, Tacitus's text (all we have to go on for this stage of the revolt) puts these events in a different order:

1. Iceni discontent, threats to Colchester, Catus Decianus sends 200 men from London.

2. Paulinus completes his conquest of Anglesey, hears of trouble with the Iceni, and marches immediately.

3. Iceni attack and besiege Colchester. The city falls after three days. Decianus, hearing of this, flees to Gaul.

4. Cerealis, marching to relieve the city, is defeated and flees with his cavalry.

5. Paulinus, having marched south, arrives at London.

6. He evacuates London, falls back to an undisclosed location, and some time later fights his battle


Placed in that order, then, how do these events alter your estimated chronology?

(also, Tacitus tells us that Paulinus had 'nearly 10,000 men' at the battle - i.e. fewer than ten thousand. You have expanded this to 'anywhere from 10,000 to 15.000', which seems a considerable overestimate. I'm guessing this is because your 'faux' is 1.25kms wide?)

One point I did make is the ground is all - the ground is everything. The 2 locations I stated by Bicester match all the historical criteria.

One thing we've learned over the many years of this thread is that any number of locations can be made to fit Tacitus's criteria! They are notoriously inexact, impossible to measure and very difficult to compare with any degree of accuracy. On the face of it, a location in high or hilly ground seems most obvious - that would make the line of the Chilterns the most suitable field for investigation, I believe.