Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.

[MonsGraupius]

Goodness me!  This discussion has moved on apace while I was involved in events surrounding the Lying At Rest of Queen Elizabeth in Edinburgh. 

The distances from London to these sites are not great and there are several good military reasons for going there:
- Fighting in a town (London) is difficult to control and in very manpower intensive - he has too few troops to do so.
- He lacks the forces to fight Boudica's horde in the open
- His troops are tired and probably a bit demoralised - morale up after victory, morale falling as (possibly exaggerated) reports of massacres come in
- His main reinforcements are to the west and north
- His war supplies from the Mona campaign are also northwest
- The tribes immediately north and east are hostile and out for Roman Blood
- The tribes south are relatively friendly
- The possibly unsettled tribes west and northwest are not openly hostile and a Roman army marching through may show the flag (eagle) enough to calm them a bit
- Allowing London to fall undefended will gain him time while the tribal forces loot, pillage, destroy, rape, torture, sacrifice and generally celebrate for a few days before control is re-established.  He may also hope that a significant portion will go home with their loot.
- The Emperor does not like two armies wiped out in his morning report!

Tacitus tells us that Suetonius was looking for a "seat of war" (Uncertain whether he should choose [London] as a seat of war", we are also told that he decided to "he prepared to break off delay and fight a battle". So, not only is he preparing, he has been delaying. So, all talk of a sudden move to battle with "tired troops" does not fit what we are told. There was a delay at the place Suetonius took as his "seat for war". And we are also told: "[he] remembered with what a serious warning the rashness of Petilius had been punished,". Suetonius does not rashly rush to battle.

Given the Thames is an obvious defensive barrier, making a moat, where one of the few drawbridges across it is London bridge, it beggars military logic, for a general seeking a "seat of war" where he intends to "delay", to "prepare", that Suetonius would not retreat over Thames and pull up the draw bridge to allow himself to prepare.

That means there is plenty of time for his troops to recover and for his forces to gather together. An obvious place to pick as a seat of war, is Silchester, where Suetonius can defend the vulnerable west flank of his defensive line. From here, he then advances, and the list of sites are those that someone else picked using computer software as fitting the description.

So where does that leave him?  I have looked at a couple of road maps online bearing in mind that we are less than 20 years since the Claudian invasion.  I see him as having already ordered a muster at some point, maybe round Luton? 

London, St.Albans and Colchester have either fallen into Boudican hands or been left to do so. The area between Lincoln and Norfolk is also captured (after the defeat of the ninth). We are told there are hostiles on the way down, presumably along Watling Street so Watling Street is being harassed or in enemy hands. Where does Suetonius set up his supply lines in Luton?

Remember, if Boudica holds London, she also holds all the lower crossing points of the Thames, and any landing places and ports. There is a long stretch up to Goring with almost no suggested historic fords, and indeed Wallingford was seen as the first fordable point in Anglo Saxon times. That implies the only place Suetonius could get supplies over the Thames is upstream from Goring.

Luton is far too isolated to pick as a "seat of war" in which to "delay" and "prepare" for battle.