Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.

[Nathan Ross]

I am interested to know if you have any similar 'circumstantial' reasons for thinking west was best.

Sure!

To be clear, both the sites I'm suggesting are very close to St Albans - 10-12 miles north west, on the Chilterns watershed. But here are a few reasons why Suetonius may not have withdrawn further:

1. St Albans is at the junction of Watling and Akeman Streets, the main reinforcement, supply and communication routes from Wales (via Wroxeter) and Usk/Exeter (via Cirencester) respectively. So Suetonius would want to hold his position there as long as possible, to keep these routes open. Withdrawing further in one direction or the other would risk losing contact with his reinforcements.

(I'm assuming that these reinforcements are gathering men as they march, so getting stronger the closer they get to the hostile areas. While there may have been scattered plundering bands and angry locals in the Midlands region, I doubt any would have risked a confrontation with several thousand Roman troops - any larger rebel groups would probably have joined Boudica's main army.)


2. Beyond the Chilterns, the Iknield Way is an important native trackway that would take the rebels back to their own homelands, or further south-west if they were so inclined. I doubt Suetonius would want to surrender control of this important route to the enemy.


3. By withdrawing further from the enemy, Suetonius would surrender the strategic advantage to them. I still believe he was using the classic 'Fabian' delay strategy - Tacitus, I think, uses the word cuncatio on purpose to alert his reader to the connection with Fabius Maximus 'Cunctator'. This strategy involves remaining close to the enemy, observing and harrassing them, shadowing and countering their movements.

If Suetonius withdrew into the Midlands he would lose all that. The Britons could do anything - march on Silchester, plunder the south coast ports, go home - and he would be able to do little to respond to them. He would be blind, and entrely at the mercy of the enemy's actions.


4. Whatever route he took, Suetonius had just marched from Wales down to London with his army. If that same army was then seen marching back towards Wales again, it would be very demoralising for the provincials, and a massive boost for the rebellion. Disaffected people all over central Britain would rise in revolt in the wake of Suetonius's apparent retreat. He would be giving the whole of the south east to Boudica.

A single day's march to St Albans and holding ground there, on the other hand, would not look so much like a retreat. Suetonius could keep the pressure on the rebels around London, counter their movements and deter any further risings in the Midlands too, while waiting for his reinforcements to join him.


There's so much that we don't know about the basics of all this that any real certainty is impossible. But that's what I currently consider to be most likely...

Although it's really just a precis of what I was thinking over ten years ago!