Who saw the new Boudicca doc ?

[Theodosius the Great]

Avete,

I just saw it on the History Channel, it's two hours long. Looks like more than one (British ?) reenactment group participated in the filming. One wore white tunics and the other, red. The producers exploited this to show the different Legions (IX, XX, XIV, etc..) - great idea ! (Though not original as you would know if you saw "Constantine and the Cross")

The Celts spoke in English while the Romans spoke Latin. The graphics weren't the most sophisticated, some scenes were pure animation while others were enchanced.

My qualms with the documentary are due to its pro-Boudiccan bias - very old school Victorian line of thinking. You know she "fought against slavery" and "for freedom" ?

(Like the Iceni didn't own slaves ? And "freedom" to wage war with the other tribes ?)

Then it tries to mitigate the fact that the Iceni were willing allies of Rome by portraying them as reluctant collaborators.

When it comes to Paulinus - he is fighting "for power" (more like "survival"). Then the program dehumanizes the Romans as "killing machines."

But Boudicca is a "great warrior" because she managed to savagely sack three defenseless towns and ambush one legion ? Why ? In the end, they all become worse off than they were before.

Like Spartacus, she fell into the trap of becoming greedy and cocky. When they both decide to take the Romans head on, reality hits the fan.

The actress playing Boudicca fights in hand-to-hand combat and she's beautiful :roll: . Pure speculation on both counts.

Very entertaining but a highly flawed docu-drama, IMO.

BTW, I know this jingoistic view of Boudicca is slowing dropping out of vogue among modern scholars.

[Conal]

So who asked Cladius to invade ? :roll:

[Andy De Cusati]

I saw the Boudicca documentary. I missed the first half hour but caught the rest.

I know nothing about the Boudiccan revolt so I watched it to learn the basics and it served its purpose. It did seem to have an anti-Roman slant to it but then Boudicca was the main subject so I guess they told the story more from her point of view.

Overall I enjoyed it.

Andy De Cusati

[Gaivs Antonivs Satvrninvs]

I,too,saw this recently.
I thought it was a good program and since it was about Boudicca,
the focus was on her.
While there may have been errors,overall I enjoyed it
simply because I have yet to see anything about her on tv.
Killing machine? Not the first time I've heard the Romans referred to in this manner,and it simply serves to imply that they were more highly trained professionally than their adversaries.
It seems the History Channel is listening to someone.They manage to
keep abreast of subjects we are discussing.
Did anyone take notice of the "experts" description of the Romans'
rotating fighting technique?We discussed this topic here in a very long thread just a few months ago.

[Andy De Cusati]

Yes. I remember the thread discussing rotation of ranks. I was surprised to see it in the documentary. What I took from that thread was that we really don't know how the Romans handled relief of the lead ranks. Perhaps they should not have used it in the documentary since the particulars are not known.

Andy De Cusati

[Gaivs Antonivs Satvrninvs]

Ave,
They seemed to have a pretty good idea of how it was done,though.
Each man in the front rank was actually fighting about 6 mins. before rotating to the rear,giving him a long while before engaging the enemy.
If the file was 8 men deep,each man had about 45 mins rest(unless,of course,the man in front was killed).
I read this in one of my reference books way back when.
Makes sense to me.
(ps. glad to see you're still around ).

[Andy De Cusati]

Thanks. I'm glad to still be around!

I guess you are right about the rank rotation. I think the thread refered to earlier was more on the signal used for rotation.

Doses anyone know of similar documentaries on the Boudicca revolt?

As I said in my first post on this thread I missed the first half hour. After Boudicca's husband died why was she beaten and her daughters ravished? I missed the part that explained all that as well.

Andy De Cusati

[Gaivs Antonivs Satvrninvs]

It seems the Roman governor was anxious to get his own control over the Icini and when her husband died that was excuse enough.Didn't work out as he planned,though,needless to say.
I don't know the "real" story.Not much datailed info.
I've read all I could find online and here,too.
Keep your eyes peeled in a couple of months as these things
always re-run.If you get HC-International watch there,too.
I'm always finding good Roman stuff there.
Caesar at Pharsalus was just on days ago.

[Gordak]

Next Airing: Sun Mar 26, 2006 1:00 PM

I havenet seen this one yet,

Anyone ever see the old reenact-omentary "Boudica Queen of the Iceni" done by a british film company, I beleive it was done in the early 90s, It was awesome, basically flawless, and I see footage from it used in other documentarys all the time.

-Similis

[Spedius]

Ave all.

I do apologise for "butting in" on your thread but I would like to draw your attention to the topic "Imperial Governor".

For a few dollars or pounds you can buy a book that will tell you all you need to know about the Boudiccan revolt of 60 AD.

Vale

M. Spedius Corbulo

PS. I too will be watching the History Channel at 1 pm on Sunday.

[ambrosius]

So who asked Cladius to invade ? :roll:

It might have been king Verica of the Atrebates, whose territory had
been invaded by the Catuvellauni (along with most of southern Britain).

Ambrosius