You Did What__ Mad Plans and Great Historical Disasters - Bill Fawcett [4]
Boudicca’s army moved southward, fighting and burning as it went. It met the Ninth Roman Legion outside of Longthorpe in Cambridgeshire, and killed every man but the mounted cavalry, who escaped to sound the alarm. Suetonius at last understood the seriousness of the situation. He rushed to defeat the druids and moved his two legions, the Fourteenth and the Twentieth, back toward Londinium.
In the meantime, Boudicca’s force was growing. It rolled over Londinium, burning it to the ground. As many Romans who could flee did, including Decianus, the agent for Londinium. They were wise to leave. Others who could not or would not flee almost all died. Historians claim as many as 70,000 Romans and Roman sympathizers were killed. Some contemporary accounts tell of atrocities committed by the rebel army out of anger and frustration. Neither women nor children were spared hideous deaths.
Once she had destroyed Londinium, Boudicca turned her force northward along Watling Street, the great Roman road that led northwest, in pursuit of Suetonius and his army, hoping to throw the Romans out of Britain once and for all. She had little choice but to try; word had spread of the revolt. Soon other legions would cross the channel to support the beleaguered governor. Other risings were taking place across Britain as news of Boudicca’s defeat of Camulodunum and Londinium became known. If she could defeat Suetonius now, the Romans might withdraw, putting aside Britain as too expensive a province to maintain, both in lives and in money.
The Iceni-led force, now over 100,000 strong, caught up with the Romans near the junction of Watling Street and the Fosse Way, east of the River Anker near Manduessedum. From the beginning it was a good choice of battlefield — for the Romans. They were perched on a wooded bluff cut by deep ravines, with more woods behind them, and a wide-open plain facing their enemies, who needed to cross the river to reach them. At the northwest end of the legions’ line was a military base that they could use for defense if necessary. Suetonius had time to wait for reinforcements from along the Fosse Way. Though they probably totaled fewer than 15,000 men, the Romans had time to organize themselves and wait for the juggernaut to descend.
Boudica was brave to the end. She is reported to have given her troops a pep talk, taunting them by saying, “Win the battle or perish; that is what I, a woman, will do; you men can live on in slavery if that is what you want.”
Unfortunately, perish they did. The disorganization of the enormous mob, some say numbering as many as 250,000 men, women, and children, caused them to get in one another’s way. Because of the crowding their long swords were useless. Those who were not killed by the volley of Roman javelins at the start of the battle were probably hacked to death by Roman short swords. The Iceni and Trinovantes were so convinced they would win that they allowed women and children to sit on carts around the battlefield like spectators at a ball game. Those helpless ones, too, were killed by the legionaries. Even pack animals were slaughtered. When the battle ended, 80,000 Britons were dead, but only 400 Romans.
Legend has Boudicca falling on her sword to avoid capture, but a historian of the time, Dio, claims that she poisoned herself. In any case, she was never taken prisoner by the Romans.
Today, no one recalls the names of the Roman agents who humiliated Boudicca and caused the bloody uprising, but a statue of the Iceni queen in her chariot stands in London to memorialize her struggle against the foreign invaders.
You Invited Whom?
When you have the most to lose, mistakes have a way of getting out of hand. And too often, even today, the politicians take the easy way out. But