Boudica
British sympathy for Roman imperial progress evaporated when officials began asset-stripping the country.
60
Roman Britain 43-410
British sympathy for Roman imperial progress evaporated when officials began asset-stripping the country.
60
Roman Britain 43-410
In AD 60, corrupt Roman officialdom pushed the dowager queen of the Iceni, in what is now Norfolk, too far. But Britain’s military Governor, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, was far away in Anglesey (dealing, as he supposed, with the last British resistance) when he learnt of it.
These events follow on from The Battle of Ynys Mon.
WHEN Prasutagus, King of the Iceni and a good friend of Rome, died in AD 60, Catus Decianus, Procurator of Britain, confiscated his lands in lieu (he said) of debts, kicking off a fire sale that saw Roman army veterans from Camulodunum help themselves to the treasures of his palace, raping his daughters and flogging his widow, Queen Boudica.*
In a fury of vengeance, Boudica raised a revolt. Standing tall in her chariot, with her mass of waist-length red hair and colourful robes, she fell on Camulodunum, flattened the town, and crushed the Ninth Legion, before moving on to Londinium and Verulamium.
There her rebels slew and mutilated the inhabitants in an orgy of blood-letting dedicated to Andraste, goddess of victory.
Paulinus raced back from Anglesey, and despite being outnumbered, defeated Boudica somewhere along Watling Street.
The embittered queen died in mysterious circumstances; but both Paulinus and Decianus were relieved of their responsibilities, and Rome’s policy in Britain subsequently became more humble.
Camulodunum is now Colchester; other placenames in this story include Londinium (London) and Verulamium (St Albans). Watling Street is a Roman road leading diagonally across England from London to Shropshire.
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
What drove Boudica to revolt against the Romans?
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
A Roman legion was defeated by a woman. The Romans thought this shameful. They said she was unusually intelligent.