Queen Boudica's Brutal Revolt Against Rome (60 AD)
5 Video Views·Dec 9, 2024
The Roman conquest of Celtic Britain is halted in 60 AD when Boudica, Queen of the Iceni tribe of Celtic Britain, leads a massive revolt against Roman occupation. From Roman Colchester to London, the rebels leave destruction in their wake, shaking the resolve of Emperor Nero, until the Britons face off against the mighty Roman legionaries at what would become known as the Battle of Watling Street.
Boudica is also often referred to as Boadicea or Boudicca
The Opera desktop browser with integrated message apps and AI feels like I'm using a
version of the internet from the future. Stick around and I'll explain more on that at the end
of the video. In the east of Britain lives a tribe called the Ekeni. Its people are found
in sloping villages or sparingly clustered along the edges of windswept pastures. Their
allegiance lies with their king, Prasatagus. War is an affliction as endemic to his land as any
other, and though it has sharpened the valor of his warriors, the marching columns and alien
banners that now cross the countryside carry a certain finality. Tribes have surrendered
without resistance and others humbled by the sword. The aging Prasatagus does not dare to
openly defy an empire that has conquered so much of the world. He proclaims that after his reign,
the kingdom will be ruled partly by the Romans and partly by his two daughters.
Yet the passing of the king is not followed by the exalted coronation of his progeny.
The Romans confiscate the land of Ekenian nobles and trespass on the estate of the dead king.
His daughters they violate, and his widow is dragged out, bound to a post, and flogged. Slumped
in a pool of her own blood, here is the queen of the Ekeni, Bodica. It was firstly Julius Caesar
who invaded Britain in 55 and 54 BC. The men of Rome emerged from the blue fog to scatter the
coastal tribes, but it was Claudius in 43 AD who began the conquest in earnest. The occupying
Romans widely take the preliterate people of Britain to be savages of a debased and ferocious
inclination, practitioners of arcane superstition that ought to be tamed by the roving vanguard of
Rome. The righteousness of this mission is no doubt lent credence by the grandeur of the
eternal city and its subject lands. Founded on the legend of Romulus and enlivened by stories
of the old gods, the city of Rome betrays a certain brilliance. One that has raised resplendent
monuments and aqueducts, and philosophers of ethics, logic, and nature, great artists, and
exceptional warriors. The violent conquest of other lands and enslavement of the vanquished
greatly contributes to this prosperity. The empire is now subject to the caprices of the young
emperor Nero. His representative in Britain is the governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus,
who at present finds himself on the isle of Mona crushing the stronghold of the druid priestly
class. And far away, the woman with the torn back, the queen Bodica, rises to rally her tribe.
In contrast to the Roman view, the tribes of Britain are complex, with existing cultural
and material connections to the continent, as well as old oral traditions and skill in
metalworking, pastoralism, and agriculture. Bodica knows that many other chieftains have
chosen surrender as a means of survival, whereby tribal hierarchies might be maintained under Roman
imperial authority. But the queen's distrust of the Romans is shared by another tribe,
called the Trinuantes. The tribe had traditionally occupied the city of Camulodunum, but the Romans
forced the inhabitants from the land, founding a fortress and now an extravagant Roman colony at
the site. And so the Trinuantes, together with the Achaene, march behind the queen Bodica.
The motives for this revolt may also include the financial strains of Roman overlordship,
heavy taxation, and mounting debts owed to Roman citizens. These and other elements
of the narrative remain ambiguous because knowledge of the revolt largely comes from
two ancient authors, Tacitus writing around the year 100 AD and Cassius Dio writing around 200.
Tacitus is almost certainly informed by eyewitness testimony, as his close father-in-law Agricola
served in Britain during the revolt and later became governor of the province.
And Dio appears to have had access to earlier accounts now lost to time.
Nevertheless, both writers have a tendency to fabricate speeches to make contemporary
political critiques of the Roman Empire. And to some extent, both depict the people of Britain
as a persecuted but nonetheless savage people. In any event, the very real wrath of Bodica and
the rebel army first reaches the tiled houses and elegant streets of Camulodunum.
The furious bleat of horns and battle shrieks engulfs the colony in a scene of pillage and
carnage. The town garrison and an ill-prepared Roman relief force of 200 fall back to the temple
of Claudius. For two days they hold out before the British warriors annihilate them. Dio writes
that the rebels mutilate and sacrifice the civilians they capture, raising festering rows
of skewered Roman women. The more colorful claims of sacrifice and sadism should be held with some
skepticism, but an enduring layer of ash, the detritus of a monumental colony, does indeed
suggest the total destruction of the town and those left in it. The Roman Ninth Legion marches
out to relieve the smoldering town, but the army of Bodica charges out to meet them, wiping out the
Roman infantry while the cavalry flees. The breaking of Roman rule is underway, but crossing
the island with haste is the governor, Suetonius. As he gallops into the modest Roman trade center
of Londinium, throngs of hysterical people plead for his protection, but he will not risk a final
battle here. Those willing and able to march escape with the army, while the elderly, meek,
and those otherwise stubbornly attached to their dwellings are left to die.
When the rebels come, they burn it down house by house. Tacitus records that the Roman town of
Werolamium also falls to the rebels, and Dio relates that in all, 80,000 of the Romans and
of their allies perished, and the island was lost to Rome. Moreover, all this ruin was brought upon
the Romans by a woman, a fact which in itself caused them the greatest shame. Suetonius cannot
delay any longer. He arrays 10,000 men at the edge of a deep wood, and there he beholds the flooding
of the plain. Wave by wave come the chanting warriors, beating their shields and spears and
swords, ricketing forth in chariots. Tens of thousands of them have come at last to banish
the power of Rome, to fight for the defiant queen Bodica. Behind the tribesmen is a line
of wagons from which their wives, convinced of victory, have come to watch. Suetonius goes before
his troops. According to Dio, he reminds them that they are Romans, favored by the gods, rulers of the
world. He reminds them of the crimes of the rebels, the charred cities, and slain countrymen,
and he assures them that surrender now will not be answered with mercy.
It would be better for us to fall fighting bravely than to be captured and impaled,
to look upon our own entrails cut from our bodies. Let us therefore either conquer them
or die on the spot. Britain will be a noble monument for us, even though all the other
Romans here should be driven out, for in any case our bodies shall forever possess this land.
Bodica rides in a chariot before her own ranks. She decries the cowardice and the rapacity of
Romans, and Tacitus writes that she commands her warriors to take their just revenge.
It is not as a woman descended from noble ancestry, but as one of the people that I
am avenging lost freedom, my scourged body, the outraged chastity of my daughters.
Roman lust has gone so far that not our very persons, nor even age or virginity, are left unpolluted.
With a terrible din of battle cries, the two armies clash.
Javelins sink into torsos, chariots splinter, and swords pierce flesh.
The Roman wedge formation cracks the rebel line, and fighting erupts all around.
Shields and blades, blood and dead stares carpet the plain. The rebels turn to flee.
Impeded by the line of wagons, they are chased and killed by the thousands.
Tacitus writes, the Roman troops gave no quarter even to the women.
The baggage animals themselves had been speared and added to the pile of bodies.
The surviving rebels, Bodica among them, manage to escape, lying low with intentions to renew the
revolt, but their numbers are failing, as is the strength of Bodica. The rebel queen perishes,
either by ingesting poison or succumbing to injury or disease. The Britons mourned her
deeply and gave her a costly burial, but feeling that now at last they were really defeated,
they scattered to their homes. Suetonius widely punishes the inhabitants of Britain
and hunts for remnants of dissent. Emperor Nero responds by replacing him with a more
peaceable governor, not out of mercy, but for fear that persecution might reignite the flame
of rebellion. In the heartland, however, Nero soon faces another heresy that defies the authority
of the empire. It's thought that Nero accuses these dissidents of starting the great fire of Rome.
And Tacitus writes, Nero punished with the utmost refinements of cruelty a class of men loathed for
their vices, whom the crowd styled Christians. Christus, the founder of the name, had undergone
the death penalty in the reign of Tiberius by sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilatus, and
the pernicious superstition was checked for a moment, only to break out once more, not merely
in Judea, the home of the disease, but in the capital itself. The confessed members of the sect
were arrested, vast numbers were convicted, and they were covered with wild beast skins and torn
to death by dogs. They were fastened on crosses, and when daylight failed, were burned to serve
as lamps by night. Nero had offered his gardens for the spectacle. Subjugation and conquest are
not merely the habits of Nero, but persistent features of the empire itself. With the revolt
in Britain crushed, the Romans will rebuild Londinium into a sprawling capital and construct
a town on old Icani lands. The Roman hold on Britain survives the death of Nero, and lasts
for three centuries more. Bodica becomes a distant image, a veiled impression forgotten by many.
To be redrawn centuries later, embellished in annals, poems, and plays from the medieval period
and onward. British audiences see in her a barbaric butcher, an ancestral shame, or a patriot, an
exemplar of female fortitude. She's cast sometimes as a figure of anti-imperialism, and elsewhere as
the martyred godmother of the British empire. And just so it had been in the time of the Romans,
that the portrait of this ancient woman of the Icani tribe appeared not in detailed relief,
but often as a reflection of those who would hear and tell her tale.
I'm always falling into rabbit holes about ancient Britain or Aztecs or whatever random
thing is on my mind. And in the last few days, I feel like I've already saved so much time using
the Opera desktop browser. It's the first browser to go live with integrated generative AI tools.
ChatGPT is literally built into the sidebar. So if I come across an article about an archaeology
find, but I'm short on time, I can just grab the main idea. Part of why Opera feels so comfortable
to use right away is that it can instantly sync all your bookmarks and passwords from your old
browser. And lots of the services I already use come built in. There's a free VPN and an ad blocker.
Then you can top it off by customizing the look with really aesthetically pleasing wallpapers.
And finally, I can't stand having tons of windows full of vaguely related tabs open.
And thankfully Opera's pinboard feature allows me to group links, pictures and notes together
and come back to them and even share them. I've actually compiled my favorite art and
quotes from the Mongols in one spot, and I'll link it down below for you to explore.
Just click the link in the description and remember to check out Opera today.