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| Boudica, continued |
| Boudica protested at her people being led away in chains, and was taken into custody herself. She was stripped, whipped in public, and her teenaged daughters raped. When they escaped or were released she sought help from the Trenovantes, a neighboring Celtic tribe. They and a number of other tribes pledged allegiance to her and massed under her leadership. Some sources say her name comes from Boudiga, which means 'victory' and was more than likely a title. According to Tacitus (author of one of two classical documents mentioning Boudica) she was a priestess of Andraste, a British goddess of war. She performed rites and divinations in the name of this goddess. War goddesses are common in Celtic belief, such as the Morrigan, the great crow who hovers over battles. |
| Click to read the Tacitus manuscript. It is rather long-winded, but fascinating, and it's where many of the known facts are drawn. |
| Click the dragon to go to the home page. |
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| Immediately she took the cities of Camulodunum (present-day Colchester) and Verulamium (present-day St. Albans). The Romans were not prepared, and Boudica took no prisoners. Everyone standing in their way were destroyed. As her armies travelled, they announced their intention as they did not intend to cut down fellow Celts. Still, some Roman sympathetic British caught remaining in these cities were slain along with the Romans. Colchester couldn't be properly defended because of its location and the fact that much time, effort, and money was put into building Roman temples and monuments. This caused much unrest among the natives, along with the increasingly poor treatment they were recieving by the Romans. After the fall of these two cities, Boudica marched toward Londinium, which was a prime merchant location as well. It was the financial capital and a large trading port. It was populated mostly by veterans who had been given land on which to settle down and retire. They weren't ready either, and word had been recieved of the fates of Colchester and Verulamium. |
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| The II Augusta Legion was called to move in to defend Londinium, but Poenius Postumus, the marshal, refused to march. He heard of the demise of the other legions, and even though he wasn't even a day's march from the city he would not march out. And so, the only one able to repel Boudica's forces was Seutonius Paullinus, a general and leader of the Valeria Legions. He had been sent up to Mona (now Anglesey) where there was a concentration of Druids and rebels who opposed Roman encroachment. As the soldiers approached they drew back at the sight. |
| Druid priests and priestesses rushed back and forth, shouting and singing. Their hair was dressed in lime, plastered and sticking out in all directions. The women brandished torches, wild-eyed, taunting the Romans. They had never witnessed such a display before, and were afraid and unsettled. Seutonius was no stranger to such sights and urged his men to engage them. He exclaimed that they were mostly women and savages, with no training or inclination to civilized warfare, and that they could be overcome. At last the men took heart and did overcome the Celts in Mona, leaving it in flames. The native contingent was almost completely wiped out there. Word had reached Seutonius Paullinus of the sacking of Camulodunum and Verulamium, but he did not hasten to London. He took time to regroup his men and possibly plan some sort of strategy. Queen Boudica's force was far greater than Paullinus's, and she burned Londinium to the ground. All the Roman veterans were slain, the statues thrown down, and everything put to the torch. When he heard the new. Posthumous committed suicide rather than be court-martialed. |
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| Above: statue of Boudica in London, revered as Britain's first patriot. |