Download Celtic War Queen Who Challenged Rome

Article 13
Celtic War Queen
Who Challenged Rome
It was easy for Emperor Nero to dismiss a woman from a
barbarian tribe in faraway Britannia. But when Boudica and her
warriors decimated a legion, Rome took her seriously.
By Margaret Donsbach
S
For the next 97 years, no Roman military force set foot
on British soil. The Iceni watched as their southern
neighbors, the Catuvellauni, grew rich from exporting
grain, cattle and hides, iron and precious metals, slaves
and hunting dogs to Rome. From Rome, they imported
luxury goods such as wine and olive oil, fine Italian pottery, and silver and bronze drinking cups, and they
minted huge numbers of gold coins at their capital, Camulodunum.
A century of Roman emperors came and went. Then,
in 41 Claudius (Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus) rose
to the imperial purple. There were many practical reasons
why he might have thought it useful to add Britannia to
the empire, one being that the island was an important
source of grain and other supplies needed in quantity by
the Roman army. Stories abounded about the mineral
wealth there. Outbreaks of unrest in Gaul were stirred
up—so the Romans believed—by druid agitators from
Britannia.
The most compelling reason for Claudius, however,
was political. Born with a limp and a stutter, he had
once been regarded as a fool and kept out of public
view—although those handicaps were largely responsible for his survival amid the intrigue and murder that
befell many members of his noble family. Now the emperor desperately needed a prestige boost of the sort
that, in Rome, could be provided only by an important
military victory. So when the chief of a minor British
tribe turned up in Rome, complaining that he had been
deposed and asking the emperor to restore his rule,
Claudius must have thought it the perfect excuse to
launch an invasion.
HE SLAUGHTERED A ROMAN ARMY. She
torched Londinium, leaving a charred layer almost half a
meter thick that can still be traced under modern London.
According to the Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus, her
army killed as many as 70,000 civilians in Londinium,
Verulamium and Camulodunum, rushing “to cut throats,
hang, burn, and crucify.” Who was she? Why was she so
angry?
Most of Boudica’s life is shrouded in mystery. She was
born around AD 25 to a royal family in Celtic Britain, and
as a young woman she married Prasutagus, who later became king (a term adopted by the Celts, but as practiced
by them, more of an elected chief) of the Iceni tribe. They
had two daughters, probably born during the few years
immediately after the Roman conquest in AD 43. She may
have been Iceni herself, a cousin of Prasutagus, and she
may have had druidic training. Even the color of her hair
is mysterious. Another Roman historian, Cassius Dio—
who wrote long after she died—described it with a word
translators have rendered as fair, tawny, and even flaming red, though Dio probably intended his audience to
picture it as golden-blonde with perhaps a reddish tinge.
Her name meant “victory.”
Boudica’s people once welcomed the Romans. Nearly
100 years earlier, when Gaius Julius Caesar made the
first Roman foray into Britannia in 55 and 54 BC, the Iceni
were among six tribes that offered him their allegiance.
But this greatest of all Roman generals was unable to
cope with either the power of the coastal tides or the
guerrilla tactics of the other Britons who fought him. After negotiating a pro forma surrender and payment of
tribute, Caesar departed.
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Article 13. Celtic War Queen Who Challenged Rome
Boudica’s husband, Prasutagus, was
probably established as a client-king of
the Iceni by Britannia’s Roman
governor, Ostorius Scapula. After
Prasutagus’ death, Rome’s oppressive
rule ultimately drove her to war.
Two years later, in 49, Ostorius confiscated land in and
around Camulodunum to set up a colonia. This was a
town for retired legionaries, in which each veteran was
granted a homestead. The town gave the veterans a secure retirement and concentrated an experienced reserve
force in the new province, on which Rome could call in
case of emergency. In theory, it was supposed to provide
a model of Roman civilization to which the natives might
aspire. Unfortunately, the colonia at Camulodunum
caused more problems than it solved. As it grew over the
next decade, more and more Britons were driven off their
land, some enslaved by the veterans, others executed and
their heads exhibited on stakes.
The Iceni had once avoided trade with Rome, while the
Catuvellauni grew rich from it. Now, the Iceni submitted,
while the former king of the Catuvellauni fought Rome,
and his people suffered the consequences. Ostorius finally defeated Caractacus in 51 and captured him in 52.
That same year, Ostorius died. Rome replaced him with
Didius Gallus, who provoked no internal rebellions,
though the unconquered western tribes continued to
fight.
Emperor Claudius was poisoned in 54, and Nero (Nero
Claudius Drusus Germanicus) succeeded him. Perhaps to
deflect the suspicion that he had been involved in his uncle’s murder, Nero elevated Claudius to the status of a
god and ordered a temple to him built at Camulodunum.
Now the British chieftains would be obliged not only to
worship once a year at the altar of the man who had invaded and occupied their lands, but also to finance the
building of the extravagant and costly temple.
Rome further pressed British patience by calling for the
repayment of money given or loaned to the tribes. It is
possible that Antedios had received some of the money
Claudius had handed out, and his successor, Prasutagus,
was now expected to repay it. Prasutagus had probably
also received an unwanted loan from Lucius Seneca, Roman philosopher and Nero’s tutor, who had pressed on
the tribal leaders a total of 40 million sesterces, evidently
an investment he hoped would bring a healthy return in
interest. Now, the procurator—Rome’s financial officer,
responsible for taxation and other monetary matters in
Britannia—insisted the money from Claudius must be repaid. And Seneca, according to Dio,“resorted to severe
measures in exacting” repayment of his loans. His agents,
backed by force, may have showed up at the royal residence and demanded the money. Boudica would not
have forgotten such an insult.
CAIUS SUETONIUS PAULLINUS, a man in the aggressive mold of Ostorius, became governor of Britain in
58. He began his term with a military campaign in Wales.
By the spring of 61, he had reached its northwestern limit,
the druid stronghold on the Isle of Mona. Tacitus described the forces Suetonius faced: “The enemy lined the
shore in a dense armed mass. Among them were blackrobed women with disheveled hair like Furies, brandishing torches. Close by stood Druids, raising their hands to
Boudica would have been about 18 years old in 43, the
year Claudius invaded, old enough to be aware of the
events that would transform her life. She may already
have been married to Prasutagus, but the king of the Iceni
was still Antedios, probably an older relative of Prasutagus. Antedios seems to have taken a neutral position toward Rome. Other tribes openly supported the conquest,
but most, including the Icenis’ neighbor to the south, did
not. Caradoc, king of the Catuvellauni (called Caractacus
by the Romans), and his brother Togodumnus led an alliance of tribes to repel the invaders.
When the Roman troops landed at the far southeastern
tip of Britannia, Caractacus and his allies harried them as
they marched inland. Then the Britons retreated to gather
into a single force on the other side of the River Medway.
There, the Romans won a major battle in which Caractacus’ brother was either killed or mortally wounded. At
that point, Emperor Claudius himself came to Britannia
to seal the conquest with a victory at Camulodunum—
now known as Colchester—where he accepted the formal
submission of 11 British rulers, including Antedios of the
Iceni.
Boudica and the Iceni may well have expected the Romans to sail away as they had in the past. They soon
learned otherwise. Claudius built a legionary fortress at
Camulodunum, stationed troops there and established
other fortresses throughout eastern Britannia. He appointed the invasion forces’ commander, Aulus Plautius,
as Britannia’s first Roman governor. Caractacus retreated
westward, recruited fresh troops and continued to fight a
guerrilla war against the Romans.
The ham-fisted Ostorius Scapula replaced Plautius in
47. Caractacus timed a series of raids to coincide with the
change of governors, so Ostorius arrived to news of fighting. Was it this unpleasant reception that made Ostorius
so mistrustful of all the Britons, even those who had surrendered? Or was he short-tempered because he already
suffered from the illness from which he would die five
years later? For whatever reason Ostorius decided to disarm those subject tribes that he felt he could not fully
trust, including the Iceni. Established Roman law forbade
subject populations to keep weapons other than those
used for hunting game, but that was contrary to Celtic
law and custom. The Iceni rebelled, and Ostorius defeated them. Antedios may have been killed in the rebellion. If not, it seems likely that Ostorius removed him
immediately afterward and installed Prasutagus as client-king in his place. Boudica was now queen of the Iceni.
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ANNUAL EDITIONS
Boudica “mounted a tribunal made in the Roman fashion out of earth,” according to Dio, who described her as
“very tall and grim in appearance, with a piercing gaze
and a harsh voice. She had a mass of very fair hair which
she grew down to her hips, and wore a great gold torque
and a multi-colored tunic folded round her, over which
was a thick cloak fastened with a brooch.” Boudica’s tunic, cloak and brooch were typical Celtic dress for the
time. The torque, the characteristic ornament of the Celtic
warrior chieftain, was a metal band, usually of twisted
strands of gold that fit closely about the neck, finished in
decorative knobs worn at the front of the throat. Such
torques may have symbolized a warrior’s readiness to
sacrifice his life for the good of his tribe. If so, it is significant that Boudica wore one—they were not normally
worn by women.
Tacitus, whose father-in-law served as a military tribune in Britain during that time, recounted the rebellion
in detail. Boudica moved first against Camulodunum. Before she attacked, rebels inside the colonia conspired to
unnerve the superstitious Romans. “[F]or no visible reason,” Tacitus wrote, “the statue of Victory at Camulodunum fell down—with its back turned as though it were
fleeing the enemy. Delirious women chanted of destruction at hand. They cried that in the local senate-house outlandish yells had been heard; the theater had echoed with
shrieks; at the mouth of the Thames a phantom settlement
had been seen in ruins. A blood-red color in the sea, too,
and shapes like human corpses left by the ebb tide, were
interpreted hopefully by the Britons—and with terror by
the settlers.”
Camulodunum pleaded for military assistance from
Catus Decianus in Londinium, but he sent only 200 inadequately armed men to reinforce the town’s small garrison. In their overconfidence, the Romans had built no
wall around Camulodunum. In fact, they had leveled the
turf banks around the legionary fortress and built on the
leveled areas. Misled by the rebel saboteurs, they did not
bother to erect ramparts, dig trenches or even evacuate
the women and elderly.
Boudica’s army overran the town, and the Roman garrison retreated to the unfinished temple, which had been
one of the prime causes of the rebellion. After two days of
fighting, it fell. Recent archaeological work shows how
thorough the Britons were in their destruction. The buildings in Camulodunum had been made from a framework
of timber posts encased in clay and would not have
caught fire easily. But they were burned and smashed
from one end of town to the other. So hot were the flames,
some of the clay walls were fired as though in a pottery
kiln and are preserved in that form to the present day.
The only legionary force immediately available to put
down the rebellion was a detachment of Legio IX Hispania, under the command of Quintus Petilius Cerialis
Caesius Rufus, consisting of some 2,000 legionaries and
500 auxiliary cavalry. Cerialis did not wait to gather a
larger force, but set out immediately for Camulodunum.
heaven and screaming dreadful curses.” For a moment,
the Romans stood paralyzed by fright. Then, urged by
Suetonius and each other “not to fear a horde of fanatical
women,” they attacked and enveloped the opposing
forces “in the flames of their own torches.”
When the battle ended in a Roman victory, Suetonius
garrisoned the island and cut down its sacred groves—
the fearsome site of human sacrifices, according to Tacitus, who claimed it was a Celtic religious practice “to
drench their altars in the blood of prisoners and consult
their gods by means of human entrails.” In view of the
routine, organized murder of the Roman gladiatorial
games, one might wonder whether a Roman was in a position to criticize. Though the Celts did practice human
sacrifice, most of their sacrifices consisted of symbolic deposits of such valuable objects as jewelry and weapons
into sacred wells and lakes.
For Boudica and her people, news of the destruction of
the druidic center on Mona, the razing of the sacred
groves and the slaughter of druids must have been
deeply painful. But Boudica suffered a more personal loss
during this time. Prasutagus of the Iceni died sometime
during the attack on Mona or its aftermath. He left behind
a will whose provisions had no legal precedent under either Celtic or Roman law. It named the Roman emperor
as co-heir with the two daughters of Prasutagus and Boudica, now in their teens. According to Celtic tradition,
chiefs served by the consent of their people, and so could
not designate their successors through their wills. And
under Roman law, a client-king’s death ended the client
relationship, effectively making his property and estates
the property of the emperor until and unless the emperor
put a new client-king into office. Prasutagus’ will may
have been a desperate attempt to retain a degree of independence for his people and respect for his family. If it
was, it did not succeed.
After Prasutagus died, the Roman procurator, Decianus Catus, arrived at the Iceni court with his staff and
a military guard. He proceeded to take inventory of the
estate. He regarded this as Roman property and probably planned to allocate a generous share for himself, following the habit of most Roman procurators. When
Boudica objected, he had her flogged. Her daughters
were raped.
At that point, Boudica decided the Romans had ruled
in Britannia long enough. The building fury of other
tribes, such as the Trinovantes to the south, made them
eager recruits to her cause. Despite the Roman ban, they
had secretly stockpiled weapons, and they now armed
themselves and planned their assault. Dio wrote that before she attacked, Boudica “engaged in a type of divination by releasing a hare from the fold of her tunic.” When
it ran on the side the Britons believed auspicious, they
cheered. “Boudica raised her hand to heaven and said, ’I
thank you Andraste.’” This religious demonstration is the
reason some historians think she may have had druidic
training.
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Article 13. Celtic War Queen Who Challenged Rome
men. If we can believe this, Boudica’s army would have
been more than 20 times the size of Suetonius’. Whatever
the actual numbers were, it is clear that her forces greatly
outnumbered his. But the Britons’ arms and training
could not compare to the highly evolved arms and fighting techniques of the Roman legions.
“The forces of the Britons,” wrote Tacitus, “pranced
about far and wide in bands of infantry and cavalry, their
numbers without precedent and so confident that they
brought their wives with them and set them in carts
drawn up around the far edge of the battlefield to witness
their victory. Boudica rode in a chariot with her daughters before her, and as she approached each tribe, she declared that the Britons were accustomed to engage in
warfare under the leadership of women.”
The picture of Boudica riding about the battlefield to
encourage her warriors rings true, but it is unlikely that
any Roman understood what she said. She would have
spoken in the Celtic tongue and had no need to inform
her troops of their own customs. Tacitus puts those words
in her mouth as a device to educate his Roman readers
about a practice that must have struck them as exotic and
strange.
The speech Tacitus reports Suetonius gave may be a
closer reflection of what he said, appealing to his legions
to “disregard the clamor and empty threats of the natives.” He told them: “There were more women visible in
their ranks than fighting men, and they, unwarlike and
poorly armed, routed on so many occasions, would immediately give way when they recognized the steel and
courage of those who had always conquered them. Even
when many legions were involved, it was a few men who
actually decided battles. It would redound to their honor
that their small numbers won the glory of a whole army.”
Legions and auxiliaries waited in the shelter of the narrow valley until Boudica’s troops came within range.
Then they hurled their javelins at the Britons and ran forward in wedge formation, supported by the cavalry with
their lances. The Roman infantrymen protected themselves with their capacious shields and used their short
swords to strike at close range, driving the points into the
Britons’ bellies, then stepping across the dead to reach the
next rank.
The Britons, who fought with long swords designed
for slashing rather than stabbing, needed room to swing
their blades and could not fight effectively at such close
range. Furthermore, the light chariots that gave them an
advantage when fighting on a wide plain were similarly
ineffective, with the Romans emerging from a narrow,
protected valley that prevented the chariots from reaching their flanks.
The result was an overwhelming Roman victory.
Those Britons who survived ran, but the circle of the
women’s wagons blocked their way, causing confusion
and delay. The Romans “did not refrain from slaughtering even the womenfolk, while the baggage animals too,
transfixed with weapons, added to the piles of bodies,”
He never got there. Boudica ambushed and slaughtered
his infantry. Cerialis escaped with his cavalry and took
shelter in his camp at Lindum.
Suetonius, mopping up the operation on Mona, now
learned of the revolt and set sail down the River Dee
ahead of his army. He reached Londinium before Boudica, but what he found gave no cause for optimism. Like
Camulodunum, Londinium was unwalled. About 15
years old, it had been built on undeveloped ground near
the Thames River, by means of which supplies and personnel could be shipped to and from Rome. It was a
sprawling town, with few large buildings that might be
pressed into service as defensive positions—a smattering
of government offices, warehouses and the homes of
wealthy merchants. Catus Decianus had already fled to
Gaul. Suetonius decided to sacrifice Londinium to save
the province and ordered the town evacuated. Many of
the women and elderly stayed, along with others who
were “attached to the place.”
BOUDICA KILLED EVERONE SHE found when she
reached Londinium. Dio described the savagery of her
army: “They hung up naked the noblest and most distinguished women and then cut off their breasts and sewed
them to their mouths, in order to make the victims appear
to be eating them; afterwards they impaled the women on
sharp skewers run lengthwise through the entire body.”
Verulamium, the old capital of the Catuvellauni tribe
lying northwest of Londinium (outside of present-day St.
Albans), met a similar fate. Rome had granted it the status
of municipium, giving the townsfolk a degree of self-government and making its magistrates eligible for Roman
citizenship. Boudica evidently punished the town for its
close and willing association with Rome.
By then Suetonius had an army with him amounting to
nearly 10,000 men, comprising Legio XIV and parts of Legio XX, which he had used for the attack on Mona, as well
as some auxiliaries gathered from the nearest stations. He
also sent an urgent summons to Legio II Augusta at Isca
Dumnoniorum, present-day Exeter, but its commander,
Poenius Posthumus, never responded. Evidently he was
unwilling to march through the hostile territory of the
Dumnonii, who had thrown their lot in with Boudica, and
thereby risk sharing the fate of Cerialis’ men. At the head
of his hastily summoned force, Suetonius marched to
confront Boudica.
Precisely where they met is not known, but the most
plausible guesses—based on Tacitus’ description of the
favorable terrain where Suetonius positioned his force—
include Mancetter in Warwickshire or along Old Roman
Watling Street (now A5) near Towcaster. According to
Tacitus: “[Suetonius] chose a position in a defile with a
wood behind him. There could be no enemy, he knew, except at his front, where there was open country without
cover for ambushes. Suetonius drew up his regular
troops in close order, with the light-armed auxiliaries at
their flanks, and the cavalry massed on the wings.” Dio
wrote that Boudica’s troops numbered about 230,000
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ANNUAL EDITIONS
neglect to sow an entire year’s crop. But if they had
planted, much of the crop was likely destroyed in Suetonius’ campaign of revenge.
To replace Catus Decianus, Rome sent a new procurator, Julius Classicianus. Tacitus heartily disapproved of
Classicianus, sniping that he had a grudge against Suetonius and “allowed his personal animosity to stand in the
way of the national interest.” Classicianus was a Celt
from the Roman province of Gaul, and he seems to have
done much to calm the angry Britons. He told them “it
would be well to await a new governor who would deal
gently with those who surrendered.” Then he reported to
Rome “that they should expect no end to hostilities unless
a replacement were found for Suetonius.”
Nero dispatched one of his administrators, a freed
slave named Polyclitus, to investigate the situation. Evidently, Polyclitus supported Classicianus’ report. Soon
afterward, when Suetonius lost some ships and their
crews to a British raid, he was recalled. The new governor, Petronius Turpilianus, ended the punitive expeditions, following instead a policy of “not provoking the
enemy nor being provoked by them.” Tacitus sneered at
his “slothful inactivity,” but he brought peace to Britain.
Of Boudica, Dio wrote, “The Britons mourned her
deeply and gave her a costly burial.” The Roman conquest had brought to the Iceni misfortune that ripened
into disaster after their rebellion failed. But as time
passed, Britannia became an orderly and respected part
of the Roman empire. It remained so for another three
centuries. Boudica’s people finally won what it seems
they had wanted all along: respect, peace and a government that treated them with justice and honor.
Tacitus reported, citing figures of 80,000 British casualties
and 400 Roman dead “and a slightly larger number
wounded.”
According to Tacitus, there were at least two notable
casualties in the immediate wake of the battle. Upon
learning of the victory, Poenius Posthumus felt so dishonored by the failure of his Legio II to have fought its way
out to join Suetonius in full force that he committed suicide by falling upon his own sword. Boudica, Tacitus
noted, “ended her life with poison.”
The rebellion was effectively over, but its initial success had shocked Rome. The overall Roman casualties are
suggested by the number of troops Nero sent from Germany as reinforcements, according to Tacitus a total of
7,000, consisting of “two thousand regular troops, which
brought the ninth division to full strength, also eight auxiliary infantry battalions and a thousand cavalry.” The civilian dead in Camulodunum, Londinium and
Verulamium—some 70,000 if Tacitus’ figure is accurate—
would have multiplied the toll. British unrest seems to
have continued even after the decisive battle. Dio wrote
that the Britons were regrouping and preparing to fight
again at the time Boudica died.
When the Roman reinforcements arrived, Suetonius
stationed them in new winter quarters. Tacitus wrote
that, rather than turning to diplomacy, Suetonius “ravaged with fire and sword” those he believed to be still
“hostile or wavering.” His punitive policy, calculated to
crush the Britons rather than to reconcile them with Roman rule, was consistent with the policies that had caused
the rebellion.
On top of that, a famine broke out. According to Tacitus, the Britons had expected to raid the Roman grain
stores, and so had mustered all available men into the
army and neglected to plant a crop. It is hard to believe an
agricultural society, which both depended on grain for its
own sustenance and produced it as a major export, would
Margaret Donsback is a Portland, Ore., writer whose work has appeared in Art
Times and Civil War Times Illustrated. For further reading, she suggests:
Boudica, by Graham Webster; and The Boudican Revolt Against Rome, by
Paul R. Sealey.
From Military History, April 2004, pp. 50–56, 79. Copyright © 2004 Primedia Consumer Media and Magazines Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted with
permission.
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