General Notes

Source: GEDCOM:  McMahan/Kilsdonk Ancestors
Updated: Wed Sep 17 16:15:27 2003    Contact: Kent McMahan 


The Iceni were an ancient British (Norfolk) people that, under their queen
Boadicea, revolted against the Romans in A.D. 61. She poisoned herself after
defeat by Roman Governor Suetonius. (Columbia Viking Desk Encyclopedia)

Source:  GEDCOM:  Pam Miller, "Our Family Tree", 2003

Boadicea (also spelled Boudicca or Boudica) was born into a royal family around 26 A.D. She married Prasutagus, king of the Iceni, a tribe locatedin what is now Norfolk, England. Prasutagus was a client-king, meaning he ruled under the auspices of the Romans, whohad probably put him on the throne in return for his assistance when they invaded England in 43.
Upon Prasutagus's death around the year 59, the kingdom passed into the hands of the Romans. The king had hoped the Romans would allow his two teenage daughters to keep half of his property, but instead the Romans took over completely. When Boadicea complained, she was publicly flogged and forced to watch as her daughters were raped.
Infuriated, Queen Boadicea -- described by one Roman historian as a tall, terrifying-looking woman with fierce eyes, a harsh voice, and very long red hair -- became the leader of a violent uprising against Roman rule. The rebels destroyed London, Colchester, and other cities, slaughtering some 70,000 people.
But the Romans quickly put down the rebellion by defeating the undisciplined Britons in a ferocious battle (the exact site of which is uncertain). According to one account, Boadicea then killed herself with poison so she would not fall into Roman hands. Boadicea's name means "victorious," or Victoria, and in Victorian times she came to be viewed as a heroic symbol of Britain


Source:  GEDCOM:  Family History of John Carson Crow & Faye Garnett Woodward
Updated: Mon Jul 28 19:13:27 2003    Contact: John Crow 



Queen Boudicca, usually and incorrectly written as Boadicea, was Britain's first heroine. "She was huge of frame, terrifying of aspect, and with a harsh voice. A great mass of red hair fell to her knees. She wore a great twisted gold torque round her neck, and a tunic of many colors over which there was a thick mantle fastened by a brooch. As she spoke, she grasped a spear to strike fear into all who watched." This is the only surviving description of Boudicca. Its author, the Roman historian Dio Cassius (A.D. 150-A.D. 235), could not have seen her personally, but seemed anxious to tell his readers that she was not someone to bump into on a dark night. Boudicca's legend never the less, is almost entirely a recent affair. There is no trace of her at all in Celtic tradition. She emerges belatedly in 14th c. Florence with the rediscovery of ancient classical manuscripts. Afterwards, she is transformed into English literature by a mixture of error and indifference: by stages from "Voda", "ancient queen of Falkirk:, to "Boadicca" a sort of Britannia, exemplified by Thornycroft's statue near the Thames. Few facts are available. But through what there is a recognizable woman still manages to show through. Boudicca was the wife of a client king:, a Rome-supported provincial potentate, governing what is now Norfolk. The family was therefore already partly Romanized, and enjoyed the precarious prosperity of those who had come to terms with Roman occupation. Then disaster fell. In A.D. 61, Boudicca's husband died. Greedy Roman officials seized a change to line their own pockets. Boudicca's possessions were confiscated and her two daughters were raped. Boudicca's rebellion was the outcome of a dishonored deal, and a bitter hatred.

Boudicca's rebel army created a huge arc of destruction in SE England, beginning with the sacking and burning of the major Roman settlement at Colchester (Camulodunum) and continuing with its pillaging of London (Londinium) and St. Albans (Verulamium). Meanwhile, another army of rebel soldiers near Cambridge had defeated the Ninth Legion, led by Petilius Cerialis, hurriedly sent from Lincoln. (Lindum). Mostly, Boudicca chose easy, unprotected targets, the bulk of the Roman Army remaining in Wales, campaigning against the Druids in Anglesey (Mona). The Second Legion, stationed in Glouchester (Glevum) and led by Poenius Postumus, panicked and refused to march on the rebels. Finally, Roman general Suctonius Paulinus met Boudicca near Leichester (Ratae) with two Legions which he had marched from Wales, resulting in a massacre of the Britons.

Boadicea led 120,000 men to battle. Her sense of injury changed her whole nature and she lived only for revenge. At Leicester she ascended the general's tribunal. In her hand she carried a spear. She addressed the Britons, gathered about as follows: "I rule not over beasts of burden as are the effeminate nations of the East, nor over tradesmen and traffickers, nor like the man-woman Nero, over slaves; but I rule over Britons, little versed in craftiness and diplomacy, it is true, but born and trained to war; men who in the cause of liberty willingly risk their lives, their lands and property. Queen of such a race, I implore your aid for freedom, for victory! Never let a foreigner bear rule over me or my country-men! Never let slavery reign in this island!" Attacking their oppressors, they burned London, Colchester and other cities. Some say her army increased to 230,000 men. Over 70,000 on each side were killed. These valiant Icenians were finally defeated by the Romans under Sentonius Paulinus in A.D. 62, and rather than fall into the hands of the invaders, Boadicea took her own life with a poisoned dagger, and was buried in Flintshire. Boadicea, in Latin "Victoria," is described in the records as "cousin" of Caradoc and his sister, Gladys.


Source:  GEDCOM:  Ancestors and Family of Edward Fairchild
  Updated: Sat Aug 16 04:35:20 2003    Contact: Edward Fairchild 


Boudicca's Rebellion
Rome couldn't have maintained control of its empire without cooperation from the indigenous leaders of the conquered regions. Roman historian Tacitus (c.AD55-117), in the 'Life of Cnaeus Julius Agricola', refers to:
". . . the ancient and long-recognised practice of the Roman people, which seeks to secure among the instruments of dominion even kings themselves."
These 'client kings' continued to rule, but under the government of the Romans, and paying taxes to Rome. They adopted Roman names and lifestyles, and kept the peace, whilst being assured positions of wealth and power. Roman administrators, at all levels, had a keen eye for a quick profit, however, and Dio Cassius says that British disquiet was caused by:
". . . the confiscation of the sums of money that Claudius had given to the foremost Britons; for these sums, as Decianus Catus, the procurator (finance official) of the island, maintained, were to be paid back."
Furthermore, Nero's tutor and advisor, Seneca:
". . . in the hope of receiving a good rate of interest, had lent to the islanders 40,000,000 sesterces that they did not want, and had afterwards called in this loan all at once and had resorted to severe measures in exacting it."
Boudicca (also known as Boadicea, and referred to as Buduica by Dio Cassius) was married to Prasutagus, the wealthy king of the Iceni. Prasutagus died, but, as Tacitus states, (in 'The Annals') he:
". . . had made the emperor his heir along with his two daughters, under the impression that this token of submission would put his kingdom and his house out of the reach of wrong. But the reverse was the result, so much so that his kingdom was plundered by centurions, his house by slaves, as if they were the spoils of war. First, his wife Boadicea was scourged, and his daughters outraged. All the chief men of the Iceni, as if Rome had received the whole country as a gift, were stripped of their ancestral possessions, and the king's relatives were made slaves."
Fearing that worse was to come, in AD60, Boudicca enlisted the aid of other tribes, notably the Trinovantes. Dio Cassius reports that:
". . . Buduica, a Briton woman of the royal family and possessed of greater intelligence than often belongs to women. . . assembled her army, to the number of some 120,000, and then ascended a tribunal which had been constructed of earth in the Roman fashion. In stature she was very tall, in appearance most terrifying, in the glance of her eye most fierce, and her voice was harsh; a great mass of the tawniest hair fell to her hips; around her neck was a large golden necklace; and she wore a tunic of divers colours over which a thick mantle was fastened with a brooch. This was her invariable attire. She now grasped a spear to aid her in terrifying all beholders . . . (There then follows a lengthy rallying speech, purportedly given by Boudicca) . . . Having finished an appeal to her people . . . Buduica led her army against the Romans; for these chanced to be without a leader, inasmuch as Paulinus (Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, governor of Britain), their commander, had gone on an expedition to Mona (Anglesey), an island near Britain."
The first target of Boudicca's army was Camulodunum (Colchester), where there was a colony of legionary veterans (established about ten years earlier by, the then governor, Publius Ostorius Scapula). Tacitus says:
"It was against the veterans that their hatred was most intense. For these new settlers in the colony of Camulodunum drove people out of their houses, ejected them from their farms, called them captives and slaves, and the lawlessness of the veterans was encouraged by the soldiers, who lived a similar life and hoped for similar licence. A temple also erected to the Divine Claudius was ever before their eyes, a citadel, as it seemed, of perpetual tyranny. Men chosen as priests had to squander their whole fortunes under the pretence of a religious ceremonial. It appeared too no difficult matter to destroy the colony, undefended as it was by fortifications, a precaution neglected by our generals, while they thought more of what was agreeable than of what was expedient"
"Meanwhile, without any evident cause, the statue of Victory at Camulodunum fell prostrate and turned its back to the enemy, as though it fled before them. Women excited to frenzy prophesied impending destruction; ravings in a strange tongue, it was said, were heard in their Senate house; their theatre resounded with wailings, and in the estuary of the Tamesa (Thames) had been seen the appearance of an overthrown town; even the ocean had worn the aspect of blood, and, when the tide ebbed, there had been left the likenesses of human forms, marvels interpreted by the Britons, as hopeful, by the veterans, as alarming. But as Suetonius was far away, they implored aid from the procurator, Catus Decianus. All he did was to send two hundred men, and no more, without regular arms, and there was in the place but a small military force. Trusting to the protection of the temple, hindered too by secret accomplices in the revolt, who embarrassed their plans, they had constructed neither fosse nor rampart; nor had they removed their old men and women, leaving their youth alone to face the foe. Surprised, as it were, in the midst of peace, they were surrounded by an immense host of the barbarians. All else was plundered or fired in the onslaught; the temple where the soldiers had assembled, was stormed after a two days' siege. The victorious enemy met Petilius Cerialis, commander of the ninth legion, as he was coming to the rescue, routed his troops, and destroyed all his infantry. Cerialis escaped with some cavalry into the camp, and was saved by its fortifications. Alarmed by this disaster and by the fury of the province which he had goaded into war by his rapacity, the procurator Catus crossed over into Gaul."
"Suetonius, however, with wonderful resolution, marched amidst a hostile population to Londinium (London), which, though undistinguished by the name of a colony, was much frequented by a number of merchants and trading vessels. Uncertain whether he should choose it as a seat of war, as he looked round on his scanty force of soldiers . . . he resolved to save the province at the cost of a single town. Nor did the tears and weeping of the people, as they implored his aid, deter him from giving the signal of departure and receiving into his army all who would go with him. Those who were chained to the spot by the weakness of their sex, or the infirmity of age, or the attractions of the place, were cut off by the enemy. Like ruin fell on the town of Verulamium (St.Albans), for the barbarians, who delighted in plunder and were indifferent to all else, passed by the fortresses with military garrisons, and attacked whatever offered most wealth to the spoiler, and was unsafe for defence. About seventy thousand citizens and allies, it appeared, fell in the places which I have mentioned. For it was not on making prisoners and selling them, or on any of the barter of war, that the enemy was bent, but on slaughter, on the gibbet, the fire and the cross, like men soon about to pay the penalty, and meanwhile snatching at instant vengeance."
Dio Cassius adds further lurid details:
"Those who were taken captive by the Britons were subjected to every known form of outrage. The worst and most bestial atrocity committed by their captors was the following. 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. All this they did to the accompaniment of sacrifices, banquets, and wanton behaviour, not only in all their other sacred places, but particularly in the grove of Andate. This was their name for Victory, and they regarded her with most exceptional reverence."
The population of Verulamium, which was based on an old Catuvellaunian centre, would have been mainly British, whereas, at Londinium, a trading post, it would have been more cosmopolitan.
Recent excavations have surprised archaeologists by showing the speed at which Roman London (Londinium) developed. The earliest timber on the site, part of a drain, was dated to AD47. From the density of development discovered, the population is estimated to have been as many as 10,000 by AD60. At the time, London was the equivalent of a Wild West frontier town, built almost entirely of wood, and the excavations revealed a layer of burnt debris and scorched timbers, marking the devastation caused by Boudicca's army.
"Suetonius had the fourteenth legion with the veterans of the twentieth, and auxiliaries from the neighbourhood, to the number of about ten thousand armed men, when he prepared to break off delay and fight a battle. He chose a position approached by a narrow defile, closed in at the rear by a forest, having first ascertained that there was not a soldier of the enemy except in his front, where an open plain extended without any danger from ambuscades. His legions were in close array; round them, the light-armed troops, and the cavalry in dense array on the wings." - Tacitus
"Buduica, at the head of an army of about 230,000 men, rode in a chariot herself and assigned the others to their several stations."
Dio Cassius
". . . the army of the Britons, with its masses of infantry and cavalry, was confidently exulting, a vaster host than ever had assembled, and so fierce in spirit that they actually brought with them, to witness the victory, their wives riding in wagons, which they had placed on the extreme border of the plain."
"Boadicea, with her daughters before her in a chariot, went up to tribe after tribe, protesting that it was indeed usual for Britons to fight under the leadership of women. "But now," she said, "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. But heaven is on the side of a righteous vengeance; a legion which dared to fight has perished; the rest are hiding themselves in their camp, or are thinking anxiously of flight. They will not sustain even the din and the shout of so many thousands, much less our charge and our blows. If you weigh well the strength of the armies, and the causes of the war, you will see that in this battle you must conquer or die. This is a woman's resolve; as for men, they may live and be slaves.""
"Nor was Suetonius silent at such a crisis. Though he confided in the valour of his men, he yet mingled encouragements and entreaties to disdain the clamours and empty threats of the barbarians. "There," he said, "you see more women than warriors. Unwarlike, unarmed, they will give way the moment they have recognised that sword and that courage of their conquerors, which have so often routed them. Even among many legions, it is a few who really decide the battle, and it will enhance their glory that a small force should earn the renown of an entire army. Only close up the ranks, and having discharged your javelins, then with shields and swords continue the work of bloodshed and destruction, without a thought of plunder. When once the victory has been won, everything will be in your power."" - Tacitus
""You have heard what outrages these damnable men have committed against us, nay more, you have even witnessed some of them. Choose, then, whether you wish to suffer the same treatment yourselves as our comrades have suffered and to be driven out of Britain entirely, besides, or else by conquering to avenge those that have perished and at the same time furnish to the rest of mankind an example, not only of benevolent clemency toward the obedient, but also of inevitable severity toward the rebellious. For my part, I hope, above all, that victory will be ours; first, because the gods are our allies (for they almost always side with those who have been wronged); second, because of the courage that is our heritage, since we are Romans and have triumphed over all mankind by our valour; next, because of our experience (for we have defeated and subdued these very men who are now arrayed against us); and lastly, because of our prestige (for those with whom we are about to engage are not antagonists, but our slaves, whom we conquered even when they were free and independent). Yet if the outcome should prove contrary to our hope - for I will not shrink from mentioning even this possibility - 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, to be spitted on red-hot skewers, to perish by being melted in boiling water - in a word, to suffer as though we had been thrown to lawless and impious wild beasts. 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 for ever possess this land.""
"After addressing these and like words to them he raised the signal for battle." - Dio Cassius
"At first, the legion kept its position, clinging to the narrow defile as a defence; when they had exhausted their missiles, which they discharged with unerring aim on the closely approaching foe, they rushed out in a wedge-like column. Similar was the onset of the auxiliaries, while the cavalry with extended lances broke through all who offered a strong resistance. . . . - Tacitus
"Their struggle took many forms. Light-armed troops exchanged missiles with light-armed, heavy-armed were opposed to heavy-armed, cavalry clashed with cavalry, and against the chariots of the barbarians the Roman archers contended. The barbarians would assail the Romans with a rush of their chariots, knocking them helter-skelter, but, since they fought without breastplates, would themselves be repulsed by the arrows. Horseman would overthrow foot soldier and foot soldier strike down horseman; a group of Romans, forming in close order, would advance to meet the chariots, and others would be scattered by them; a band of Britons would come to close quarters with the archers and rout them, while others were content to dodge their shafts at a distance . . . They contended for a long time, both parties being animated by the same zeal and daring. But finally, late in the day, the Romans prevailed . . ." - Dio Cassius
. . . . The rest (of the Britons) turned their back in flight, and flight proved difficult, because the surrounding waggons had blocked retreat. Our soldiers spared not to slay even the women, while the very beasts of burden, transfixed by the missiles, swelled the piles of bodies. Great glory, equal to that of our old victories, was won on that day. Some indeed say that there fell little less than eighty thousand of the Britons, with a loss to our soldiers of about four hundred, and only as many wounded. Boadicea put an end to her life by poison. Poenius Postumus too, camp-prefect of the second legion, when he knew of the success of the men of the fourteenth and twentieth, feeling that he had cheated his legion out of like glory, and had contrary to all military usage disregarded the general's orders, threw himself on his sword." - Tacitus
The Roman troops are likely to have been augmented by allied British forces, notably those of King Togidubnus (or Cogidubnus), who ruled an area centred in the old territory of the Atrebates. Tacitus, in his 'Life of Cnaeus Julius Agricola', describes Togidubnus as: "a most faithful ally".
Neither the site of the battle, nor the fate of Boudicca's daughters are known, however, Dio Cassius says, of Boudicca, that :"The Britons mourned her deeply and gave her a costly burial". Although he had decisively defeated the British rebels in battle, Suetonius Paulinus continued a punitive campaign against the British, as Tacitus reports:
"The whole army was then brought together and kept under canvas to finish the remainder of the war. The emperor strengthened the forces by sending from Germany two thousand legionaries, eight cohorts of auxiliaries, and a thousand cavalry. On their arrival the men of the ninth had their number made up with legionary soldiers. The allied infantry and cavalry were placed in new winter quarters, and whatever tribes still wavered or were hostile were ravaged with fire and sword. Nothing however distressed the enemy so much as famine, for they had been careless about sowing corn, people of every age having gone to the war, while they reckoned on our supplies as their own. Nations, too, so high-spirited inclined the more slowly to peace, because Julius Classicanus, who had been sent as successor to Catus and was at variance with Suetonius, let private animosities interfere with the public interest, and had spread an idea that they ought to wait for a new governor who, having neither the anger of an enemy nor the pride of a conqueror, would deal mercifully with those who had surrendered. At the same time he stated in a despatch to Rome that no cessation of fighting must be expected, unless Suetonius were superseded, attributing that general's disasters to perverseness and his successes to good luck."
"Accordingly one of the imperial freedmen, Polyclitus, was sent to survey the state of Britain, Nero having great hopes that his influence would be able not only to establish a good understanding between the governor and the procurator, but also to pacify the rebellious spirit of the barbarians. And Polyclitus, who with his enormous suite had been a burden to Italy and Gaul, failed not, as soon as he had crossed the ocean, to make his progresses a terror even to our soldiers. But to the enemy he was a laughingstock, for they still retained some of the fire of liberty, knowing nothing yet of the power of freedmen, and so they marvelled to see a general and an army who had finished such a war cringing to slaves. Everything, however, was softened down for the emperor's ears, and Suetonius was retained in the government; but as he subsequently lost a few vessels on the shore with the crews, he was ordered, as though the war continued, to hand over his army to Petronius Turpilianus (Publius Petronius Turpilianus), who had just resigned his consulship. Petronius neither challenged the enemy nor was himself molested, and veiled this tame inaction under the honourable name of peace."
Translations:
Tacitus 'The Annals' and 'Life of Cnaeus Julius Agricola'
by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb
Dio Cassius 'Romaika' (Roman History) by Earnest Cary