BOUDICA ATTACKS Roman Verulamium | ATG Highlights

Having rented a car from Hertz and still getting used to driving stick on the right side of the car and on the left side of the road, Marisa and I wound our way north through a plethora of roundabouts to St. Albans, a beautiful little town about 20 miles northwest of London. St. Albans is the site of ancient Verulamium and Watling Street runs the same course as the Roman road that ran from Londinium to Verulamium, but we took the modern highway. Before the Roman invasion, this area was inhabited by a Celtic tribe known as the Catuvalani. The Catuvalani built a capital city here called Verulamion, meaning settlement above the marshes. There it stood until the Romans came in 43 CE and took over the town, redubbing it Verulamium. This is where Boudicca comes into the story. I name dropped her last episode when I told you she revolted against the Romans in the year 61 and sacked and burnt Londinium to the ground. Well, guess what? She did the same to Verulamium. Let me give you a little more background on her. The Britons, whom the Romans had subjugated, were not happy with the way they were being treated. The oppression of Roman provincial administration had become intolerable to them. Specific complaints were that the governor was a tyrant. He robbed the Britons of their property and possessions at every opportunity. He kidnapped their children and conscripted their men. Apparently also the procurator now was demanding the return of money that had been given by Claudius to influential Britons. Acting as if it were only a loan, Boudicca was wife of the king of the Esseni, who was a client king under the Romans. But when he died, the Romans plundered his land, flogging Boudicca and raping her two daughters in the process. Boudicca, taking over as ruler of the Esseni tribe, then retaliated against the Romans in the year 60 or 61, being joined by other tribes. Boudicca and her daughters led their army into battle personally. Roman historian Cassius Dio describes the events this way. A terrible disaster occurred in Britain. Two cities were sacked, 80,000 of the Romans and 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. But the person who was chiefly instrumental in rousing the natives and persuading them to fight the Romans, the person who was thought worthy to be their leader and who directed the conduct of the entire war, was Boudicca, a Briton woman of the royal family and possessed of greater intelligence than often belongs to women. 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 diverse colors over which a thick mantle was fastened with a brooch. This was her invariable attire. As you might have guessed, Boudicca was ultimately defeated by the Romans. We don't know the exact location of the final battle, but it was somewhere in the Midlands. The Roman forces were led by Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, who's recorded to have said to his men, ignore the racket made by these savages. These are more women than men in their ranks. They're not soldiers, they're not even properly equipped. We've beaten them before and when they see our weapons and feel our spirit, they'll crack. After her defeat, Boudicca fell ill and died. Some say she poisoned herself, but her defeat marked the end of resistance to Roman rule in Britain for several centuries. After these events, Virulamium began to be built up by the Romans and it ended up being the third largest city in Roman Britain, after Londinium and Carinium. Around the year 50, Virulamium was given the rank of Munichipium, which even Londinium didn't have. A Munichipium was the second highest rank of Roman city, following after Colonia. Rank had nothing to do with size, but more with location and strategic importance. The first Colonia established in Britain was Camulodunum, modern Colchester, around 49 CE. Camulodunum was followed by Lindum, now Lincoln, and Glevum, Gloucester, at the end of the first century. In Colonia, inhabitants automatically became Roman citizens. Only one Munichipium is known to have been established in Roman Britain, at Virulamium. Residents received some citizenship rights, but not all. Magistrates and their families did, but only at the end of their time in office. Right now, we're at the site of Virulamium, which is one of the largest Roman cities in Britain. The site includes the Hippocaste, the old theater, and the old city walls, which you can actually see right behind me. In 79, a new forum with basilica, temples, public baths, and a theater was built in Virulamium and dedicated to the then emperor Vespasian. By the year 140, the city was twice its original size, covering 100 acres. Two fires, one in 155 and the other in 250, destroyed parts of the city. The remains of a gorgeous mosaic floor can still be seen in the park. They have it housed in a building in the middle of a field. It was once part of the reception rooms of a townhouse and contains around 200,000 tesserae. Those are the little tiles. There's a small museum at Virulamium Park as well. The Roman theater of Virulamium, built in about 140, is unique. Although several towns in Britain are known to have had theaters, this is the only one visible today. Religious processions, dancing, and entertainments like wrestling, fights with wild beasts, armed combat, occasionally took place in the theater. Plays by Latin and Greek authors were also performed at religious festivals, as well as pantomime, pantomime shows. We are standing here at, we're here at the Roman theater of Virulamium, right here behind me. This theater was built, it was active around 200 years from about the second century to the fourth century of the country, and it went through several stages of development. But basically what you're looking at here, what's closest to us, this is the seating. This is where all the people sat looking that way, and then behind that where you see the pillar, there were three pillars there, and that's the stage where the performers performed. And then way in the back, I don't know if you can see it, that's the dressing room where the performers put on their costumes. The spectators sat on simple wooden benches and had an almost circular orchestra in front of the stage where town magistrates and local dignitaries were seated. What makes it different is that it has embanked seating rather than an amphitheater design. By about 300, after some more redevelopment, the theater had the capacity to seat 2,000 spectators. In the late third and early fourth century, during the persecution of Christians under the emperor Diocletian, a Roman named Alban, who lived in Verulamium, gave shelter to a Christian priest called Amphibolus. After some conversation, Alban was converted to that faith. As legend has it, when the Romans came to arrest Amphibolus, Alban put on Amphibolus' clothes and gave himself up to the Romans, who took him to the temple in the city, where he was ordered by a judge to renounce Christ and offer sacrifice to the Roman gods. He refused and was scourged, and when he would not, he was put to death. Alban became the first Christian martyr in Britain, and in the Saxon period, Verulamium was renamed after him, Saint Albans, which is the name it carries to this day.