Watling Street 60 AD - Boudica's Revolt DOCUMENTARY

On the very edge of the encroaching Roman Empire, one woman would say no more, and stand up to resist the occupation of her people's ancestral lands. This was Boudicca, Queen of the Iceni. The most famous of the Celtic peoples would fight an ultimately doomed rebellion against the Roman Empire, and would go out in a blaze of glory, to be remembered for thousands of years as both a fierce barbarian and a heroic figure who fought for freedom. Upon the assassination of Emperor Caligula in 41AD, his uncle Claudius was unwillingly proclaimed as Emperor by the Praetorian Guard due to his Julio-Claudian lineage. Claudius was spared by Caligula due to his various disabilities and inadequacies. He had a bad stutter, appeared to have been lame and reportedly had a tendency to drool. Most crucial was his complete lack of military experience and prestige, due to the fact he had not been able to serve in the legions in his younger years. Despite his shortcomings, it turned out that Claudius was no incompetent fool, and he saw the possible propaganda value of invading Britannia. In addition to emulating the glorious deeds of Julius Caesar, invading Britannia would also allow Claudius to gain military legitimacy through conquest. As the Empire rose, Augustus and Tiberius were both content to collect annual tribute from the various British tribal allies and clients, but a change in 39AD would rupture this cosy arrangement. Cnobelin, who was known as the Rex Britannicum, a king of the Britons, died in that year, and his feuding anti-Roman sons began raiding in the lands of the Roman allied tribes. One of these tribes, the Atrebates, was ruled by a man known as Verica, and he fled to Claudius in exile, giving the excuse the Emperor needed. Under the highly respected former proconsul of Illyricum, Aulus Plautius, who was accompanied by future giants of the Roman world such as Vespasian, an army of four legions sailed from Portus Aetius. The legions which sailed from Gaul were Legio II Augusta, nine Hispana, fourteen Gemina, and twenty Valeria Vitrix. They landed in modern Kent soon after. After a few minor skirmishes on the southern coast, two of Cnobelin's sons, Togodumnus and Caractacus, met the Romans at the river Medway and were decisively defeated in an extended clash. Togodumnus was either killed in the aftermath or defected to the Roman cause, while his brother Caractacus would famously lead a guerrilla war against the Romans for another seven years before being defeated and captured at the Battle of Caer Caradroc. During the initial Roman invasion, a Britonic tribe based in the east of the island, the Iceni, allied with the Romans as a means to secure protection. They paid tribute to the empire, but were ruled by their own kings, who saw the way the wind was blowing. In 60 AD, the Iceni king Prasutagus died. In his will, the Roman Emperor Nero was made co-heir with the king's two daughters. He did this in order to safeguard his kingdom and household, and to ease them into Roman rule, but this attempt would end up in failure. The legions marched to seize the entire territory for Rome. According to Tacitus, Prasutagus' kingdom and household alike were plundered like prizes of war, and Iceni territories were earmarked for annexation into the Roman province. This compounded the underlying harsh and oppressive conditions of Roman occupation. We only have Roman accounts of the period, but even these are enough to reveal terrible misadministration ranging from cruelly negligent to downright criminal. It is possible that the procurator of Britannia would have been under constant pressure to improve his cash flow, and the temptation of Iceni riches was too much to pass up on. In addition, the forced levy of young adolescent warriors into the Roman legions as auxilia was almost universally detested. Whatever the reasoning, when the king's widow, Queen Boudica, protested against this treatment, she was flogged and her daughters were abused by Roman soldiers. Furious at this humiliation, and wishing to force the Romans off their lands, Boudica raised her people to war in the year 60, and the Iceni were quickly joined by their southern neighbours, the Trilovantes. The British disaster, as Suetonius called it, had begun. The revolt was properly timed, as this was especially bad timing for the Romans, because the governor of Britannia at the time, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, was away campaigning near modern Anglesey and could not quickly return. Iceni troops marched south to the Roman military colonia of Camulodunum, modern-day Colchester. It served as one of the main symbols of Roman domination. Moreover, its garrison, the 20th Legion, had gone west with Paulinus. The hated colonia received word of the incoming storm, and asked the procurator in Londinium, Catus Decianus, for help. Rather than marching to the aid of his countrymen, the procurator sent them a meagre 200-strong force of poorly equipped slaves, as it is entirely possible that Decianus completely underestimated the scale of the revolt. While Camulodunum was full of Roman administrative and cultural buildings, it wasn't protected by walls. A 2,000-strong segment of the 9th Legion hastily rushed to the rescue of the colony. However, in their haste, they were ambushed by Boudica's Iceni forces and almost totally destroyed. Without any substantial relief arriving in time, the Britons bore down on the city. Men, women and children were wiped out by hanging, crucifixion, burning and other cruel means, while the colony's buildings were burned to the ground. Survivors of this first wave fled to the temple of Claudius for protection, and were shielded for two Romans and the small number of reinforcements sent to the town. Despite their resistance, the Celtic numbers paid off, and they burst into the temple, killing everyone they saw. The destruction of Camulodunum was so total that archaeologists are able to see a noticeable layer of scorched debris left by the sacking of the city, called the Boudican Destruction Horizon. In the aftermath, a messenger reached Paulinus in the west, informing him of the disaster and prompting him to force-march his troops back to the east, while he rode swiftly with a group of horsemen to appraise the situation. Londinium was the rebels' next major target, a Roman city founded just after the conquests of 43AD, which had grown into a bustling trade centre populated by merchants, travellers, Roman functionaries and their families. Before Boudica's horde of Bretonic warriors could arrive in Londinium, Paulinus arrived with his small mounted contingent, and contemplated making a stand to save the town. However, he quickly realised that without his legions, it was a foolish fight to get into. He instead decided to abandon Londinium to its fate, in order to buy time for his armies to concentrate, and retreated northwest along the road, which would become known as Wattling Street. Soon after Paulinus' retreat, the same devastation which had scoured Camulodunum now hit Londinium. The death and destruction was absolute. After slaughtering the population of Londinium, Boudica set off in the direction of Verulamium, moving north up Wattling Street before doing what she had done to the two other larger cities. The lack of coins in the archaeological record, however, could imply that the inhabitants realised what was coming, and managed to escape with much of their portable wealth, possibly following Paulinus north. Nevertheless, Verulamium also ended up a blackened wasteland. Meanwhile, Paulinus had united with the forces he could muster, and picked a spot for the coming decisive battle about halfway up Wattling Street, attempting to draw Boudica as far west as possible to allow time for the legionaries to rest. The field on which the climactic battle would be fought was a spot surrounded by wooded slopes with a narrow entrance and protected in the rear by a primitive forest dense with undergrowth. With the traditional Roman tactic of using terrain to his advantage, Paulinus knew that in this position the Romans could not be easily assailed from the flanks or rear. Where exactly in middle England the battle took place is still a matter of debate, and many locations have been put forward, including the town of Manciter, but it could have been any number of places. Wherever the eventual conflict took place, Paulinus had around 11,000 soldiers at his disposal, consisting of roughly 7,000 highly disciplined legionary heavy infantry drawn from Legio XIV Gemina and a vexillatio, or a temporarily detached segment, of Legio XX. The 4,000 additional troops were 6 cohorts of auxilia infantry and 2 alae of cavalry, including the consistently fearsome Batavians from the Rhine region. Paulinus had attempted to reinforce his numbers by calling Legio II Augusta from the south, but its commander ignored the request. Forming up in front of their defensive position was, according to Cassius Dio, a horde of 230,000 Celtic screamers. These numbers are highly questionable, but if we divide his estimate by 5, the Romans are still outnumbered around 5 to 1. The majority of the rebel infantry was traditionally barbarian in armament, with a combination of long slashing sword, shield, and short thrusting spears. As for armour, it was very rare, and Celtic warriors probably went into the fray dressed only in a pair of loose woolen trousers. They instead relied on their fearsome physique and individual skill in fighting to gain victory. Celtic aristocrats and military elites also formed a small force of open-fronted, lightning-fast and nimble chariots. As the rebel force approached Paulinus' ragtag half-strength contingent, he arrayed his forces along a narrow defile, with his legionaries serving as the core strength of his army in the centre, three auxilia cohorts on each of their flanks, and an alley of cavalry on each wing, anchored by the forests. The dense forest cover at the sides and behind also meant retreat would be impossible if the Romans were defeated. It was to be an all-or-nothing battle. As the opposing forces readied themselves for the fray, both commanders attempted to motivate their men. Riding the royal chariot along with her two daughters, the Queen is reported, by the probably inventful Cassius Dio, to have driven through her loose ranks, shouting to the warriors around her. I am descended from mighty men, but I am not fighting for my kingdom and wealth now. I am fighting as an ordinary person for my lost freedom, my bruised body and my outraged daughters. Consider how many of you are fighting and why. Then you will win this battle or perish. That is what I, a woman, will do. Let the men live in slavery if they wish. The comments made on the other side of the battlefield were far more brisk and business-like, brushing off the apparent riffraff opposite them. Ignore the racket made by these savages, Paulinus orated to the troops. They are not soldiers, they are not even properly equipped. We have beaten them before and when they see our weapons and feel our spirit, they will crack. With a clamorous din of war cries from both sides, the British charioteers opened the battle, wheeling up and down the Roman line, throwing insults and deadly javelins at the Romans in equal measure. After the Romans resisted the missile onslaught for a while and likely suffered a few losses, the charioteers retreated as the warbands surged forward. They came in a gargantuan head-on assault, hoping to use the shock factor of their charge to crash through and break apart the Roman line. However, the Romans' clever use of terrain now came into effect. As the numerically dominant Celtic horde charged up the slope, it was naturally funneled into the increasingly narrow defile, which acted as a force multiplier, limiting the number of warriors which could engage the Romans at any one time, and blunting their charge due to its uphill nature. Nevertheless, the screaming warriors charged forward, and just before they hit the Roman line, were showered by a storm of legionary peeler javelins, which would have caused crippling casualties to lightly armed troops. Then, the Roman formation charged downhill in a series of offensive wedge formations, aiming to carve deep swathes into the enemy mass. The legionaries would have smashed the enemy in the face with the metal centre of their heavy scutum shield, and then thrust with the gladius. With the impetus of their initial shock charge blunted by the terrain, and the sophisticated tactics and brutal efficiency of the enemy, the battle turned. Boudicca's light infantry, who probably had little experience fighting the kind of heavily armoured and armed troops Rome fielded, were progressively, slowly but certainly, carved into during the course of the day. British vigour and ferocity were pushed back by Roman endurance and discipline, closer and closer to the semicircle of wagons behind them. Catastrophically, women, children and the infirm had accompanied the men to this battle. However, the wagons inadvertently served as a large net, through which the Celts could not escape quickly enough, and they were massacred. Despite fighting for their own lives and those of their loved ones, the Romans had no mercy for them. The women, children and even draft animals were slain by the Roman gladius. We do not know how many perished, but 80,000 Britons were said to have died on the battlefield, at the meagre cost of 400 Romans. Though Boudicca managed to escape on her chariot, Tacitus tells us that she took her own life a few days later, while Cassius Dio says that illness claimed her. Poneus Postumus, the Legio II commander who had refused to assist Polonus, committed suicide when he heard news of the victory, clearly aware of the fate that awaited him for his insubordination. The legion itself was disgraced and remained too Augusta for the rest of its days, conversely Legio XIV Gemina gained the title Martia Vitrix, Martial and Victorious. The rest of the Iceni and Trinovantes were utterly annihilated by the punitive Polonus. After this defeat, Britannia would increasingly be solidified as a Roman province, and would only gain its freedom from Rome in the early 5th century, just before the Western Empire's final collapse. 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