Category: Boudica's Uprising

Categories: 1st Century | Roman Britain | Iceni | Trinovantes | Wars 1-999 | Pre-Norman Britain

Boudica or Boudicca (Latinised as Boadicea or Boudicea) or in Brittonic as Buddug, was a queen of the British Celtic Iceni tribe who led an uprising against the occupying forces of the Roman Empire in AD 60 or 61, and died shortly after its failure.

In AD 60 or 61, when the Roman governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus was campaigning on the island of Anglesey off the northwest coast of Wales, Boudica led the Iceni, the Trinovantes, and others in revolt. They destroyed Camulodunum (modern Colchester), earlier the capital of the Trinovantes but at that time a colonia, a settlement for discharged Roman soldiers and site of a temple to the former Emperor Claudius.

Upon hearing of the revolt, Suetonius hurried to Londinium (modern London), the 20-year-old commercial settlement that was the rebels' next target. The Romans, having concluded that they lacked sufficient numbers to defend the settlement, evacuated and abandoned Londinium. Boudica led 100,000 Iceni, Trinovantes, and others to fight Legio IX Hispana, and burned and destroyed Londinium and Verulamium (modern-day St Albans). An estimated 70,000–80,000 Romans and British civilians were killed in the three cities by those led by Boudica.

Suetonius, meanwhile, regrouped his forces in the West Midlands, and, despite being heavily outnumbered, defeated the Britons in the Battle of Watling Street.

See: Wikipedia for more.

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abt 26 Iceni, Britania - 62 photo
abt 10 Icenia, Britannia - 61 photo




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