Why Was Queen Boudica’s Revolt Against the Romans So Violent?

It was one of the largest

revolt

s in British history, a mass insurrection aimed at driving the Romans out of Britain through blood and battle, at its head was a unique and elusive Warrior Queen, her name has been immortalized to through the buddika centuries, the year was 60 AD. The Roman Empire dominated the Mediterranean and beyond, stretching from modern-day Wales in the northwest to Syria and Armenia in the east, and one of the most infamous figures in ancient history sat on the Imperial Throne of Rome. Nero, it would be during Nero's reign that several areas of the Roman Empire experienced serious unrest, especially in Britain.

I'm in Colchester, the original capital of the Roman province of Britannia and a place with close and infamous links to Budd's

revolt

. Almost 20 years had passed since the initial Claudian invasion of Britain under orus plaus. and since then the Romans had carried out a series of successful breakthrough campaigns extending their influence beyond the island of Britain and this had been successful through a variety of methods, first of all through military means through of victories against famous British resistance leaders such as caticus, but also through shrewd diplomacy by delivering substantial bribes to powerful native British rulers in the south-east and north of Britain to ensure they remained peaceful as Rome sought to expand its control further west.

A key British ruler at this time was a king called The prestigious Bruticus was king of the Iini situated roughly in what is now the north in East Anglia and we hear from our sources that prus by 60 AD. C. had been reigning for quite some time, was considerably wealthy, and these two factors are probably closely related. to his close connections with Rome, remember those substantial bribes, as I mentioned earlier, that the Romans gave to powerful native British rulers where Prus was almost certainly one of those now Pus had two daughters and a wife, a

queen

we know today as buddika la The name buddika derives from the Celtic word Buddha, which means Victory and, according to our sources, she was quite a character.

To find out more, I met with Dr. Shushma Malik. The main thing we have about Buddha's appearance comes from Cassus Dio, who was writing quite a bit. much later, from the beginning of the 3rd century, so you're talking about 250 years after these events, he tells us that she was intelligent for a woman, so that's something maybe, but also that she was very wild in her appearance, she wore a multicolored robe and she carried a large spear, he insists on saying that it is not only her physical appearance but her voice is also fierce in the year 60.

Prus died in his will and left his kingdom to his two young daughters , but also to the Roman emperor Nero. His intention was that, on the one hand, it would preserve the identity of the royal family, but also to keep the Romans happy, this was not the case because he enters our next protagonist, Kus desius or Kus deanis, now Kus was one of the most prominent . Roman officials in Britain at that time he was the Roman procurator, he was in charge of the administration of finances and with the passing of puu, ker sensed an opportunity with the iini apparently paralyzed after the death of their king Kus, they decided that this was the perfect moment. to attack Kus maintains that the money the Romans had previously given to Pru should be repaid with interest.

Pruis and other local leaders had received money from the emperor but also from another prominent figure in the imperial regime, Sena, so what is the history of Sena loans? That's an interesting story. Casasus Dio talks about this again and says that Senica um lent the British people a lot of money and actually the Casas diocese's financial reasons were the main motivation for the Buddakan revolt in the first place. um Senica lent to the British. 40 million SES, which is a lot of money in Roman terms, so if you think you need 1 million SES to be a Roman senator, but the daily wage of an unskilled worker is about four cersi, so we are talking about huge amounts of money. here uh but what the gentleman did was withdraw these loans very quickly and he wanted all the money back immediately and that was one of the reasons why the uh buan revolt took place.

What followed was an infamous act by Roman centurions along with cers subordinates. slaves and lower officials broke into the territory iini, looted, robbed, plundered, the aristocracy iini lost their ancestral lands, they were treated as if they were a slave race, as if they were a subject people and what was even worse was to come for royalty itself iini. Budika was whipped her two daughters were raped the Romans had chosen to ignore the will of Pru a decision they made emphatically clear through their plunder of Iini territory but these nefarious actions would have consequences the Icini were enraged particularly their aristocracy and the ruling class a his head was battered buddika calls his people to a rebellion to drive the

romans

out of Britain, so tell me about this remarkable speech by buddhas in Casas Dio, so casasus Dio gives him a very long speech, compared to Tacitus of all ways, which is brilliant because it's a masterpiece of rhetoric really that he constructs for her and puts in a woman's mouth, which is, of course, unusual.

Actually she begins by talking about the freedom and slavery that the Romans have imposed on the British. So the British want their freedom back this is the time they can get their freedom back um even when you die she says you are still in debt to Rome you still have to pay the money from your wills you have been paying taxes all your life and then You're also leaving your money to the Romans, so she continues from freedom, subject to talk about how, actually, if the British had gotten rid of Julia SE in the 50s BC.

C., would not be in this scenario. to start with, uh, but now it's time to address that problem, um, then she ends the speech in an ex-extraordinary way where she doesn't add a hommm attack on Nero, she says that Nero is more of a woman than a man, she decides . to rename detia Nero lover detia Nero, which is the female version of Demus, which was her birth name, so she really does it, so choose Nero's jugular, if you want, which we don't see in comparable sources in tacit, for example, um and That is a very interesting way to characterize the motivations and impetus of the revolt, since it is about Roman suppression in the province, but also what is happening in Rome and also serves to make of buddika the more masculine of the two between them. she and Nero, so he may be a man and she may be a woman, but he is feminine and she is masculine. buddika became this rallying point for all those who rightly felt distressed by the recent inhumane and greedy actions of the Romans and Buddha of course.

He had suffered in those recent actions, but now his message was clear: it was time to fight back. People flocked to budika, the strongholds of the frozen aristocracy and thousands of tribesmen. This was an astonishing amount of British unity, all united by a shared hatred of the Romans and a desire. to expel them from the island if the Romans believed that the death of Bruticus would be the end of the icen and that the iini would simply accept their new subordinate status they were gravely mistaken, the game in buddika began Gathering their forces at a very opportune time in At that time , Britain's most powerful Roman military force was hundreds of miles to the west, in what is now Wales, led by our next key protagonist, the most powerful, most important Roman in the province of Britain and then Cetonas Paulinus, recently installed as governor of Great Britain.

Paulinus carried with him great military experience. He had previously led an expedition through the Atus Mountains in North Africa, making him the perfect choice to complete the conquest of Wales. Paulinus had so far had spectacular success campaigning in the northern part of Wales. had reached Angeli Island, where the British had retreated as a very important place for the British, but Paulinus his campaign continued to be successful, he even burned the most important sacred groves, now he could burn these sacred groves and If the At the beginning of the Buddha Revolt, Buddika may have had religious ties, but one thing is certain is that Buddika attacked at a very opportune time.

Buddha's first target was the nearby Roman city of Camalam. Today's Coester Cinam was the provincial heart of Roman Britain. in fact it was the provincial capital, this had been where Emperor Claudius had visited almost 20 years earlier to receive the surrenders of the British chiefs at the end of the initial invasion and since then Camalam had been transformed, it had become the first city Roman colony in Britain and was the only official Roman colony on this island at the time of Bruticus' death in AD 60. Now it was also here at Kudum that the Romans had settled a large number of veteran soldiers who may well have served in the initial Claudian invasion of Britain and who also infamously participated in plundering in the assault on iini territory immediately after the death of pru, but chudam was also home to a specific structure, a particular building that infuriated the nearby British, a monumental structure that personified, evoked, symbolized the newfound supremacy of Rome over this part of the island this was the Temple of Claudius was dedicated to Claudius because after his death he was deified and as a result we see this monumental construction appear in the heart of chunam this temple was a source of social tension with nearby Britain according to the Roman historian Tacitus, it lay before our eyes of Britain as a bastion of eternal domination, a reminder of Rome's supremacy over that part of the island, but this was not the only Roman architectural hallmark we see in Chunam, we also hear of a curier here.

At that time, a Roman courthouse as well as a theater and all of these buildings combined made Chunam look like it was being transformed into a Roman-looking city and that is incredibly significant when you consider that just 20 years earlier the invasion had occurred. Claudia. At the time, dunam had been a prominent British stronghold, but now it had become an urban symbol of Rome's growing influence in this part of the island. It is also important to remember that not only did the Romans live in Chudam Britain, they also lived in the city. those who were more inclined to adopt or adapt to certain aspects of Roman culture in 60 AD.

C. chudam had an estimated population of about 4,000 was a prosperous settlement but IL defended it lacked substantial fortifications had moats but no wall cudim was an obvious target for budika as budika and harami gathered bad omens played chunam we heard screams and whales in the theater the statue of Victory supposedly fell fell and then once on its side then rolled again as if it was retreating because an enemy was approaching, stories were told that people saw apparitions, they saw visions of camad dunam burning in the waters of the Eastern temperature, now, how much can we believe of these ancient bad omens?

Well, they probably probably didn't happen. The Romans were famous for inventing these bad omens to follow up an infamous moment in their history, but what is interesting is how we are told that the people of Chunam prepared for the imminent threat of Buddika and sent out calls for help. One was sent to prosecutor Kus. Deanis, who was then located in London, Londinium, but Kus seems to have misunderstood, he did not realize the seriousness of the threat posed by Buddika, to the point that he only sent 200 poorly armed soldiers to help the defense, but the people of Chunam also sent a request. to Aid the nearest Legion in Britain and this was the famous 9th Hispanic Leo 9th Legion then stationed at Mond Lincoln old Linden now the distance between coester and Lincoln is quite significant but there was a silver lining because in the year 6061 AD we believe that There were detachments of the 9th stationed closer to Peter, near the present day, and it was probably to these detachments that the people of Colchester sent their call for help;

Meanwhile, they began to build a ditch and a wall around the outside of Camad Dunam, but it all proved too much. Too late when Buddika an Arami arrived outside Coester, the Romans had abandoned any fortifications they actually created outside the center of the settlement and this was because we were told that a British fifth column working from within Coester had been hampering the defenses. to such an extent that the Romans had retreated to the Temple of Claudius, which was then the strongest structure in Camalam. Now you need to imagine the scenes because we are told that among thesoldiers there were also women, there were children, there were the elderly, there were the people who did not associate as if they were in the first line of combat action but when they retreated to the Temple of Claudius the Romans abandoned the rest of the buddika and arami settlement they wreaked havoc on the city ​​was raised the city was looted the fire would have been everywhere archaeologists today, looking at the ground, looking at the strategy, you can see a clear burned lirer which they call the budda cape because it may be related to when budika and arami raised this settlement to the ground, as the defenders inside the temple held out for two days, but in the end, they too were overwhelmed.

What followed was a merciless slaughter. None were spared if they were unlucky enough to be taken captive. They were quickly executed shortly after Buddha's first goal was achieved. Camad dunam this hated symbol of Rome's dominion The influence of Rome on this part of the island This was no longer the case, the Romans retreated from the destruction of the provincial capital, but another disaster quickly occurred, as already mentioned, part of the The 9th Spanish Legion was stationed quite close to Cudham and, meanwhile, the 9th Leot Petilius Serialis had been gathering troops. Preparing an expedition to March Southeast and to relieve pressure on the provincial capital proved to be too little, too late when Seri Alis and His relief force approached Camalam, the settlement was already in ruins, a victim of Budda's attack.

This weakened part of Leio 9 Hispana would be the ninth legion that would face the full fury of Budda's army. What followed next was a catastrophe for the 9th, the relief force was attacked on march by Buddika's army as they approached Cinam and they were annihilated serialis and only a part of their cavalry managed to escape the massacre, but the damage It was already done. Budika had achieved his next military success for the Romans. News of the destruction of part of the 9th Legion along with the looting of Cinnam was devastating to Kus, the procurator who had helped fuel its fire.

The insurrection fled Britain fleeing across the channel to ghoul, but when Kus departed A new hope for the Romans arrived in the south-east Suetonian poor Linus upon hearing of the revolt po Linus had hurried back from Angeli with his army Gathering more soldiers on the road now in londinium the

romans

and their allies look to their leadership London at the time was a thriving economic center that was home to approximately 10,000 people, but one key thing it was missing was fortifications, it did not have a wall, it was not intended to be a defensive bastion, something like Suetonius.

He desperately needed it if he was going to defend this city from Buddika and a much larger army, so Suetonius decided to abandon the city and would retreat north, taking with him as many soldiers as possible and gathering more troops along the way. . from London as many people as could who could fight, but those who could not fight, the women, the children, the old, all were left behind. They begged Suetonius to stay. They begged the governor to fight for the city, but Suetonius had already made up his mind. London. He was sacrificed budika and harami showed no mercy to London, looted the settlement and executed anyone they captured according to tacit.

Thousands were executed either by hanging, crucifying, or burning alive Kashi Dio goes into even more graphic detail and mentions how some who were captured were melted alive in boiling water, but the worst fates befell the British Romans and Roman noblewomen. Those who were captured were taken to the sacred groves where their breasts were cut off, according to Cash's Dio, sewn into their mouths before being impaled along the entire length of their bodies. By now the Romans had suffered several severe setbacks, but Suetonius He now set about consolidating the force he had. The 14th Legion had detachments from the 20th and also had a substantial number of auxiliaries.

It was quite a significant force, but it was then that Seroni encountered his final setback. Penus Potimus, the commander of the second legion stationed. In exitor he refused to march with his legion to Suetonius. Instead, he opted for them to remain within the safety of his legionary fortress in In the southwest and the same story was similar for the serialis and what remained as the 9th legion, he opted to stay with the remains of the 9th in his legionary fortress. at Lincoln, so the Seroni apparently abandoned by these two legionary commanders had approximately 10,000 men with which to oppose them.

Budika's mighty army When Suetonius gathered his forces Budika was already in pursuit having left London a smoking ruin in his path, he set his sights on at least one other settlement that he thought had been too friendly to the Romans. This was verium Modern Day St. The many Britains of Orin lived in this settlement for Buddika. It seems that their revolt had become a war of ethnic cleansing aimed at eradicating not only the Romans but also all of Britain which in their eyes had sided with Rome's army. Budda arrived at Verium and destroyed it. At this point, Budda's army was huge compared to Suetonius's, the Romans were the clear losers, Britain was confident, but Suetonius, despite being greatly outnumbered, knew it could take longer, it was time to struggle.

Suetonius knew that if he wanted to fight Buddika, then he. He wanted a battle on his terms and so he selected a battlefield that best suited his soldiers. He positioned them on slightly elevated ground, their rear was protected by a dense forest, but what was in front was the most important thing in the distance was a large open plane, but in front of that and just before Suetonius, their position was a narrow line of defense heavily wooded on both sides. Suetonius recognized that it was a possible extermination zone. It was through this defile that any attacking army would have to charge if they were to reach it.

The Roman position in the center of their line deployed their elite troops, their Roman legionaries flanked on both sides by auxiliaries and finally the cavalry and we have this deployment on good record because our main source for the battle is the Roman historian Tacitus and one Una One of the sources Tacitus was using was his father-in-law Agria, who may well have served as Suetonius' aid in this climactic clash. Meanwhile, while this deployment was taking place, Britain had flocked to the plane in unprecedented numbers. They were very confident that they believed victory was near and were so confident that many had brought their wives, their pack animals and their chariots to witness what they believed would be the final decisive success in their mission to drive the Romans out of Britain as Britain gathered Buddika emerging in front of his warriors ready to encourage them into battle with an emphatic speech.

So what do we know about this speech by Buddika before the Battle of Watling Street? So this speech comes to us from Tacitus, who is writing about the early 2nd century, so a little bit before Cassus Dio, this is a quite different speech that Tacitus gives to Buddika compared to Casassus Dio. She is in her chariot, this time she is not standing with her spear in front of the troops, but with her in her chariot or her daughters and it seems that she goes to each of the tribes individually and talks to them about being led by a woman, so first she assures them that it's okay that they can be led by a woman, there is a precedent for this, suggesting perhaps there are some differences in reactions between the tribes, but then she goes on to talk about how the Romans beat her personally, how They raped her daughters, it is the physical aggression towards her that is motivating this action, but it also speaks to the wider pollution that the Romans are doing to Britain, so the beating of other people and the savagery of the Romans is polluting Britain, so this makes it a religious and moral argument and therefore expands it to the tribes. um, as well as his own personal reasons um for going against the Romans, fact or fiction.

I like to think that when he finished his speech, a great roar broke out among the Britons, we were told in thesus in response, Suetonius had his own speech to his Roman. soldiers, he highlights that yes, Bud's army had the numbers, they had the quantity, but the Romans had the battle experience, they had the skill, they had the quality and the speech of being aton was generally the following, stay alert, keep your discipline, listen to orders and we will do it. defeated by the Romans there was another factor at play at that time buddika and the infamous reputation of his army must have preceded them the sacking of at least three settlements the annihilation of part of a Roman legion the Romans must have known that if they were going to see the exit the sun to see the sunset another day then they had to win they had to win Britain attacked they charged down the narrow gorge marching through the valley no doubt shouting and shouting as they approached their enemy but the Romans stayed where they were Every time Closer, the British were closing in on their position, but the Romans refused to move and then, at the signal given, all hell broke loose.

Each Roman legionary had two specially designed javelins called Pila, and as the British approached, the legion brought out its first longer-range pum. Javelin retrieved them and hurled them at the approaching British, then shortly after they brought out their second Javelin, a heavier peum of shorter range but more lethal, equipped with a lead weight, the legionnaires aimed their heads at heavier javelins. and they threw them down in a second volley at the approaching British now, as many British would have been lightly armored, these volleys of missiles would have been devastating and while the British were regaining their composure in the wake of this hail of missiles. , then the Roman legionaries went into action.

They locked in their large rectangular shields, drew their short gladiator swords, formed a wedge formation, and charged down the slope toward the British ranks on either side. They had their auxiliaries with their oval shields and spears similarly joining the charge with all their might. and the vigor of Britain, their numbers, the enormous number of soldiers now working to their disadvantage, Roman tactics combined with the terrain had turned them from predators into prey at this crucial moment, when British morale was wavering, Suetonius struck the hammer blow and sent his cavalry. the sides towards this great mass of British soldiers that was all for Britain they turned around and fled towards the narrow gorge pursued by the Romans having received orders not to show mercy the British came out to the plane they struggled to get the carts past their cargo The animals and Their wives watch them as they try to escape the carnage, but for many it was in vain.

What followed was a horrible bloodbath. Suetonius had achieved a notable but bloody victory when Penus Pamus, the commander of the Second Legion, learned of this. great victory obtained by Suetonius he committed suicide out of shame remember that it was Pamo who had refused to march with his legion before Suetonius Help earlier in the revolt regarding the casualties of the battle itself Tus tells us that about 400 Romans lost their lives in the Battle Meanwhile, Buddika's British army lost up to 80,000, as Budika's fate is less clear. There are two different versions of this story of what happens to budaka.

The Battle of Wling Street has been absolutely brutal. It is a massacre, not only the troops die. the British side um but also the women and the pack animals too um they also snort tacus says that at the end of this budaka committed suicide she takes poison in fact what speaks of her feminine character in reality it is the women who use poison in This method, think of Cleopatra for example, we also get the alternative version of the story by Casasus Dio, who actually says that yes, this was a horrible battle, but there was still some Britain ready to continue, if they could be led by budika so some managed to escape they were looking to Buddika for leadership and unfortunately Buddika became ill and died from his illness so this is a very different version of the story of Cassus Sto who again has a very different motivation for wanting to give him to Buddaka, um, maybe a more masculine look. death Rome learned its lessons from the revolt The iini territory was absorbed into the Roman province to ensure security.

Military structures were built north of the time. Colchester was rebuilt and eventually received its own wall. The Buddakan revolt was a wake-up call for the Romans. A deadly proof that the south. Britain had not yet been completely pacified. Pinus was brutal after what happened on Ling Street, but his retaliation only serves to raise the possibility of another rebellion. Seeing this, the new procurator classicus sent a message to Emperor Nero, who in turn sent his own official to Britain to put an end toreprisals, Fredman called Polyus, so this is interesting, this takes place after the Battle of Wling Street and we only get this from Tacitus Cassus.

Dio isn't necessarily interested in the Wling Street aftermath for him. Budd's death is decisive. Polyus. He walks in, he has a very impressive kind of entrance, um to the colony, he has a column of soldiers and it's scary, it's scary, but when the British realize that he is a freedman, so he had previously been a slave and had been released, they find him. a laughing stock because they don't. T says they don't understand how powerful a freedman can be, that for them there was this status in Rome, it was about being free or a slave, so for them, the politus still had that. that mantle of slavery and found it difficult to take seriously, the revolt finally ended with Peter thanks to a more lenient policy of a new Roman governor of Britain, those British Roman client rulers who had remained loyal to Rome and who had decided not to help buddika.

In his revolt they were well rewarded, perhaps the rulers of Fishborn and Caler. Now civil reconstruction occurred later, albeit slowly, immediately after the revolt, particularly in the areas around Colchester, around London, around St Auburn, those settlements that Budik had destroyed where the Romans put a strong focus on military construction . The Romans were determined that revolts like those in Buda and southern Britain would never happen again. Budd's revolt had ended in failure. The iini warrior woman herself had lost her life, but Budda's legacy lived on in Buddika's story. It's very popular, it's becoming a British legend. I mean, he's got it all, he's got the bugs in him.

The Woman Warrior is building up a revolt against the superpower of the time and almost succeeds, but for me what I find so fascinating about the revolt are the parallels we see between it and other more or less contemporary events we see in other parts of the world. in the 1st century AD. in Vietnam we see a similar revolt. Two sisters, the Trun Sisters, lead an uprising that encourages the Vietnamese to take up arms against their own dominant superpower, the Han dynasty of ancient China, which then dominated much of Vietnam, the Trung Sister Rebellion, as the Budd's revolt, ultimately ended in failure, but it is still an incredible parallel to the story that surrounds Buddika is something we can see parallels with throughout world history: a figure thrown into an extraordinary position and who made something about it, taking on an imperial superpower and achieving significant success.

Against All Odds only to finally be defeated. History has inspired the name. stands firm among the annals of british folklore archeology will discover more the legacy will endure thank you for watching this video in history Check out your YouTube channel, you can subscribe right here to make sure you don't miss any of our great upcoming films or, If you're a true history fan, check out our hit special dedicated to the History Channel. you're going to love television