Boudica - hero of an anti-Roman uprising
Boudica was a queen of the British Celtic Iceni tribe, who led an uprising against the conquering forces of the Roman Empire in AD 60 or 61. According to Roman sources, shortly after the uprising failed, she poisoned herself or died of her wounds, although there is no actual evidence of her fate. She is considered a British folk hero.
Boudica’s husband, Prasutagus, was king of the Iceni (in what is now Norfolk) as a client ruler under the Romans. When Prasutagus died in 60 with no male heir, he left his private wealth to his two daughters and to the emperor Nero, trusting thereby to win imperial protection for his family. Instead, the Romans annexed his kingdom, humiliated his family, and plundered the chief tribesmen.
While the provincial governor Suetonius Paulinus was absent in 60 or 61, Boudicca raised a rebellion throughout East Anglia. The insurgents burned Camulodunum (Colchester), Verulamium (St. Albans), Londinium (London), and several military posts.
According to the Roman historian Tacitus, Boudica’s rebels massacred 70,000 Romans and pro-Roman Britons and cut to pieces the Roman 9th Legion. Paulinus met the Britons at a point thought to be near present-day Fenny Stratford on Watling Street and regained the province in a desperate battle. Upon her loss, Boudica either took poison or died of shock or illness.
The battle marked the end of resistance to Roman rule in Britain in the southern half of the island, a period that lasted until 410 AD. Historians are dependent on Roman historians Tacitus and Dio Cassius for the only accounts of the battle.
Interest in these events was revived in the English Renaissance and led to Boudica's fame in the Victorian era. Boudica has remained an important cultural symbol in the United Kingdom.
Further reading
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