Boudica's Rebellion - Part I

-60 AD- the king of Iceni at this time was a named Prasutagus (his Romanized name, of course).
   - The Iceni were one of the most powerful tribes of the Britons, but they had decided to sell out to Rome years earlier so Prasutagus was allowed to continue on ruling his tribe as a puppet king of the Roman emperor.
      -Because of this, Prasutagus listed both Emperor Nero AND his wife and daughters (he had no son) as heirs to the throne after he croaked.
         -It's unclear as to why he did this, but of course there are a bunch of theories about this.
            -This is important because the Romans would have found this it to be really embarrassing if one of their client kingdoms was ruled by a woman (haha so dumb).
               -The Britons, of course, were much more egalitarian about this and probably wouldn't have thought a queen calling the shots would be all that weird.
               -Also, this was guaranteed to be a time bomb because Nero's foreign policy was much more aggressive than Emperor Claudius'.
                  -Claudius' style was to invade, establish dominance, and then allow these newly-conquered peoples to govern themselves through puppet rulers controlled by Rome.  In contrast, Nero's style was simply to dominate, subjugate, and assimilate (asshole).
   -Although the Romans still held Britannia, the natives were becoming increasingly pissed off at Rome over what they saw as unfair economic oppression, corruption, and extortion.
      -The Britons were a warlike culture, so living like slaves under their Roman overlords must have been maddening.
      -The Briton nobility also found themselves becoming more and more indebted to Rome over time, as they were unaccustomed to the concept of loans; they had always operated on a barter/gift-giving economic system.
         -Of course, the Romans took advantage of this to rip off the Britons as much as possible.
       -Besides the Iceni getting pissed off, they were also joined by the Trinovantes in terms of a strong anti-Roman sentiment.
         -The Trinovantes' capital at Camulodunum had been conquered by Rome and was made the capital of the province, which I'm sure was a wound that the Trinovantes still hadn't completely healed from yet.
   -The Romans also took full advantage of their subjugation of the Iceni by forcing them to offer up their young men for conscription into the Roman legions (or fight as auxiliaries maybe?), give up their weapons, and allow for the Romans to search their homes and shit for weapons at any time.  They were also taxed heavily in order to help finance the Roman occupation of their own land :)
      -To make matters worse, the Iceni were taxed in grain, so if there was a famine many of them ended up starving.
-So, after Prasutagus died, his wife Boudica was enthroned as queen and leader of the Iceni.
   -We don't actually know much about her, or even if "Boudica" was her real name (or even close to it!).
      -The Romans definitely found the concept of a warrior-queen to be a negative thing.  According to the Romans, the battlefield was no place for a woman!  So, they're not the most objective source of info.
      -She was described by the Romans as tall and fierce, and said to worship the Iceni goddess Andraste (a war goddess who may have also gone by other names of course and is believed to have possibly been related to the goddesses Nike (Greek), Bellona (Roman), Cybele (Anatolian), and Vacuna (Sabine)).
   -Unfortunately, the Romans conveniently interpreted the Iceni's status as a client kingdom to be nullified after the death of Prasutagus, so Roman troops were immediately sent in to ensure that the transition from client kingdom to provincial region went as smoothly as possible.
      -Of course, the Romans were probably not the most gentle when they went in to do this, and during the confiscation of the royal property the Roman soldiers had Boudica publicly flogged while they raped her daughters and had the Iceni nobles arrested and beaten before completely looting the area.
         -How could this have happened?   Weren't the Iceni at this point Roman citizens?
            -While the Iceni WERE technically Roman citizens, the Roman soldiers probably didn't give a shit; to them, the Britons were just subhuman savages and thus had no problems with doing this kind of bullshit to the people they subjugated.
-Of course, what the Romans did to "pacify" the Iceni completely fucking backfired, as the Iceni now believed that the Romans were pure evil, a sentiment the Trinovantes had been feeling at this point for years!
   -It was now obvious that no Briton, whether they were Roman citizens or not, was safe.
      -Soon, thousands of Britons from all over began arriving in the region to show their support for Boudica and unify against the Romans.
-Boudica now found herself as the leader (or at least one of the leaders) of a multi-tribal rebellion against the Romans. 
   -There may have been other leaders, too, but of course the Romans focused heavily on Boudica.
   -The Britons immediately began to eye Camulodunum as their first major target (due to its proximity, strategic location, and symbol of Roman power).
   -As they marched towards the capital, local Britons would just join them (including women and children!).
   -Apparently, the Romans either didn't take the rebellion seriously or they were being fed bad intel because when the Briton army arrived they found Camulodunum undefended, as the vast majority of the Roman forces were far to the west!
      -Panicked, Camulodunum immediately sent word for help from the nearest major Roman settlement- Londinium.
         -Londinium responded by sending a reinforcement army of...200 men haha.  In contrast, it's estimated that Boudica's army numbered in the tens of thousands (or maybe even over 100,000!).
   -According to legend, a bunch of ominous portents, supernatural visions, and strange occurrences began to occur in Camulodunum as Boudica's army approached.
   -When the Britons finally attacked, the defenders and everyone else still in the town were completely slaughtered (Roman and Romanized Britons alike!). 
      -It was a complete bloodbath; no one was spared! 
         -Clearly, the Britons were extremely fucking pissed off.
         -After the slaughter, the town was burned to the ground (except for the temple, which was made of stone).
            -By the time Roman reinforcements arrived it was too late, and they, too, were slaughtered by the Britons.
-It's worth noting, however, that there is actually not much in the way of archaeological evidence to verify that the Britons actually slaughtered all of the town's inhabitants, and this may have just been anti-Briton propaganda from Rome.  That being said, there is some evidence supporting that instead of being slaughtered during the attack on the city, the citizens were instead captured by the army and then killed in a mass sacrifice!

Suetonius, Part-Time Mountain-Climber and Full-Time Jerk

-41 AD- Gaius Suetonius Paulinus- governor of the province of Mauretania and the first Roman commander to lead troops across the Atlas Mountains (mountain range located in modern-day Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia).
-54 AD- Emperor Claudius dies (or was he murdered? Hmm...) replaced by his adopted son, Nero (although more likely than not it was his mother, Agrippina (the Younger), who was really calling the shots!).
   -During this time in Britannia Aulus Didius Gallus was governor, spending most of his efforts trying to quell rebellions in the lands occupied by Roman forces.
-57 AD- in the North, the Brigantes continued to raise hell, although they were also fighting each other too because they were divided.
   -One faction was led by the Brigantes king Venutius, the other was led by his wife (!), Queen Cartimandua.
      -The tension finally came to a head when Cartimandua captured and imprisoned Venutius' side of the family.
         -Because of this, Venutius' kingdom erupted into civil war.  Venutius took up Caratacus' banner in order to continue the fight against Rome, but also added the queen and her allies to his list of enemies (this was probably due to Cartimandua's treatment of Caratacus).
         -However, up until this time Venutius had just been quarreling with Cartimandua.  So, why did he decide to declare war on Rome and bring them into the mix?
            -It's possible he did this because he didn't have a large-enough force to support his side so he tried to get more anti-Roman factions (like the Silures (occupied modern-day Wales)) to his side in order to boost his numbers.
         -As a result of Venutius' attacks against Cartimandua's forces, Cartimandua reached out to Governor Didius for Roman military support.
            -However, Governor Didius most likely didn't want to get involved, as his priority (or orders from Rome) was containment, not invasion.  Plus, the Brigantes served as a nice buffer between Roman-occupied Britannia and the wild hordes to the north (modern-day Scotland).
               -So, Didius sent troops to the region to support Cartimandua (and also expand Rome's reach, of course).  The Roman forces arrived to find that the land was being ravaged by civil war. 
                  -Because of Rome's involvement, of course, Cartimandua's forces were now much larger than Venutius', and Venutius and his resistance had to go underground.
            -Eventually, Cartimandua also got a new dude to be her lover and king- Vellocatus (former squire to Venutius). 
               -This was an interesting choice because he was a servant and of common birth, so I'm sure the Brigantes nobility were thrilled to have a commoner as their new king.
                  -Thus, because of this (in addition to Venutius' continued attacks), Cartimandua was forced to rely more and more on Roman support.
-Meanwhile, back in Rome, Emperor Nero was faced wit ha tough decision- shit was getting so bad in Britannia that it probably would have otherwise been a wise decision to pull out, but he couldn't because this would have undermined all the progress that Emperor Claudius had made with conquering the region!  What to do??
   -Nero decides to recall Didius back to Rome.  Didius is then replaced as governor of Britannia by a general named Quintus Veranius, who would actually go on to do a pretty good job in pacifying the new province by implementing new, aggressive military strategies.
      -Apparently, upon returning to Rome Didius was made fun of by the senator/historian Tacitus. 
      -Also during this time, Rome and its Britannic allies pushed hard against the Silures in order to finally crush them once and for all.
-How was Rome able to get these armies of natives to fight against each other?
   -One way was the promise of Roman citizenship- if you were a non-citizen but fought for Rome for 25 years, then you could become a Roman citizen!
      -Because of this, things weren't looking too good for the resistance.
-Why was Rome having such a hard time pacifying this new province?
   -One problem was that Britannia had like 23 different tribes, each with their own territory and shit, and they also typically didn't get along with each other.
      -As is the same as the rest of human history, it's really hard to conquer a bunch of different people who don't like each other and then attempt to unify them under one (foreign) banner.
   -Rome had the most control in the south of the island, so that's where they decided to focus all of their attention (in terms of administration, development, and exporting Roman culture).
      -The north and the west of the island, however, were completely different stories of course, and were always having problems in terms of rebellion and shit.
-How did the Romans settle the region and make it more "Romanized"?
   -They would typically send in their forces to pacify the area and then set up a fort.  Naturally, after this trade and commerce would spring up around the forts in order to cater to the needs of the Roman soldiers.
      -Eventually, once there was no longer a need for the Roman fort to still be there, the Romans would allow for the locals to do with it what they wished (usually resulting in its demolition in order to free up more land for the settlement), and by this point the town would be pretty Romanized in terms of culture, it would essentially just another Roman town in the vast Roman Empire!
         -These new Roman towns in Britannia were different from the traditional Britannic towns that dotted the island.
            -The smaller Roman towns in Britannia may have had more in common with the traditional settlements of the island, but the larger Roman towns were usually rectangular in shape, well-organized and fortified, featured streets in a grid, and were designed to be as "Roman" as possible in terms of architecture and culture.
  -Unfortunately for the Romans, they always had a difficult time persuading the local nobility to live in these cities, as the nobility preferred to live in their rural estates and away from the hordes of commoners in the city.  Plus, many of these families had probably lived in these estates for decades (if not centuries!), so it wouldn't be expected for them to want to abandon their estates and luxurious ways of life just so they could go live in the nearby city with all the riff-raff!
      -The Romans desperately wanted the aristocracy to live in cities, of course, as they knew that commoners would want to follow the nobility if the nobility were doing it (whether it be living in cities, accepting and promoting or encouraging Roman fashion, religion, culture, etc.).  If the Romans could just get the nobles into these new Roman cities, it would make these cities seem more legit!
         -The Romans tried to attract these nobles by enticing them with cool shit like novel goods (wine, oil, etc.) and innovations (such as the hypocaust (Ancient Roman central heating), public baths, etc.).  This kind of worked, too, but the nobility still would insist on living at least part-time in their rural estates (depending on the season)).
      -Once the Romans got Britons to accept their rule, they encouraged them to continue doing this by offering citizenship to citizens (which came with a ton of benefits and made life under the Romans just easier in general).
   -Another fun fact- the Romans didn't have to try too hard to get the Britons to speak Latin, as they actually may have known some of the language (or at least were aware of its existence) prior to the Claudian invasions of Britannia (as indicated by certain Briton coins and other archaeological/historical evidence).
      -Of course, as Rome's grip on power in southern Britannia strengthened, the use of Latin spread throughout the island.
         -In fact, it's been argued that the Latin spoke by Britons was actually a more "pure" version of the language compared to the kind of Latin that was spoken in Rome.  Perhaps that was because the Britons were taught Latin usually in formal educational settings (instead of it being just a native tongue (and thus prone to all sorts of "corruption" (slang, bad grammar, etc.)).
-However, not all of the Britons were down with the Romans or being Romanized, of course.
   -One of the most hardcore anti-Roman forces were the Silures (of modern-day Wales).
      -Because of this, they soon found themselves fighting off Roman forces (commanded by Suetonius). 
         -Suetonius was especially brutal and methodical in his subjugation of the Silures.  By the time the Roman forces reached the west coast of the island they had already begun to make plans to attack the island of Mona (modern-day Anglesey), a stronghold for both the druids and Briton refugees who were still resistant to the Roman occupation.  Mona was also a main source for food (such as grain) for this anti-Roman resistance.
            -This resulted in a great battle.  Ultimately, the Romans were victorious, and they ended up slaughtering the island's inhabitants.
               -Although it seemed as if this was the last of Briton resistance in the south, there were soon reports of a massive rebellion in the east!  This particular rebellion was being led by a warrior-queen known as Boudica.
                  -It's also important to remember that during this time, the west still wasn't quite pacified.  Still, Suetonius knew that he had no choice but to quietly withdraw his forces from the west and quell Boudica's rebellion in the east ASAP!