-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!
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