Citation with stable link: Philip A. Harland, 'Britons: Tacitus and Dio Cassius on the revolt of the Icenians and Trinobantians led by Boudicca (early second century),' Ethnic Relations and Migration in the Ancient World, last modified August 16, 2024, https://philipharland.com/Blog/?p=21558.
Ancient author: Tacitus (early second century CE), Annals 14.29-39 (link); Dio Cassius (early third century CE), Roman History 62.3–6, as summarized by John Xiphilinus (eleventh century; link).
Comments: Both Tacitus and Dio Cassius use the story of Boudicca’s leadership of Britons’ (Icenians’ in particular in Tacitus) resistance to Roman rule (placed in 60-61 CE) to point to misbehaviours by certain Roman colonists, soldiers, and officials, on the one hand, and to characterize the Britons, on the other (see Adler 2011, 117-162). By way of speeches, these authors ventriloquize to communicate their own messages about Roman imperial intervention on the island and their own imaginations about the perspectives of Britons.
Regarding characterizations of Britons, notable here is the notion that northerners such as Britons were particularly brave and spirited, but also that their basic lifestyles and customs contrasted significantly to those of the Romans. The persona of Boudicca herself also points to the prominence of woman within leadership, for instance. Rather than offering specific interpretations of Tacitus’ and Dio Cassius’ perspectives beyond that (on which see Adler’s attempts), here we present the sources themselves.
Works consulted: E. Adler, Valorizing the Barbarians: Enemy Speeches in Roman Historiography (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2011).
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Tacitus
[Context of leadership before the revolt]
(14.29) When Caesennius Paetus and Petronius Turpilianus were consuls [61 CE], a major disaster was sustained in Britannia. As I have mentioned, the legate, Aulus Didius [ca. 52-57 CE], had done nothing but retain the ground already won in Britannia, while his successor Veranius [57 CE], after attacking the Silurians in a few raids of no great significance, was prevented by death from carrying his military action further. Famous for uncompromising independence during his life, in the closing words of his testament Veranius was revealed to be a panderer because, amid a mass of flattery to Nero, he added that, if he have lived for the next two years, he would have laid the province at Nero’s feet. For the present, however, Suetonius Paulinus [from 57 CE] had the Britons under his control. In military skill and in popular reputation (in which no man can avoid a rival) Suetonius was a strong competitor to Corbulo, being anxious to equal the prestige of the recovery of Armenia by crushing an enemy. So Suetonius prepared to attack the island of Mona [modern Anglesey], which had a considerable population of its own, while serving as a haven for refugees. In light of the shallow and variable channel, he constructed a flotilla of boats with flat bottoms. By this method the foot-soldiers crossed. The horsemen, who followed, did so by fording or, in deeper water, by swimming beside their horses.
[Population of Mona island as “savages” annihilated by Roman armies]
(14.30) On the beach stood the adverse array, a densely-packed mass of weapons and men, with women flitting between the ranks. In the style of Furies, in robes of deathly black and with dishevelled hair, they brandished their torches. Meanwhile, a circle of Druids, lifting their hands to heaven and showering imprecations, struck the troops with such an awe at the extraordinary spectacle that, as though their limbs were paralysed, they exposed their bodies to wounds without an attempt at movement. Then, reassured by their general, and inciting each other never to flinch before a band of women and fanatics, they charged behind the standards, cut down all who met them, and enveloped the enemy in his own flames. The next step was to install a garrison among the conquered population, and to demolish the groves consecrated to their savage cults. For they considered it a duty to consult their deities by means of human entrails [i.e. after human sacrifice]. While he was occupied in this way, the sudden revolt of the province was announced to Suetonius.
[Icenians and Boudicca]
(14.31) The Icenian king Prasutagus, celebrated for his long prosperity, had named the emperor his heir, together with his two daughters. This was an act of deference which he thought would place his kingdom and household beyond the risk of injury. The opposite resulted, so much so that his kingdom was pillaged by centurions and his household by slaves, as though they had been prizes of war. To begin with, his wife Boudicca was subjected to the lash and his daughters violated: all the chief men of the Icenians were stripped of their family estates, and the relatives of the king were treated as slaves. Impelled by this outrage and the dread of worse to come – for they had now been reduced to the status of a province – they rushed to arm themselves and incited to rebellion the Trinobantians and others who, not yet broken by servitude, had entered into a secret and treasonable compact to resume their independence.
[Causes of the rebellion: Roman veterans’ and soldiers’ treatment of the population]
The bitterest animosity was felt against the veterans. These veterans, who were fresh from their settlement in the colony of Camulodunum [modern Colchester], were acting as though they had received a free gift of the entire country. They were driving the natives from their homes, ejecting them from their lands and calling them “captives” and “slaves,” being assisted in their fury by the soldiers with their similar mode of life and their hopes of equal indulgence. Furthermore, the temple of the deified Claudius was continually in view like the citadel of an eternal tyranny. At the same time, the priests chosen for its service were bound under the pretext of ritual obligation to pour out their fortunes like water. It did not seem like a great difficulty to demolish a colony that was unprotected by fortifications, which is a point that was not significantly considered by our commanders. Their thoughts had focussed more on the agreeable than on the useful.
[Premonitions and beginnings of the rebellion]
(14.32) Meanwhile, for no apparent reason, the statue of Victory at Camulodunum fell, with its back turned as if in retreat from the enemy. Women, converted into maniacs by excitement, cried that destruction was at hand and that alien cries had been heard in the invaders’ senate-house: the theatre had rung with shrieks, and in the estuary of the Thames had been seen a vision of the ruined colony. Furthermore, the fact that the Ocean had appeared blood-red and that the ebbing tide had left behind what looked like human corpses were indications interpreted by the Britons with hope and by the veterans with corresponding alarm.
[Rebellion and nature of the barbarians’ actions]
However, as Suetonius was far away, they [the veterans] applied for help to the procurator Catus Decianus. He sent not more than two hundred men, without their proper weapons. In addition, there was a small body of troops in the town. Relying on the protection of the temple, and hindered by covert adherents of the rebellion who interfered with their plans, they neither secured their position by moat or rampart. Nor did they take steps to remove the women and the aged in order to leave only able-bodied men in the place. They were as carelessly guarded as if the world was at peace when they were enveloped by a great barbarian host. Everything else was pillaged or set on fire in the first attack: only the temple, in which the troops had massed themselves, stood a two days’ siege, and was then carried by storm. Turning to meet Petilius Cerialis, commander of the ninth legion, who was arriving to the rescue, the victorious Britons defeated the legion and slaughtered every single one of the foot-soldiers. Cerialis with the cavalry escaped to the camp, and found shelter behind its fortifications. Unnerved by the disaster and the hatred of the province which his greed had turned into war, the procurator Catus crossed to Gaul.
(14.33) Suetonius, on the other hand, with remarkable firmness, marched straight through the midst of the enemy upon Londinium. Though not distinguished by the title of colony, Londinium was still a busy centre, chiefly through its crowd of merchants and stores. Once there, Suetonius felt some doubt whether to choose it as a base of operations. However, on considering how few troops there were and the sufficiently severe lesson which had been read to the rashness of Petilius, he determined to save the country as a whole at the cost of one town. The laments and tears of the inhabitants, as they implored Suetonius’ protection, found him inflexible. He gave the signal to leave and embodied in the column those capable of accompanying the march. Everyone who had been detained by their noncombatant sex [i.e. women], by the weariness of age, or by local attachment, fell into the hands of the enemy.
A similar catastrophe was reserved for the municipality of Verulamium. The barbarians, with their delight in plunder and their distaste for exertion, left the forts and garrison-posts on one side, and made for the point which offered the richest material for the pillager and was unsafe for a defending force. It has been established that almost seventy thousand Roman citizens and allies fell in the places mentioned. For the enemy neither took captive nor sold into captivity. There was none of the other commerce of war. They [the “barbarians”] were fast to engage in slaughter, hangings, arson, and the cross, as though their day of reckoning had come, but only after they had snatched revenge in the mean time.
[Suetonius’ and the Roman legion’s response]
(14.34) Suetonius already had the fourteenth legion, with a detachment of the twentieth and auxiliaries from the nearest stations, altogether some ten thousand armed men, when he prepared to abandon delay and contest a pitched battle. He chose a position approached by a narrow crevice and secured from behind by a forest. He first satisfied himself that there was no trace of an enemy except in his front and then that the plain there was devoid of cover and allowed no suspicion of an ambush. The legionaries were posted in densely-packed ranks, the light-armed troops on either side, and the horsemen massed on the extreme wings. The Britons, on the other hand, disposed in bands of foot-soldiers and horsemen were moving jubilantly in every direction. They were in unprecedented numbers, and confidence ran so high that they brought even their wives to witness the victory. They put the women in wagons which they had stationed just over the extreme fringe of the plain.
[Boudicca’s address to the Britons]
(14.35) Boudicca, mounted in a chariot with her daughters before her, rode up to each people (natio) and delivered her protest that it was customary, she knew, with Britons to fight under female leadership. However, now she was avenging her ravished realm and power not as a queen of glorious ancestry. Rather, she was doing so as a woman of the people with her freedom lost, her body tortured by the lash, and the honour of her daughters tarnished. Roman greed had progressed so far that not their very persons, not age itself, nor virginity were left unpolluted. Yet the gods were on the side of their just revenge: one legion, which dared to battle, had perished; the rest were hiding in their camps or looking around them for a way to escape. They would never face even the noise and roar of those many thousands, far less their onslaught and their swords! If they considered in their own hearts their forces with weapons and their motives for war, they must conquer or fall on that field. Such was the settled purpose of a woman. The men might live and be slaves!
[Suetonius’ encouragement of the Roman troops]
(14.36) Even Suetonius, in this critical moment, broke silence. In spite of his reliance on the courage of the men, he still blended exhortations and entreaty that they must treat with contempt the noise and empty menaces of the barbarians. In the ranks opposite, more women than soldiers meet the eye. Unwarlike and unarmed, they would break immediately, when, taught by so many defeats, they recognized once more the steel and the courage of their conquerors. Even in a number of legions, it was but a few men who decided the fate of battles. It would be an additional glory that they, a handful of troops, were gathering the prestigious rewards of an entire army. Only, keeping their order close, and, when their javelins were discharged, employing shield-boss and sword, they were to steadily pile up the dead and forget about plunder. Once the victory was gained, all would be their own. The ardour that followed the general’s words was so great – with such eagerness had his veteran troops, with the long experience of battle, prepared themselves in a moment to hurl their javelins – that Suetonius, without a doubt of the issue, gave the signal to engage.
[Roman decimation of the population]
(14.37) At first, the legionaries stood motionless, keeping to the crevice as a natural protection. Then, when the closer advance of the enemy had enabled them to exhaust their missiles with precise aim, they dashed forward in a wedge-like formation. The auxiliaries charged in the same style. The horsemen, with lances extended, broke a way through any parties of resolute men whom they encountered. The remainder took to flight, although escape was difficult, as the cordon of wagons had blocked the way out. The troops gave no quarter even to the women: the baggage animals themselves had been speared and added to the pile of bodies. The glory won in the course of the day was remarkable, and equal to that of our older victories. By some counts, a little less than eighty thousand Britons died at a cost of some four hundred Romans killed and a not much greater number of wounded. Boudicca ended her days by poison. While Poenius Postumus, camp-prefect of the second legion, informed of the exploits of the men of the fourteenth and twentieth, and conscious that he had cheated his own corps of a share in the honours and had violated the rules of the service by ignoring the orders of his commander, ran his sword through his body.
(14.38) The whole army was now concentrated and camped in tents, with a view to finishing what was left of the campaign. Its strength was increased by the Caesar, who sent over from Germany two thousand legionaries, eight cohorts of auxiliaries, and a thousand cavalry. Their advent allowed the gaps in the ninth legion to be filled with regular troops. The allied foot-soldiers and horsemen were stationed in new winter quarters.
[Fate of other nearby peoples]
Also, the peoples (nationes) which had shown themselves dubious or disaffected were attacked with fire and sword. Nothing, however, pressed so hard as famine on an enemy who, careless about the sowing of crops, had diverted all ages of the population to military purposes while setting his mark on our [Roman] supplies for his own property. The fierce-tempered descent groups (gentes) inclined the more slowly to peace because Julius Classicianus, who had been sent in succession to Catus and was not on good terms with Suetonius, was hampering the public welfare by his private animosities, and had circulated a report that it would be well to wait for a new legate. A new legate, lacking the bitterness of an enemy and the arrogance of a conqueror, would show consideration to those who surrendered. At the same time, he reported to Rome that no cessation of fighting should be expected until the supersession of Suetonius, the failures of whom he referred to his own perversity, his successes to the kindness of fortune.
[Polyclitus’ post-war inquiry for Nero, and Tacitus’ commentary on freedmen in power]
(14.39) Accordingly Polyclitus, one of the freedmen, was sent to inspect the state of Britannia. Nero was hoping that, through Polyclitus’ influence, not only might a reconciliation be effected between the legate and the procurator, but the rebellious temper of the barbarians might be brought to acquiesce in peace. Polyclitus, in fact, whose immense column of forces had been a cause of anxiety to Italy and Gaul, did not fail, when once he had crossed the seas, to render his march a terror even to Roman soldiers.
To the enemy [Britons], on the other hand, he was a subject of derision. With them, the fire of freedom was not yet quenched. They still had to make acquaintance with the power of freedmen [i.e. ex-slaves who had been placed in imperial power positions]. They wondered whether a general and an army who had accounted for such a war would obey a troop of slaves. Nonetheless, everything was reported to the emperor in a more favourable light. Suetonius was retained at the head of affairs. But, when later on he lost a few ships on the beach, and the crews with them, he was ordered, under pretence that the war was still in being, to transfer his army to Petronius Turpilianus. Turpilianus by now had finished his time as consul. The new-comer abstained from provoking the enemy, was not challenged himself, and conferred on this spiritless inaction the honourable name of peace.
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Dio Cassius
[Divine signs of the impending revolt of the Britons]
(62.1) While this sort of child’s play was going on in Rome [Nero engaging in a lyre-playing festival], a terrible disaster occurred in Britannia. Two cities were sacked, eighty thousand of the Romans and of their allies perished, and the island was lost to Rome. Moreover, all this ruin was brought upon the Romans by a woman, a fact which in itself caused them the greatest shame. Indeed, the deity gave them indications of the catastrophe beforehand. For at night foreign jargon mingled with laughter was heard coming from the senate-house and outcries and lamentations were heard coming from the theatre, even though no human being had uttered the words or the groans. Houses were seen under the water in the river Thames, and the ocean between the island and Gaul once grew blood-red at flood tide.
[Causes of the revolt]
(62.2) An excuse for the war was found in the confiscation of the sums of money that Claudius had given to the foremost Britons. For these sums, as Decianus Catus, the procurator of the island, maintained, were to be paid back. This was one reason for the uprising. Another was found in the fact that Seneca, in the hope of receiving a good rate of interest, had lent to the islanders 40,000,000 sesterces that they did not want. Afterwards he had called in this loan all at once and had resorted to severe measures in exacting it. But the person who was chiefly instrumental in rousing the natives and persuading them to fight the Romans, the person who was thought worthy to be their leader and who p85 directed the conduct of the entire war, was Boudica (Boudouika), a woman of Briton from the royal family and possessed of greater intelligence than often belongs to women.
This woman assembled her army, to the number of some 120,000, and then ascended a tribunal which had been constructed of earth in the Roman fashion. She was very tall in statue and most terrifying in appearance. A glance of her eye was most fierce and her voice was harsh. A huge mass of tann-coloured hair fell to her hips. She had a large golden necklace around her neck and wore a tunic of many colours over which a thick mantle was fastened with a brooch. She dressed like this all the time.
[Boudicca’s speech about Britons’ freedom and superiority to the Romans]
She now grasped a spear to aid her in terrifying all observers and spoke as follows:
(62.3) “You have learned by actual experience how different freedom is from slavery. Hence, although some among you may previously, through ignorance of which was better, have been deceived by the alluring promises of the Romans, yet now that you have tried both, you have learned how great a mistake you made in preferring an imported despotism to your ancestral mode of life. You have come to realize how much better is poverty with no master than wealth with slavery. For what treatment is there of the most shameful or grievous sort that we have not suffered ever since these men made their appearance in Britannia? Have we not been robbed entirely of most of our possessions, and those the greatest, while for those possessions that remain we pay taxes? Besides pasturing and tilling for them all our other possessions, do we not pay a yearly tribute for our very bodies? How much better it would be to have been sold to masters once for all than, possessing empty titles of freedom, to have to ransom ourselves every year! How much better to have been killed and to have died than to go around with a tax on our heads! Yet why do I mention death? For even dying is not free of cost with them: no, you know what fees we deposit even for our dead. Among the rest of humankind death frees even those who are in slavery to others. Only in the case of the Romans do the very dead remain alive for their profit. Why is it that, though none of us has any money – how, indeed, could we, or where would we get it? – we are stripped and despoiled like a murderer’s victims? And why should the Romans be expected to display moderation as time goes on, when they have behaved toward us in this fashion at the very outset, when all men show consideration even for the beasts they have newly captured?”
(62.4) “But, to speak the plain truth, it is we who have made ourselves responsible for all these evils, in that we allowed them to set foot on the island in the first place instead of immediately expelling them as we did their famous Julius Caesar. Yes, and in that we did not deal with them while they were still far away as we dealt with Augustus and with Gaius Caligula and make even the attempt to sail here a formidable thing. As a consequence, despite the fact that we inhabit so large an island, or rather a continent, one might say, that is encircled by the sea, and although we possess a veritable world of our own and are so separated by the ocean from all the rest of humankind that we have been believed to live on a different earth and under a different sky, and that some of the outside world. Yes, even their wisest men have not up to the present known for sure even by what name we are called. Notwithstanding all this, we have been despised and trampled underfoot by men who know nothing else except how to secure gain. However, even at this late day, though we have not done so before, let us, my fellow citizens, friends and relatives – for I consider you all relatives, seeing that you inhabit a single island and are called by one common name – let us, I say, do our duty while we still remember what freedom is, that we may leave to our children not only its appellation but also its reality. For, if we utterly forget the happy state in which we were born and bred, what, I ask, will they do, reared in bondage?”
(62.5) “I say all of this not for the purpose of inspiring you with a hatred of present conditions, because you already have that hatred. Nor do I do so with fear for the future, because you already have that fear. Instead, I say all of this to commend you because you now choose the required course of action of our own volition and to thank you for so readily cooperating with me and with each other. Do not have any fear whatsoever of the Romans, because they are superior to us neither in numbers nor in bravery. And here is the proof: they have protected themselves with helmets, breastplates, and greaves and yet further provided themselves with palisades, walls and trenches to make sure they suffer no harm by an incursion of their enemies. For they are influenced by their fears when they adopt this kind of fighting in preference to the plan we follow of rough and ready action. Actually, we enjoy a surplus of bravery so that we regard our tents as safer than their walls and our shields as affording greater protection than their whole suits of mail. As a consequence, we when victorious capture them, and when overpowered elude them. And if we ever choose to retreat anywhere, we conceal ourselves in swamps and mountains so inaccessible that we can be neither discovered or taken. Our opponents, however, can neither pursue anybody, by reason of their heavy armour, nor run away. If they ever do slip away from us, they take refuge in certain appointed spots, where they shut themselves up as in a trap. But these are not the only ways in which they are vastly inferior to us: there is also the fact that they cannot withstand hunger, thirst, cold, or heat, as we can. They require shade and covering, they require kneaded bread, wine and oil, and if any of these things fails them, they die For us, on the other hand, any grass or root serves as bread, the juice of any plant as oil, any water as wine, any tree as a house. Furthermore, this region is familiar to us and is our ally, but to them it is unknown and hostile. As for the rivers, we swim them naked, whereas they do not across them easily even with boats. Let us, therefore, go against them trusting boldly to good fortune. Let us show them that they are rabbits and foxes trying to rule over dogs and wolves.”
[Boudicca’s second speech outlining the lifestyle and character of Britons]
(62.6) When she had finished speaking, she employed a type of divination, letting a rabbit escape from the fold of her dress. Because it ran on what they considered the auspicious side, the whole crowd shouted with pleasure, and Boudicca, raising her hand toward heaven, said:
“I thank you, Andraste, and call upon you as woman speaking to woman. For I rule over no burden-bearing Egyptians as did Nitokris, nor over trafficking Assyrians as did Semiramis (for we have by now gained that much learning from the Romans!), much less over the Romans themselves as did Messalina once and afterwards Agrippina and now Nero (who, though in name a man, is in fact a woman, as is proved by his singing, lyre-playing and beautification of his person). No! Those over whom I rule are Britons, men who do not know how to farm or ply a trade, but are thoroughly versed in the skill of war and hold all things in common, even children and wives, so that the latter possess the same valour as the men.”
“As the queen, then, of such men and of such women, I supplicate and pray for victory, preservation of life, and freedom against insolent, unjust, insatiable, and impious men. That is, if, in fact, we should even call those people men who bathe in warm water, eat artificial dainties, drink unmixed wine, anoint themselves with myrrh, sleep on soft couches with boys for bedfellows (boys past their prime at that), or men who are slaves to a lyre-player and a poor one too [i.e. emperor Nero in preceding episode]. So may this mistress Domitia-Nero reign no longer over me or over you men. Let the woman sing and lord it over Romans, for they surely deserve to be the slaves of such a woman after having submitted to her so long. But for us, mistress, let you alone always be our leader.”
[Violence and atrocities by Britons]
(62.7) Having finished an appeal to her people of this general tenor, Boudicca led her army against the Romans. For the Romans happened to be without a leader because Paulinus, their commander, had gone on an expedition to Mona, an island near Britannia. This enabled her to sack and plunder two Roman cities, and, as I have said, to wreak indescribable slaughter. Those who were taken captive by the Britons were subjected to every known form of violence. The worst and most bestial atrocity committed by their captors was the following. They hung up naked the noblest and most distinguished women and then cut off their breasts and sewed them to their mouths, in order to make the victims appear to be eating them; afterwards they impaled the women on sharp skewers run lengthwise through the entire body. All this they did to the accompaniment of sacrifices, banquets, and unrestrained behaviour, not only in all their other sacred places, but particularly in the grove of Andate. This was their name for Victory, and they regarded her with most exceptional reverence.
[Roman forces confront Boudicca’s army]
(62.8) Now it happened that Paulinus [the Roman commander] had already brought those on the island of Mona to terms. So on learning of the disaster on Britannia, he immediately set sail there from Mona. However, he was not willing to risk a conflict with the barbarians immediately, as he feared their numbers and their desperation, but was inclined to postpone battle to a more convenient season.
But as Paulinus grew short of food and the barbarians pressed relentlessly upon him, he was compelled, contrary to his judgment, to engage them. Boudicca, at the head of an army of about 230,000 men, rode in a chariot herself and assigned the others to their several stations. Paulinus could not extend his line the whole length of hers because, even if the men had been drawn up only one deep, they would not have reached far enough, so inferior were they in numbers Nor, on the other hand, did he dare join battle in a single compact force, for fear of being surrounded and cut to pieces. He therefore separated his army into three divisions, in order to fight at several points at one and the same time, and he made each of the divisions so strong that it could not easily be broken through.
[Paulinus’ speeches on Britons’ wild rashness and Romans’ true bravery]
While ordering and arranging his men Paulinus also exhorted them, saying:
“Up, fellow-soldiers! Up, Romans! Show these accursed wretches how far we surpass them even in the midst of evil fortune. It would be shameful, indeed, for you to lose ingloriously now what but a short time ago you won by your valour. Surely, many times both we ourselves and our fathers have, with far fewer numbers than we have at present, conquered far more numerous opponents. So do not fear their numbers or their spirit of rebellion, because their boldness rests on nothing more than headlong rashness unaided by arms or training. Neither fear them because they have burned a couple of cities. For they did not capture them by force nor after a battle, but one was betrayed and the other abandoned to them. Exact from them now, therefore, the proper penalty for these actions, and let them learn by actual experience the difference between us, whom they have wronged, and themselves.”
(62.10) After addressing these words to one division he came to another and said:
“Now is the time, fellow-soldiers, for zeal, now is the time for daring. For if you show yourselves brave men today, you will recover all that you have lost. If you overcome these foes, no one else will withstand us any longer. By one such battle you will both make your present possessions secure and subdue whatever remains. For everywhere our soldiers, even though they are in other lands, will emulate you and foes will be terror-stricken. Therefore, since you have it within your power either to rule all humankind without a fear, both the peoples that your fathers left to you and those that you yourselves have gained in addition, or else to be deprived of them altogether, choose to be free, to rule, to live in wealth, and to enjoy prosperity, rather than, by avoiding the effort, to suffer the opposite of all this.”
(62.11) After making an address of this sort to these men, he went on to the third division, and to them he said:
“You have heard what outrages these damnable men have committed against us – no, even more, you have even witnessed some of them. So choose whether you wish to suffer the same treatment yourselves as our comrades have suffered and to be driven away from Britannia entirely, besides, or else by conquering to avenge those that have perished and at the same time furnish to the rest of humankind an example, not only of benevolent forgiveness toward the obedient, but also of inevitable severity toward the rebellious. For my part, I hope, above all, that victory will be ours, first, because the gods are our allies (for they almost always side with those who have been wronged); second, because of the courage that is our heritage, since we are Romans and have triumphed over all humankind by our valour; next, because of our experience (for we have defeated and subdued these very men who are now arrayed against us); and lastly, because of our prestige (for those with whom we are about to engage are not antagonists, but our slaves, whom we conquered even when they were free and independent). Yet if the outcome should prove contrary to our hope – for I will not shrink from mentioning even this possibility – it would be better for us to fall fighting bravely than to be captured and impaled, to look upon our own entrails cut from our bodies, to be spitted on red-hot skewers, to perish by being melted in boiling water. In other words, to suffer as though we had been thrown to lawless and impious wild beasts. Let us, therefore, either conquer them or die on the spot. Britannia will be a noble monument for us, even though all the other Romans here should be driven out. In any case, our bodies will for ever possess this land.”
[Roman triumph and Boudicca’s death]
(62.12) After addressing these and similar words to them, he raised the signal for battle. At that point, the armies approached each other, the barbarians with much shouting mingled with menacing battle-songs, but the Romans silently and in order until they came within a javelin’s throw of the enemy. Then, while their foes were still advancing against them at a walk, the Romans rushed forward at a signal and charged them at full speed, and when the clash came, easily broke through the opposing ranks. But as they were surrounded by the great numbers of the enemy, they had to be fighting everywhere at once. Their struggle took many forms. Light-armed troops exchanged missiles with light-armed, heavy-armed were opposed to heavy-armed, cavalry clashed with cavalry, and against the chariots of the barbarians the Roman archers contended. The barbarians would assail the Romans with a rush of their chariots, knocking them helter-skelter, but, since they fought with breastplates, would themselves be repulsed by the arrows. Horseman would overthrow foot-soldiers and foot-soldiers strike down horseman. A group of Romans, forming in close order, would advance to meet the chariots, and others would be scattered by them. A band of Britons would come to close quarters with the archers and rout them, while others were content to dodge their shafts at a distance. All of this was going on not at one spot only, but in all three divisions at once.
They contended for a long time, both parties being animated by the same zeal and daring. But finally, late in the day, the Romans prevailed. They killed many in battle beside the wagons and the forest, and captured many alike. Nevertheless, not a few made their escape and were preparing to fight again.
In the meantime, however, Boudicca fell sick and died. The Britons mourned her deeply and gave her a costly burial. However, feeling that now at last they were really defeated, they scattered to their homes. So much for affairs in Britannia. . . [omitted sections].
[For Dio Cassius’ subsequent discussion of Britons’ lifestyle later in his narrative, go to this link].
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Source of translation: C.H. Moore and J. Jackson, Tacitus: Histories, Annals, 4 volumes, LCL (Cambridge, MA: HUP, 1925-37), public domain (copyright not renewed), adapted by Harland.