DRUIDIC PRIESTS ALSO PRACTISED ANIMAL AND HUMAN SACRAFICE AND WERE KNOWN TO BURN PEOPLE ALIVE IN HUGE WICKER-WORK CAGES.THEY WERE WHITE ROBED AND OAK AND MISTLETOE WERE SACRED TO THEM, WHICH THEY WOULD CUT WITH A GOLDEN SICKLE. THE ROMANS WHO WERE NORMALLY TOLLERANT OF RELIGIOUS PRACTICES OF THE VANQUISHED, TOOK GREAT PAINS TO STAMP OUT THIS STRANGE CULT...HENCE VERY LITTLE IS KNOWN OF THEM TODAY. THE STRONGHOLD AND CENTRE FOR THE DRUID ORDER WAS ON THE ISLE OF ANGLESEY (MONA TO THE ROMANS) JUST OF THE COAST OF NORTH WALES. FROM THIS VANTAGE POINT THE DRUIDS KEPT UP A SPIRITUAL RESISTANCE TO ROMAN RULE... THAT IS ....UNTIL AD 60 WHEN SUETONIUS PAULINUS TOOK LEGION XIIII AND LEGION XX AND FORCED MARCHED THEM TO THE SACRED ISLE OF MONA.

AFTER A SHORT BUT FIERCE BATTLE THE ROMANS CROSSED OVER TO THE OFFSHORE ISLAND AND DESTROYED THE VERY HEART OF CELTIC DEFIANCE....SLAUGHTERING THE DRUIDS AND BURNING THEIR SACRED GROVES. MEANWHILE DOWN SOUTH THE TRIBES WERE RISING UP IN SUPPORT OF QUEEN BOUDICCA OF THE ICENI TRIBE.

THE ICENI WERE A FIERCE WARRIOR TRIBE OCCUPYING PRESENT-DAY NORFOLK AND PARTS OF SUFFOLK AND CAMBRIDGESHIRE. MANY GOLD TORCS HAVE BEEN FOUND THROUGHOUT THEIR DOMAIN, AS THEY WERE A RICH AND POWERFUL TRIBE... MORE THAN 40 WERE FOUND AT SNETTISHAM ALONE AND 5 AT IPSWICH.

MANY OF THESE BEAUTIFUL AND UNIQUE FINDS CAN BE SEEN IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM..

Boudicca Queen of the Iceni

The Iceni tribe inhabited roughly the area that is now Norfolk. They were not originally part of the territory under direct Roman control, having voluntarily allied themselves to Rome after Claudius's conquest of AD 43. They were also jealous of their independence, and had even revolted before in AD 47 when Publius Ostorius Scapula, the governor, threatened to disarm them.

It was Roman practice to allow allied kingdoms their independence only for the lifetime of their client king, who would agree to leave his kingdom to Rome in his will. The provinces of Bithynia and Galatia, for example, were incorporated into the Empire in just this way. Roman law also allowed inheritance only through the male line. So when Prasutagus, Boudicca's husband died, his attempts to preserve his lineage were ignored and his kingdom annexed, arrogantly and aggressively, as if it had been conquered. His land and property were confiscated and Celtic nobles treated like slaves. According to Tacitus, Boudicca was flogged and her daughters raped. Dio Cassius says that Roman financiers, including Seneca the Younger, chose this point to call in their loans.

In AD 60,

while the current governor, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, led a campaign against the druids on the island of Anglesey in north Wales, the Iceni rebelled, along with their neighbours the Trinovantes, under Boudicca's leadership. Their first target was Camulodunum (Colchester), the former Trinovantian capital and now a Roman colonia. The Roman veterans who had been settled there mistreated the locals, and a temple to the former emperor Claudius had been erected there at the tribes expense, making the city a focus for resentment. The city was poorly defended and the rebels destroyed it, besieging the last defenders in the temple for two days before it fell. The future governor Quintus Petillius Cerialis, then commanding the Legion IX Hispana, attempted to relieve the city, but his forces were routed and driven to the north.

THE FURY THOUGH OF THE REBELS WAS BEYOND ANYTHING THE ROMANS COULD HAVE DREAMED OF. BOUDICCA LED THE TRIBES AGAINST THE HATED COLONY OF COLCHESTER AND RAISED IT TO THE GROUND, SLAUGHTERING MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN ALIKE. LEGION IX MARCHED TO THEIR AID FROM THEIR WINTER QUARTERS AT NEWTON - ON -TRENT BUT WERE ALMOST DESTROYED BY THE REBEL TRIBES AFTER A BLOODY ENGAGEMENT, AND FLED FOR THEIR LIVES. THE EX SOLDIERS BARRICADED THEMSELVES IN THE UNFINISHED TEMPLE TO CLAUDIUS AND HELD OUT IN HOPE OF THE ARRIVAL OF LEGION IX......BUT TO NO AVAIL.... THEY WERE MASSACRED MAKING A FINAL STAND. THE FURY THOUGH OF THE REBELS WAS BEYOND ANYTHING THE ROMANS COULD HAVE DREAMED OF. BOUDICCA LED THE TRIBES AGAINST THE HATED COLONY OF COLCHESTER AND RAISED IT TO THE GROUND, SLAUGHTERING MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN ALIKE. LEGION IX MARCHED TO THEIR AID FROM THEIR WINTER QUARTERS AT NEWTON - ON -TRENT BUT WERE ALMOST DESTROYED BY THE REBEL TRIBES AFTER A BLOODY ENGAGEMENT, AND FLED FOR THEIR LIVES. THE EX SOLDIERS BARRICADED THEMSELVES IN THE UNFINISHED TEMPLE TO CLAUDIUS AND HELD OUT IN HOPE OF THE ARRIVAL OF LEGION IX......BUT TO NO AVAIL.... THEY WERE MASSACRED MAKING A FINAL STAND.

THE MUSEUM AT COLCHESTER TODAY IS BUILT ON THE VERY FOUNDATIONS OF THAT TEMPLE.... AND YOU CAN HAVE A GUIDED VISIT TO THE AREA BENEATH WHERE THIS ACTION TOOK PLACE!

Boudicca then moved swiftly west to seize Roman Londinium...

When news of the rebellion reached him, Suetonius hurried along Watling Street returning from his victory against the Druids on the island of Mona...(Angelsey) he headed south through hostile territory to Londinium (London). Londinium was a relatively new town, founded after the conquest of 43, but had grown to be a thriving commercial centre with a population of travellers, traders, and many Roman officials. The procurator, Catus Decianus, likely had his office there. Suetonius considered giving battle there, but considering his lack of numbers and concerned by Petilius's defeat, decided to sacrifice the city and to save the province. Londinium was abandoned to the rebels... slaughtering anyone who had not evacuated with Suetonius.

Time was quickly running out for this major Roman City and it was soon to suffer the same fate as Camolodunum...

and so, within a few days... Londinium was razed completely to the ground.

A thick layer of burnt debris covering coins and pottery dates this event to 60 AD.

The people were slaughtered and subject to all manner of reciprocal atrocity. The fire that destroyed the city was so hot, that the melted remains formed a recognizable layer of red clay 10 inches thick in places... to be found by archaeologists just below the surface of modern roads. Boudicca though, still with her thirst for vengeance unquenched, left the burning debris of Londinium behind and followed Suetonius towards the town of Verulamium (St. Albans). Again, he had no time and very little opportunity to make an adequate defense against such superior numbers... and so reluctantly left the town to the enemy.

Verulamium (St Albans) was next to be destroyed. In the three cities destroyed, between seventy and eighty thousand people are said to have been killed.

...................

Once again he requested via messengers the assistance of Legion II (stationed at Isca Dumnoniorum, near modern Exeter) still hoping to buy time for more reinforcements, or hoping the barbarians would exhaust themselves on plunder. This time however, the inhabitants were well aware of BOUDICCA'S reputation and fled en masse. Still, she burned Verulamium to the ground just the same, and Tacitus estimates that 70,000 people had now been slaughtered in all the 3 towns..

Meanwhile Suetonius, described by Tacitus as an officer of distinguished merit, attempted to give his small army a fighting chance and headed north possibley to a pre prepared place of battle. Maybe somewhere he had hastily earmarked on his journey south as a good defensive location and killing ground. Again he called upon Legion II Augusta to join him from the west to his position in the forested Midlands, but its commander Poenius Postumus failed to appear for unknown reasons (he later committed suicide as a result of the shame). Left with just his 10,000 men vs. what Cassius Dio described as a swelling army of some 200,000 under Boudicca; Suetonius positioned his meager force on high ground, with forested protection at his rear and flanks. The final battle with the Iceni Queen was about to begin.

Suetonius regrouped

With Legion XIIII Gemina, some detachments of the Legion XX Valeria, and any available auxiliaries he awaited the enemy advance... at a place of his choosing!

Messengers were sent again and again calling for Legion II in the west to come and give support in the coming battle against the huge Celtic force that was sweeping the land to the south.

The prefect of Legion II Augusta, Poenius Postumus, ignored the call... probably because he was otherwise engaged with hostilities in the west {Devon}... this mistake would later cost him his life. Meanwhile the governor Suetonius was able to gather about 10 thousand men. He would have to make a stand against vastly superior enemy numbers. Legion IX had been virtually destroyed attempting to defend Colchester... and now Legion II had refused to join him from the west. He made ready at an unidentified location, probably in the West Midlands somewhere along Watling Street, in a defile with a wood behind him. XIIII and XX were all he could depend on!

The Celts far outnumbering the Romans were high with their victories. Tacitus tells us "they formed no true regular line of battle". War tactics for the Celts normally involved attempting to confuse and terrify the enemy, faces and bodies painted or tattooed, hair spiked high with lime. They gave wild cries and gesticulations, leaping about, clashing their weapons and blowing their war [Carnax] trumpets to create maximum noise of enthusiasm and bravado. Fighting a disciplined war machine was alien to them... the romans awaited in silence... which could be even more unerving. Celtic battles quite often involved champions challenging the chieftains of the opposition to single combat. The victorious heroes would then be remebered and praised in the songs and the legends of the tribe. Although they followed Boudicca Queen of the Iceni, they were not well organised as a cohesive force and could not fight as one unified unit... there was no battle plan per se! They were confident on their sheer weight of numbers to destroy the Roman army. With victory obviously a forgone conclusion, the warriors had placed their wives and families in wagons at the edge of the plain to witness their great deeds of the day! . Boudicca did her best to keep the war band in some kind of order and to seek just revenge for Roman violations of her family and people. A symbolic celtic hare was let loose onto the battlefield between the opposing armies.

The Legions were greatly outnumbered by the Brittish tribes (who were 230,000 strong by now [according to Dio Cassius] but superior Roman tactics, equipment, discipline, organization, structure and training won the day. The Gods were with them! The short stabbing roman sword proved to be far more effective at close quarter combat... the romans kept the barbarians packed together and carried out their well rehearsed battle drill. With machine like precision they cut away the thick grass before them, moving (mowing) slowly but surely forward as they had trained to do so many times under the watchful eyes of hard bitten Centurions. The result was a massacre!

The Britons attempted to flee...

but were impeded by the presence of their own families and baggage train, which they had stationed in a ring at the edge of the battlefield. Thousands of them were slaughtered. (The German king Ariovistus is reported to have made the same mistake in Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars). Tacitus reports that "according to one report almost eighty thousand Britons fell" compared with only four hundred Romans. Boudicca, according to Tacitus, poisoned herself; Dio Cassius says she fell sick and died, and was given a lavish burial. No one knows to this day where she is buried along with her treasure hoard.

The gold captured from 3 major roman cities?

The site of Boudicca's defeat is also unknown. According to London legend it was at Kings Cross in London (a nearby street is named Battle Bridge Road), and that Boudicca herself is buried under one of the platforms at Kings Cross Station.....When I was a child in London this was common knowledge to us all....but this is unlikely.

The Prefect of Legion II, Postumus, on hearing of the Roman victory, was left with little choice and fell on his sword having failed to support the victorious Legions. Catus Decianus then fled to Gaul and was replaced as procurator by Gaius Julius Alpinus Classicianus. Suetonius then conducted punitive operations against the Britons, but later criticism by Classicianus led to investigations headed by Nero's freedman Polyclitus, and Suetonius was removed as governor, to be replaced by Publius Petronius Turpilianus.

In the hope to ensure... A FINAL PEACE.