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Boudica's revolt
AD 60–61· War· Europe
Well documentedSolid records, physical evidence or scientific consensus.
A rising of the Iceni and other British tribes, led by Queen Boudica, that burned three Roman towns before it was crushed.
See it on the Battles & Wars map →What happened
When King Prasutagus of the Iceni (in today's Norfolk) died, Roman officials seized his kingdom, flogged his widow Boudica and assaulted their daughters, according to Tacitus. She led the Iceni and Trinovantes in revolt while the governor, Suetonius Paulinus, was campaigning in Wales. They destroyed Camulodunum (Colchester), Londinium (London) and Verulamium (St Albans); Tacitus puts the dead at 70,000, likely an exaggeration. Paulinus, with about 10,000 men, then beat a far larger British army somewhere in the Midlands.
Why it matters
It was the most serious revolt in Roman Britain. Rome kept the province but governed more cautiously afterward. Victorian Britain later made Boudica a national heroine.
How we know
Tacitus, whose father-in-law Agricola served in Britain at the time, and Cassius Dio; a layer of burned debris from about AD 60–61 under Colchester, London and St Albans.
Still debated
The final battlefield has never been found; Mancetter and other Midlands sites are proposed. Tacitus's figure of 80,000 Britons killed in the final battle is widely seen as exaggerated.
Connections (2)
▸Boudica's revolt nearly ended Britain's place in the Roman EmpireWell documented
The connection
Britain had been a Roman province for only 17 years when Boudica's forces destroyed its three main towns, including the new trading hub of London. Had Paulinus lost the final battle, Rome might have abandoned the island; Suetonius says Nero once considered leaving. Instead Rome stayed, ruled more cautiously, and held Britain for some 350 more years.
When and how
Southeast Britain, AD 60–61; Boudica, the governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, and Emperor Nero in Rome.
How we know
Tacitus and Cassius Dio describe the crisis, and burned layers under Colchester, London and St Albans show its scale.
Debates and open questions
Whether Nero's thought of leaving Britain was linked to this revolt is unclear, since Suetonius does not date it.
▸Boudica's revolt was crushed by a smaller force of the Roman legionWell documented
The connection
Paulinus gathered about 10,000 men, mainly the Fourteenth Legion, part of the Twentieth and auxiliaries, and chose a narrow valley with woods behind him so he could not be outflanked. The British host attacked; Roman javelin volleys and a wedge charge broke it, and the Britons' wagons, parked behind them, blocked their escape.
When and how
An unknown site in the English Midlands, probably near the Roman road later called Watling Street, AD 60 or 61.
How we know
Tacitus, whose father-in-law Agricola served on Paulinus's staff, describes the battle; Cassius Dio gives a different, more rhetorical account.
Debates and open questions
The site is unknown and British numbers, put at 230,000 by Dio, are surely exaggerated; how the Romans won so decisively is reconstructed from thin evidence.