Boudica’s Revolt Essay, Research Paper

??????????? Boudicas Revolt in AD 60 was

perfectly justifiable. Britain was invaded by the Romans in AD 43 under control

of emperor Claudius. The Icenis at this time were under control form King

Antedious. The Icenian kingdom made a treaty with the Romans making the Iceni a

Client Kingdom. ??????????? A client kingdom is a kingdom under

control of the Romans. The king of this kingdom remained in throne but the king

had to answer to the Romans. This meant that the king had certain freedom but

in the end had to listen to what Rome said. The Iceni controlled all trade

routes into the wash. The Romans needed to have use of these sea routes for

trading and shipments. The Romans used the Iceni towns to house their soldiers

when preparing to secure the south coast routes into Britain. The Romans didn’t

like leaving troops near newly conquered colonies because it was a waste of

their resources. It was much more effective to waste the Icenian resources even

though it annoyed the Iceni. ??????????? The Iceni were situated in the

southeast of Britain and had borders with the Catuvellauni and the Trinovantes

(See map above.) Both the Cativenllani and the Trinovantes traded with the

Romans even before the Roman invasion. The Iceni tribe however refused to play

any part in this. Later when they were forced to trade with the Romans it was a

massive change for all of them. This is arguably one of the more major for the

Iceni revolting. ??????????? Evidence gathered from the Roman

pottery backs this idea up. All over Britain Roman wine jugs (amphora) have

been found. Very few of these jugs have been found where the Iceni used to be

situated compared with other places such as South Britain. This shows that the

rest of Britain traded with the Roman Empire whereas the Iceni had remained

very isolated from Roman Culture and therefore were in for a shock later??????????? The Iceni managed to live in peace

with the Roman Empire until 47AD when the first battle between The Roman Empire

and the Iceni took place. The Dispute was over weapons P.Ostoirus Scapula who

was the governor at the time had decided to disarm the Iceni tribe to tighten

his grip and increase the control of the Roman Empire over Britain. This must

have made the Iceni feel even more dependent on Rome than they already were.??????????? Paul Sealey stated that the Iceni

people did not like this as the weapons had played a major part in the role of

their religion. This made them angry and caused the small revolution in 47AD

against the roman army. There followed a fierce fight in which the Britons ran

away. This shows that even from an early stage the Iceni did not like the

Romans being in control.? According to

Paul Sealey "The best suggestion for the site of the battles is Stonea

Camp, an Iron Age fort on a former island in the Cambridge shire fens occupied

from the 100BC". ??????????? Boudica became Queen of the Iceni

when she married Prasutagus in 48 or 49 AD. Prasutagus was famed for his

wealth. When king Prasutagus died in 60AD he made the Emperor of Rome along

with his two daughters co-heir’s (Camorra and Tasca).? Prasutagus by doing this wanted to save his kingdom from attack

by the Romans. However this plan of his didn’t work and his kingdom and

household were plundered and the Iceni chiefs were deprived of their hereditary

estates. British law allowed royal inheritance to be passed to daughters in the

absence of male heir, but Roman law did not allow woman to take the throne. The

Roman administrator Decanius Catus decided that the Iceni had been defeated and

he would treat the whole territory as if it had been defeated, Decanius Catus

ignored the will of Prasutagus and proceeded to take over the entire kingdom.

Roman historian Tacitus wrote:??????????? "Kingdom and household alike

were plundered like prizes of war… for a start, his widow Boudica was flogged

and their daughters raped. The chieftains of the Iceni were deprived of their

family estates as if the whole country had been handed over to the Romans. The

king’s own relatives were treated as slaves." The nobility of the Iceni

was given rough treatment and arrests were made. The Iceni were helpless at

this time. They appealed to the Roman Emperor about the way that Catus Decianus

had treated them but the Roman Emperor did nothing.??????????? Tacitus also refers to how Boudica

was give a public flogging or "put to the rods" in public. This too

must have been very humiliating for Boudica and also for her two daughters who

were flogged and raped. The Iceni must have been a annoyed at this, seeing

their queen whipped and hearing about her daughters.??????????? This must have been very

embarrassing to the Iceni who had already had their weapons confiscated to

tighten the Roman Empires control over them. This angered the Iceni because of

all the humiliation, death and conquering. ??????????? However to make matters worse for

the Iceni the Roman Empire tried to justify this act. Catus Decinaus (who had

been the man in charge of the operation) said that Rome was merely trying to

reclaim money lent to the rich members of the Iceni by the late Emperor Claudius

of Rome. Boudica was really angered by this and promptly revolted. Tacitus

tells us how the Iceni feared worse now that they had been reduced to

provincial status.?And the

humiliated Iceni feared worse now that they had been reduced to provincial

status" ??????????? ??????????? However there were more reasons than

just these three for revolting. The temple of the divine Claudius of Rome stood

in Camulodunum ( now Colchester.) The Iceni along with other tribes hated it.

It was a blatant stronghold of Roman rule and religion. It was running the

country dry and Tax’s had been increased to pay for it. The made the locals

work there as Priests using there own money to par for it. To make matters

worse Camulodunum had now become a colonia (housing for retired soldiers).

These solders were the very people who years before had fought for this land;

this too must have been very humiliating. The people were the Trinobantes whose

ancestors had been killed by the Romans who now occupied their land. Tacitus

talks about the Temple in his Annals and describes how people were thrown out

of their homes to make way for the Temple of the "Divine Claudius" ???????????????????????????????????????????????????

"The

settlers drove the Trinobantes from their homes and land, and called them

prisoners and slaves. The troops encouraged the settlers’ outrages, since their

own way of behaving was the same.""The temple

erected to the divine Claudius was a blatant stronghold of alien rule, and its

observances were a pretext to make the natives appointed as its priests drain

the whole country dry."When Boudica

revolted she acquired the help of the Trinovantes. The Trinovantes also had

suffered much abuse from the Romans so were easily persuaded to fight for the

cause.??????????? At the time of

the revolt there is strong evidence to suggest that the Iceni along with other

tribes has been undergoing a famine and crops were having to be imported from

the Mediterranean by the Romans to stop the country from starving. Heavy tax’s

paid in corn to the Romans by the Iceni would have worsened the situation and

would have meant that they may have had to gone without food for a long time.

Evidence of burnt prunes found at Colchester that contained weeds that could

only have originated from the Mediterranean backs up this theory.? (Shown above).Hate had built up

over the years and people had learnt to hate the Romans.? Evidence from the Trinovantes suggests that

the Trinovantes had hated the Roman Empire from when it first invaded under the

control of Emperor Claudius in 47AD. Found in the ditches of a town (Colchester)

in the area where the Trinovantes had lived a few skulls were found which had

sword marks in them, these skulls came from British people (probably / most

likely the Trinovantes). This suggests that there had been a small or mini

revolt, and therefore the Trinobantes or the people who inhabited this area

where getting really angry with the Romans before Boudica decided to revolt in

60.AD. (The Skulls are shown above, you can see the sword marks at the top of

them.) There was not one

singular reason why Boudica and the Trinovantes and the Iceni revolted against

the Roman Empire in 60AD. The revolt had been caused by a series of events,

each one giving the people of Britain more and more of a reason to hate the

Roman Empire. There was no main

reason as to why Boudica revolted, I think that it was down to the way that the

Tribes had been treated to lead Boudica to revolt in 60AD. In 43AD the Roman

Empire under the control of Emperor Claudius had invaded Britain. They had

invaded the Iceni’s and lots of other tribes such as the Trinobantes and Cataici’s

territory. This had sparked allot of anger among all the tribes in Britain. The

Roman Empire forced their laws and culture on the people of Britain. This had

caused anger and frustration among the tribes. Temples had been built with the

taxes that they had paid.? These were

blatant strongholds of alien rule. The Romans had oppressed the British people.

The Iceni had

been forced to trade with the Romans when they believed it was against their

religion. This shocked the Iceni because of the big change.The Romans had

invaded at a time of famine and there is strong evidence to suggest that the

Romans were forcing the tribes to pay Tax’s in the form of corn & grain

this only worsened the situation and all the tribes were angered at this. Corruption in the roman army had angered

the Iceni and other tribes, but especially the Iceni. Their land had been

raided and robbed after their king Prasutagus died in 60AD. Boudica had been

whipped or "put to the rods" in public. All these events

one after another had caused the revolt. However I think that the deciding

factor was the whipping and indecent assault of Boudica and her two daughters

(Camorra and Tasca). This event angered Boudica the most and she started the

Revolution.