Europe in the Roman age (1st–5th c.)Wars and battles

Boudica’s revolt

The Iceni and their neighbours, led by Queen Boudica, rose against Roman rule and burned Camulodunum, Londinium and Verulamium before the governor Suetonius Paulinus crushed them in a pitched battle.

Date: between 60 and 61exact date unknown: an interval is given
Place: Camulodunumapproximate locationtoday: Colchester, Essex, England · Western and Central Europe
Participants: Boudica, Iceni, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, Roman Empire, Nero
Threads: Europe in the Roman age (1st–5th c.)
Also known as: Boudican revolt; Boudicca’s rebellion; Восстание иценов

When the Iceni king Prasutagus died, the Romans ignored his will, which had left his kingdom jointly to his daughters and the emperor; according to Tacitus, his widow Boudica was flogged and her daughters raped. While Suetonius Paulinus was campaigning on Mona (Anglesey), the Iceni and the Trinovantes destroyed the colony of Camulodunum, then Londinium and Verulamium; ancient writers put the dead at 70,000–80,000.

Paulinus, with about 10,000 men, defeated the rebel host at an unknown site on Watling Street; Tacitus claims that nearly 80,000 Britons and some 400 Romans fell. Boudica died soon afterwards — by poison according to Tacitus, of illness according to Cassius Dio. The year of the revolt, AD 60 or 61, is disputed.

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