The Warrior Queens

  21 Propertius (III–3), p. 231.

  22 Horace (III–19), 1, 37, p. 89; Antony and Cleopatra, Act v, scene ii.

  23 Dio’s Roman History, with an English translation by Earnest Cary, 9 vols, Vol. VIII (1925), pp. 83–105; Wright, F. A., Marcus Agrippa (1937), pp. 251–3; Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. X (Cambridge 1934), pp. 266–70; Macurdy, Grace H., Vassal-Queens and Some Contemporary Women in the Roman Empire (Baltimore 1937), p. 2.

  24 Virgil (II–11), p. 173.

  Chapter 4: Iceni: this Powerful Tribe

  The principal sources for the following four chapters are Dudley and Webster, The Rebellion of Boudicca (I–3); Webster, Boudica (I–3); also Frere, Britannia (IV–15); Salway, Roman Britain (IV–7); and Todd, Roman Britain (II–8).

  1 Caesar, De Bello Gallico, 5, 21, in ‘War Commentaries of Caesar’, translated by Rex Warner (New York 1960), p. 97; Allen, D. F., ‘The Coins of the Iceni’, Britannia, Vol. I (1970), p. 1 note 4, writes: ‘with little doubt’; but Todd (II–8), p. 24: ‘Cenimagni might later appear as the Iceni’.

  2 Ekwall, Eilert, Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names (4th edn Oxford 1959), pp. 267, 268; Dudley and Webster (1–3), Appendix II p. 143.

  3 The famous judgement of Gibbon on Abyssinia, actually a quotation from Alexander Pope, Eloisa to Abelard, (1717), l, 207.

  4 Allen, ‘Coins’ (IV–1), p. 1.

  5 Tacitus (III–I), p. 265; Todd (II–8), p. 83 note 8.

  6 Tacitus (III–I), p. 265.

  7 Salway, Peter, Roman Britain (Oxford 1984 pbk), p. 101; Allen, ‘Coins’ (IV–1), p. 2; Todd (II–8), p. 53.

  8 See Ross, Anne, Everyday Life of the Pagan Celts (1970); Ross, Pagan (II–1); Powell, T. G. E., The Celts (1958), passim.

  9 Clarke, R. Rainbird, East Anglia (1960), p. 110; Piggott, Stuart, The Druids (1974 pbk), p. 36.

  10 The Geography of Strabo, translated by H. L. Jones, 8 vols, Vol. II (1923), pp. 237, 247.

  11 Fox, Sir Cyril, Pattern and Purpose: A Survey of Early Celtic Art in Britain (Cardiff 1958), p. 59 and illustration p. 58; Salway (IV–7), p. 76; Powell (IV–8), p. 109: ‘no archaeological evidence’ for scythed chariots.

  12 Cit. Piggott (IV–9), p. 136; Clarke (IV–9), p. 99.

  13 Fox (IV–11), p. 70; Allen, ‘Coins’ (IV–1), p. 14.

  14 Allen, ‘Coins’ (IV–1), p. 3 and fig. 1; Tony Gregory, Norfolk Archaeological Unit, to the author, 1985.

  15 Frere, Sheppard, Britannia: A History of Roman Britain (revised edn 1978), p. 40; Todd (II–8), p. 53; Webster (I–3), p. 24.

  16 Spratling, Dr Mansel, ‘Note on Santon, Norfolk, Hoard’, Britannia, Vol. 6 (1975); Fox (IV–11), p. 84.

  17 ‘Very heavy and uncomfortable’ were the terms used to the author by one individual who tried on a torc; see Clarke, R. Rainbird, ‘The Early Iron Age Treasure from Snettisham, Norfolk’, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society (1954); and Brailsford, John and Stapley, J. E., ‘The Ipswich Torcs’, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society (1972).

  18 Brailsford and Stapley (IV–17), p. 227; alternatively if the Snettisham torcs come from further south, the Ipswich torcs may be local.

  19 Reynolds, Peter, ‘Experimental Archaeology and the Butser Ancient Farm Research Project’ in Collis, J., The Iron Age in Britain (1977), p. 37.

  20 Thetford, Current Archaeology, no. 81 (1981), pp. 294–7; Gregory (IV–14) to author.

  21 Dio (III–23), VII, p. 414–15.

  22 Gardner, Jane F., Women in Roman Law and Society (1986), p. 5; and Balsdon, J. P. V. D., Roman Women: Their History and Habits (1962), passim.

  23 Wells, Colin, The Roman Empire (1984 pbk), p. 271.

  24 Ross, Everyday (IV–8), p. 146.

  25 Caesar cit. Ross, Everyday (IV–8), p. 133; Ross, Pagan (II–1), pp. 62f.; Webster (I–3), p. 82.

  26 Livy cit. Ross, Everyday (IV–8), p. 154; Strabo (IV–10), 11, p. 247.

  27 Tacitus (III–1), p. 266.

  28 See Richmond, I. A., ‘Queen Cartimandua’, Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 44 (1954), pp. 43–52.

  29 Tacitus (III–1), p. 269.

  30 Tacitus, The Histories, translated by Kenneth Wellesley (revised edn, 1986 pbk), p. 172; Webster, Graham, Rome against Caractacus: The Roman Campaigns in Britain AD 48–58 (1981), p. 14.

  31 Richmond (IV–28), p. 52.

  32 Ubaldini, Donne (I–5); Milton, John, The History of Britain … continu’d to the Normal Conquest (1670), p. 60.

  33 Tacitus, The Agricola and the Germania, translated by H. Mattingly, revised by S. A. Handford (1970 pbk), p. 66.

  34 Syme, Sir Ronald, Tacitus, 2 vols (Oxford 1958), Vol. I, p. v.

  35 Tacitus (III–I), pp. 327–32; Tacitus, Agricola (IV–33), pp. 65–7; Dio (III–23), VIII, pp. 83–105.

  36 Syme (IV–34), I, pp. 270f.; II, p. 763.

  37 Millar, Fergus, A Study of Cassius Dio (Oxford 1964), pp. 32f.

  38 Webster (I–3), p. 105.

  39 In 1962 Dudley and Webster (III–1), pp. 144f., wrote of ‘a strong presumption in favour of 60 … with 61 not disposed of completely’; Syme (IV–34), I, p. 20 note 8 chooses 60; but in 1981 Salway (IV–7) referred to ‘more recent opinion’ returning to 61; i.e. Carroll, Kevin, J., ‘The Date of Boudicca’s Revolt’, Britannia, Vol. X (1979), pp. 197–202, who argues for 61; however Webster (III–1) sticks to 60, as do Frere (IV–15) and Clarke (IV–9).

  40 Salway (IV–7), p. 90 and note 2.

  41 See Braund, David C., Rome and the Friendly King: The Character of the Client Kingship (1984), Part III, ‘Royal Wills’, p. 144 where the point is made that ‘we simply do not know how Nero and the King’s daughters were to divide the inheritance, for Tacitus does not tell us’.

  Chapter 5: Ruin by a Woman

  1 Tacitus trans. Dudley and Webster (I–3), p. 137; Tacitus, Agricola (IV–33), p. 66; Dio (III–23), VIII, p. 85.

  2 Bulst, Christoph, ‘The Revolt of Queen Boudicca in AD 60; Roman Politics and the Iceni’, Historia, Vol. 10 (1961), p. 499.

  3 Dio (III–23), VIII, p. 85; cit. Powell (IV–8), p. 76; cit. Chadwick, Nora, The Celts (1970), p. 50.

  4 Cit. Jardine, Lisa, ‘Isotta Nogarola: Women Humanists, Education for What?’, History of Education, Vol. 12, no. 4 (1983), p. 233.

  5 Donizo cit. Huddy, Mary E., Matilda, Countess of Tuscany (1905), p. 76; cit. Hibbert, Christopher, The Great Mutiny, India 1857 (1978), p. 378; The Scriptores Historiae Augustae, with an English translation by David Magie, 3 vols (1922–32), Vol. III, p. 139; Gibbon (I–9), I, p. 302.

  6 Johnsonian Miscellanies, ed. G. B. Hill, 2 vols (Oxford 1897), Vol. I, p. 118; Dudley and Webster (I–3), p. 46.

  7 Salway (IV–7), p. 113; Braund (IV–41), p. 144.

  8 Graham Webster in the London Archaeologist, Vol. 4, no. 15 (1984) p. 411 suggests ‘Boudica and her household’ may have misunderstood what was an accounting process; alternatively Catus saw an opportunity for personal gain; Tacitus (III–1), p. 328.

  9 Cit. Salway (IV–7), p. 146; Brownmiller, Susan, Against our will: Men, Women and Rape (1975), p. 14.

  10 Breisach (I–21), p. 341.

  11 I.e. Salway (IV–7), p. 114.

  12 Cit. Balsdon (IV–22), p. 33.

  13 Dio (III–23), VIII, p. 83.

  14 Salway (IV–7), p. 115.

  15 See Richmond, I. A., ‘The Four Coloniae of the Roman Empire’, Archaeological Journal, Vol. 103 (1947), p. 57.

  16 Frere (IV–15), pp. 104–5.

  17 Fishwick, Duncan, ‘Templum Divo Claudium Constitutum’, Britannia, Vol. 3 (1972), pp. 168f.; Webster (I–3), p. 89.

  18 See Wheeler, R. E. M. and Laver, P. G., ‘Roman Colchester’, Journal of Roman Studies, IX (1919), pp. 139–69; Crummy, Philip, ‘Colchester: The Roman Fortress and the Development of the Colonia’, Britannia, Vol. 8 (1977), pp. 65–106.

  19 Dudley and Webster (I–3), p. 49.

  20 Ross, Pagan (II–1), p. 53; also Piggott (IV–9), passim for the Druids.

  21 Todd (II–8), p. 257; Salway
(IV–7), p. 24.

  22 Gibbon (I–9), I, p. 29.

  23 Laing, Lloyd, Celtic Britain (1979), p. 81; Piggott (IV–9), p. 99; Powell (IV–8), p. 153; Ross, Everyday (IV–8), p. 151; Syme, Sir Ronald, Ten Studies in Tacitus (Oxford 1970), p. 25 and note 2.

  24 Cit. Holmes, Richard, Footsteps (1984), p. 263.

  25 Strongly argued by Webster (I–3), pp. 63f.; Richmond, I. A., Roman Britain (2nd edn 1963 pbk), p. 28, agrees, as does Frere (IV–15), p. 76; but see Todd (II–8), Appendix pp. 255–6 for contrary view and Dyson, Stephen L., ‘Native Revolts in the Roman Empire’, History, Vol. xx (1971), p. 260: the Druids’ role has been ‘exaggerated’.

  26 Fox (IV–11), p. 145.

  27 Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland, 6 vols, Vol. I (1807), p. 496; Milton (IV–32), p. 65; Syme (IV–34), I, p. 763 and note 6; Overbeck, John C., ‘Tacitus and Dio on Boudicca’s Rebellion’, American Journal of Philology, Vol. XL (1969), p. 136 note 27.

  28 See Layard, John, The Lady and the Hare (1944), passim; Ross, Pagan (II–1), pp. 349–50.

  29 Note by Dr Anne Ross, Dudley and Webster (I–3), p. 151; Briffault (II–9), II, p. 70 note 12; Ross, Everyday (IV–8), p. 159; cit. Fox (IV–11), p. 139 and plate 80 no. 19.

  30 Tacitus, Histories (IV–30), p. 247; Powell (IV–8), p. 195.

  31 Dyson (v–25), p. 265.

  32 Dudley and Webster (I–3), p. 57.

  33 Crummy (v–18), p. 81.

  34 Crummy, Philip, Colchester, Recent Excavations and Research (Colchester 1974).

  35 Philip Crummy, Colchester Archaeological Trust, to the author, Colchester, 1985.

  36 Dudley and Webster (I–3), pp. 106–7.

  37 Webster (I–3), p. 117.

  Chapter 6: The Red Layer

  1 Todd (II–8), p. 90.

  2 Tacitus, Agricola (IV–33), p. 63.

  3 Webster (I–3), pp. 90–1.

  4 See Frere, S. S. and Joseph, J. K. St., ‘The Roman Fortress at Longthorpe’, Britannia, Vol. 5 (1974).

  5 Ogilvie, R. M. and Richmond, Sir Ian (eds), Cornelii Taciti De Vita Agricolae (Oxford 1967), p. 198 note to ‘universi’.

  6 Webster (I–3), p. 90.

  7 Webster (I–3), p. 93; Firth, C. H., Cromwell’s Army, with a new Introduction by P. H. Hardacre (1967 pbk), p. 106.

  8 See Merrifield, Ralph, London: City of the Romans (1983), pp. 41–6 and notes 1 and 2 p. 274 for a concise summary.

  9 Hall, Jenny and Merrifield, Ralph, Roman London (HMSO 1986), p.6.

  10 Merrifield (VI–8), pp. 26–7 suggests a military origin; but see Marsden, Peter, Roman London (1980), pp. 22–4 for a theory of civil trading settlement.

  11 Marsden (VI–10), p. 24 for acreage; Frere (IV–15), p. 296 for population, if Tacitus’ figures are accepted, since his language suggests ‘an official souce’.

  12 Merrifield (VI–8), p. 42.

  13 Marsden (VI–10), p. 26.

  14 Marsden (VI–10), p. 25.

  15 Webster (I–3), p. 94.

  16 Dudley and Webster (I–3), p. 55.

  17 See Lambert, Frank, ‘Some Recent Excavations in London’, Archaeologia, Vol. LXXI (1921), pp. 55–8; Dunning, G. C., ‘Two Fires of Roman London’, Antiquaries Journal, Vol. xxv (1945), pp. 48–50 and fig. 3.

  18 Marsden (VI–10), p. 33; Report by the Police President of Hamburg, 1 December 1943, Appendix 30, German Documents, 1943–45, p. 311.

  19 Marsden (VI–10), p. 31.

  20 Merrifield (VI–8), p. 57.

  21 But Marsh, Geoff and West, Barbara, ‘Skulduggery in Roman London?’, London and Middlesex Archaeological Society, Transactions, xxxii (1981) reject ‘the events of AD 60’ in connection with the skulls, in favour of ‘Celtic religious practices connected with water’.

  22 Fraser, Antonia, Cromwell, Our Chief of Men (1973), p. 338.

  23 Tacitus, Agricola (IV–33), p. 66; Tacitus (III–1), p. 329; Dio (III–23), VIII, p. 95.

  24 Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology (1986), pp. 75–6.

  25 I.e. Salway (IV–7), pp. 65–7; Wells (IV–23), pp. 276–8.

  26 Pete Rowsome, site supervisor for Museum of London, quoted in New Scientist, 29 August 1985.

  27 Clive. Thomas, The Complete Works of Lord Macaulay, 12 vols (1898), Vol. VII, p. 362.

  Chapter 7: Eighty Thousand Dead

  1 See Frere, Sheppard, Verulamium Excavations, Vol. I, Reports of the Research Committee of the Society of Antiquaries of London no. XXVIII (Oxford 1972); Webster (I–3), p. 124.

  2 Tacitus (III–1), pp. 328–9; Dio (III–23), VIII, p. 95; Webster (I–3), p. 124.

  3 Todd (II–8), p. 91 for ten thousand; Webster, Graham, The Roman Imperial Army of the First and Second Centuries AD (2nd edn reprinted with corrections 1981), p. 229 for 15,000–20,000.

  4 See Fuentes, Nicholas, ‘Boudicca re-visited’, London Archaeologist, Vol. 4, no. 12 (1983); Webster, Graham, ‘The Site of Boudica’s Last Battle: A Comment’, and Nicholas Fuentes’ response to Graham Webster, London Archaeologist, Vol. 4, no. 15 (1984).

  5 See Webster, ‘The Site’ (VII–4).

  6 Spence, Lewis, Boadicea: Warrior Queen of the Britons (1937), p. 248.

  7 See Fuentes (VII–4).

  8 See Transactions of the Birmingham Archaeological Society (Oxford), Vol. 79 (1964), pp. 117–20 for Adrian Oswald on coins and an earthen-work from Mancetter; Vol. 84 (1971), pp. 18–44 for evidence of a first-century ditch; Vol. 85 (1973), pp. 211–13 for possible importance of the site in association with the great revolt of AD 60; Dudley and Webster (I–3), p. 111; Webster (I–3), p. 97 and fig. 5, p. 98. Other sources: Frere (IV–15), p. 107, ‘reasonable guesses’ have placed the site close to Watling Street, north-west of Towcester or near Mancetter; Salway (IV–7), p. 120: ‘somewhere in the Midlands’, Todd (II–8), p. 91: ‘may not have been far to the north-west of Verulamium’.

  9 Salway (IV–7), p. 77.

  10 See Webster, Army (VII–3), pp. 122–32.

  11 The Tragedie of Bonduca in Comedies and Tragedies written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, Gentlemen … (1647), Act v, scene iv.

  12 Bolton, Edmund, cit. Piggott (IV–9), p. 136; Jones, Inigo, The Most Notable Antiquity of Great Britain, Vulgarly called Stone-Heng, on Salisbury Plain Restored (2nd edn 1725), pp. 34–5.

  13 Scott, J. M., Boadicea (1975), pp. 31f.; Spence (VII–5), p. 260; The Times, 23 February 1988; Nicholas fuentes, letter to The Times, 27 February 1988 thought Platform 8 – ‘who knows’ – not impossible.

  14 Gibbon (I–9), I, p. 39.

  15 Tacitus, Agricola (IV–33), p. 67; Tacitus (III–1), p. 331; Bulst (v–2), p. 506; Overbeck (v–27), pp. 141–2.

  16 Bulst (v–2), p. 506; Clarke (IV–9), p. 114.

  17 Clarke (IV–9), p. 114; Bulst (v–2), p. 506 and note 80; Tacitus, Agricola (IV–33), p. 81.

  18 Todd (II–8), p. 91; Salway (IV–7), Appendix IV, p. 751.

  19 Cit. Nieng Cheng, Life and Death in Shanghai (1986), p. 203.

  Chapter 8: O Zenobia!

  1 Historia Augusta (v–5), III, p. 247; Dio (III–23), VIII, p. 83.

  2 See Février, J. G., Essai sur l’histoire politique et économique de Palmyre (Paris 1931); Tlass, Moustapha, Zénobie Reine de Palmyre: Oeuvre adaptée en français par Athanase Vantchev de Thracy (Damascus 1986), passim.

  3 I.e. Oliver Cromwell in seventeenth-century England, Fraser (VI–22), p. 564; Février, J. G., La Religion des Palmyréniens (Paris 1931), p. 222.

  4 Cameron, Alan, ‘The Date of Porphyry’s KATA KRISTIANON’, Classical Quarterly, XVII (1967), pp. 382–4.

  5 Historia Augusta (v–5), III, p. 135.

  6 See Abbott, Nabia, ‘Pre-Islamic Arab Queens’, American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literature, Vol. LVIII (1941), pp. 1–22.

  7 Gibbon (I–9), I, p. 150.

  8 Abbott, Nabia, ‘Women and the State on the Eve of Islam’, American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literature, Vol. LVIII (1941), pp. 269–78; Abbott, Aishah (I–11), p.
x.

  9 Abbott, ‘Women’ (VIII–8), p. 262; Beard, Mary R., Women as Force in History: A Study in Traditions and Realities (New York 1946), p. 290; Clayton, Ellen C., Female Warriors: Memorials of Female Valour and Heroism, from the Mythological Ages to the Present Era, 2 vols (1879), Vol. I, p. 88.

  10 Février (VIII–2), pp. 59–62; Fedden, Robin, Syria: An Historical Appreciation (revised edn 1956), p. 87.

  11 Février, Religion (VIII–3), p. 235.

  12 The History of Count Zosimus, Sometime Advocate and Chancellor of the Roman Empire (1814), pp. 21f.; Février (VIII–2), p. 75.

  13 Février (VIII–2), p. 85; Historia Augusta (v–5), III, p. 104 note I.

  14 See Historia Augusta (v–5), III, pp. 135f., but nothing is known of the various authors to whom the biographies are attributed: see Oxford Companion to Classical Literature, compiled by Sir Paul Harvey (Oxford 1984), p. 210.

  15 Historia Augusta (v–5), III, pp. 135–43 for ‘Trebellius Pollio’s’ description of Zenobia.

  16 Gibbon (I–9), I, p. 302 and note 62; Boccaccio (I–19), p. 226; Jonson (I–2).

  17 Historia Augusta (v–5), III, p. 109, for theory of Zenobia’s conspiracy; Février (VIII–2), p. 90 believes in the possibility of Zenobia’s guilt only because Herodianus’ death helped her; a modern Arab writer, Moustapha Tlass (VIII–2), describes the accusations as ‘gratuitous’, since there is no proof of her complicity; Abbott, ‘Queens’ (VIII–6), p. 13 for Roman guilt.

  18 Historia Augusta (v–5), III, p. 135; Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. XII (Cambridge 1939), p. 302.

  19 Février, Religion (VIII–3), p. 241; Cambridge Ancient History (VIII–18), XII, p. 302.

  20 Février (VIII–2), pp. 113–14; Cambridge Ancient History (VIII–18), XII, p. 302.

  21 Février (VIII–2), p. 103.

  22 Mommsen, Theodor, The Provinces of the Roman Empire from Caesar to Diocletian, Vol. II (1909), pp. 106–7 note 5.

  23 Zosimus (VIII–12), p. 29.

  24 Zosimus (VIII–12), pp. 25f.

  25 Historia Augusta (v–5), III, pp. 243–4; Zosimus (VIII–12), p. 25.