In preparation for his campaign against the tribes of the Welsh hills, Scapula established a colony of veterans instead of a garrison at the provincial capital at Camulodunum. At the beginning of the ensuing campaigns Caratacus took the war northwards. Scapula followed and attacked him when he was in a strong defensive position. In a desperate fight the Britons were broken but then rallied at the top of a hill. In a second combat they were again broken and then dispersed in all directions. Caratacus fled to the Brigantes, who were ruled by Queen Cartimandua (r.c.43-c.69). Having already decided not to court war with the Romans, she handed him over to Scapula who then sent the captive to Rome (51).
With war seemingly over, Scapula began to build forts in the country of the Silures in order to keep them quiet. But with the Second Legion dispersed in working parties around the region, the Silures attacked the soldiers in their half-built forts. Although the Silures were eventually driven off, the legion’s praefectus castrorum (camp prefect), eight centurions and many in the working parties had been killed.
The Silures, however, remained in the vicinity of the forts waiting for an opportunity to strike. Once they overwhelmed a foraging party, cut up the cavalry sent out to rescue them, routed the auxiliary infantry sent out in support of the cavalry, and were only put to flight when Scapula led out his legions.
When Scapula died in 52 the immediate task for 04Didius Gallus (fl.19-57), governor (r.52-57), was to re-establish the defence of the Severn Valley. He had no sooner done this than Cartimandua’s husband Venutius, headed a faction to dethrone the queen and turn Brigantia against the Romans. Didius immediately dispatched a force of auxiliaries and followed up with a legion that eventually put down the rising.
Didius continued to govern in Britain and was content to defend his province without advancing its frontiers. His only contribution consisted in the establishment of a few forts, probably in the country of the Silures.
Upon the death of Claudius, Gallus retired in favour of Veranius Nepos (fl.41-57). He died in office and was replaced by Gaius Suetonius Paulinus (fl.40-69), governor (58-62) who continued Veranius’ policy of aggressively subduing the tribes of modern Wales. In 60/1 he made an assault on the Island of Mona/Isle of Anglesey, a refuge for British refugees and a stronghold of the Druids, but was forced to return to the southeast where the tribes were in revolt.
After the rebellion in 47 was put down, the Iceni (Norfolk) became a client kingdom of Rome. When their king Prasutagus died in 60/1 he had, in the hope of preserving his nation’s independence, named his two daughters along with the Roman emperor as coheirs to the Iceni kingdom.
But the Romans considered the royal line was now extinct and Decianus Catus, procurator of Roman Britain, confiscated money given by Claudius to leading Britons, declaring them loans to be paid with interest. But the funds were not available and all the property belonging to the Iceni was forfeited to the Romans. When Prasutagus’ wife Boudicca protested she was whipped and her two daughters were raped.
Boudicca wanted revenge and another tribe, the Trinovantes (Essex), joined with the Iceni. With an initial army said to be of over one hundred thousand men, Boudicca marched on Colchester/Camulodunum, northeast Essex). The town was not walled and had a token presence of only about two hundred troops. It was quickly overrun, sacked and burned.
A Roman force, the Legio IX Hispania under Petillius (c.53; 60/1-83+), set off for Camulodunum to rescue Romans in the area. The British were waiting for them and cut their infantry to pieces. The Romans lost twenty-five hundred men. Petillius and his cavalry took refuge back at the legionary camp.
Boudicca then went southwest to Londinium/London (est. 47-50, ethnically diverse). Suetonius, having rushed back from the west, reached the city before her. He decided that Londinium – which probably had about thirty thousand inhabitants – could not be defended. Boudicca led her armies into the city and the earlier massacre was repeated: captives were tortured and sacrificed, and the city was burned.
Boudicca then took her army northwards to Verulamium (St Albans, Hertfordshire). This city was different from the previous two because it was populated not by Romans but by Britons friendly to Rome. By this time her army had doubled in size, Suetonius being able to muster just ten thousand legionaries. If Boudicca had now attacked the Roman army she would almost certainly have completely destroyed it. Instead she sacked and burnt St Albans (in all, about seventy thousand were slaughtered in the three cities), which gave Suetonius time to move his two legions – XIV Gemina and XX Valeria Victrix – to terrain most favourable for his forces.
He found a position at the top of a slope at the end of a deep gorge backed by a thick, impenetrable wood. The Britons would have to fight up the hill without being able to attack the flanks or the rear. Historians have searched for this site and most place it between Londinium and Wroxeter/Viroconium, Shropshire, on the Roman Road now known as Watling Street, and possibly near Atherstone (north Warwickshire).
Believing that her superiority in numbers would compensate for the adverse terrain, Boudicca ordered the attack. Her spear throwers throwing uphill were wholly ineffective; the weapons that actually made contact merely glanced off the legionaries’ shield barrier. When the first wave had exhausted their supply, Boudicca’s warriors, undrilled in disciplined combat, panicked under the Romans’ coordinated attack.
Suetonius ordered the discharge of the Roman javelins and the effect of the volley was devastating. Boudicca’s hordes broke ranks and the Roman cavalry charged downhill, enveloping the enemy. Boudicca lost an estimated eighty thousand of her followers, bringing the rebellion to an end. Boudicca did not die in the battle, but chose to take poison and die rather than let herself be captured.
The independence of northern Britannia rested on the treaty between Rome and the Brigantian queen, Cartimandua. In 69 she, having divorced Venutius, was attacked by him. Vettius Bolanus (c.38; fl.62-81), governor (r.69-71), responded as required by their treaty but the civil war in the Empire meant he could do no more than rescue the pro-Roman queen.
In 71, Petillius Cerialis (c.53; fl.60-63+), governor (71-74), moved northwards from the fortress at Lindum/Lincoln, Lincolnshire, established a fortress at Eboracum/York, North Yorkshire, and built a line of forts to separate the Parisi (East Riding) from the Brigantes (North Yorkshire). After defeating Venutius, he crossed the Pennines via Stainmore County Durham, where the marching camp nearby at Rey Cross, dates from his governorship.
He established a fort at Luguvalium/Carlisle, Cumbria, northwest coast, where he was joined by 26Julius Agricola (53; fl.58-93), who having been tasked by Cerealis with operations in the west had advanced northwards via the Lancashire coast and then followed the Lune and Eden rivers to Carlisle. These operations introduced sufficient control to allow 29Julius Frontinus (c.63; fl.70-103), governor (74-78), who probably founded Caerwent/Venta Silurum, Mon-mouthshire, southeast Wales), to complete the conquest of Silures and consolidate the military gains in Wales.
In 78, 26Julius Agricola, governor (78-84), was faced by a rebellion of the Ordovices (central-north Wales) who had surprised and routed a Roman cavalry unit operating in their territory. In the late summer Agricola defeated the Ordovices in the hills and, having refused to face him in the plain, pursued them to Mona/Anglesey, off northwest Wales, the holy island of the Druids. Not having the time to build boats Agricola ordered his troops to swim across the Menai Strait. After the troops established themselves on the other side, the Druids and tribes on the island, cowed by this exploit, surrendered.
This marked the end of the campaigning season and the troops dispersed to their winter quarters. Legio XX Valeria Victrix remained at the fortress at Deva/Chester, Cheshire, northwest England), close to the northeast border of Wales, to deter any further outbreaks by the Welsh tribes.
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