Boudicca

Although we know little of this courageous woman, Dio Cassius described her this way;
Boudicca was tall and severe, with a great mass of bright red hair that fell to her knees.
She had a penetrating gaze and a harsh rasping voice. She wore a twisted torc, and a tunic of many colors, over which was a thick mantle, fastened by a brooch. She rode with her daughters beside her in a chariot with axles sprouting knife-blades.
Her war cry was:
"Win the battle or perish! That is what I, a woman, intend to do. Let the men live in slavery if they wish!"
My Name is Boudicca or Boadicea, as the Romans referred to me. I was born into aristocracy around 30 A.D. As a child, my mother told me that my name meant "Victory", so as I grew older, it made perfect sense to me that I should become a priestess of Andrasta, goddess of battle and victory. In AD 48, at the age of 18, I married Prasutagus, King of our rich and cultivated people, the Iceni, and shortly thereafter, I became Queen of the Iceni. WeI lived in the area of Britain that is is now known as East Anglia, in Norfolk. Eventually we were blessed with two beautiful daughters, and life was indeed good. I had no idea at that time how dramatically my life would change, and what twists and turns awaited me on my path through life.
In the year AD 43, the Romans invaded our village. My husband, given little choice in the matter, was offered overlordship which, ofcourse, he accepted. Being a client-king, he agreed to pay a tax to Rome, and in return Rome would not interfere with our kingdom. In AD 60, my Prasutagus died, and I became a widow. The devastation my teenage daughters and I suffered at his passing was almost more than we could bare, but my beloved husband was a wise ruler, and in the Roman fashion, he had made a will. In it, he left lands, personal possessions and monies to the Emperor as required of him as a client-ruler 'indebted to Rome'. He left the remaining monies, heirlooms and property to me, for our daughters. The things left would not only assure a dowry to their future husbands, but would also assure that their Roman taxes, tributes and salaries were paid. Believing he'd safeguarded their inheritance by making a huge sacrifice to the Emperor, Prasutagus died without worries.
Now, I realize history has blurred how I came to be to be accepted as the new ruler of the Iceni, but I am here to tell you that besides being elected by my family to that position in accordance with Celtic law, I had a bloodline claim in my own right. Regrettably for us, Rome found the whole situation irrelevant and the civil administration of the Roman province of Britain, Catus Decianus, extended direct rule over my people in very brutish way. He marched with troops into my kingdom, where my people unsuspectingly greeted him as an ally with traditional Celtic hospitality. Decianus then turned his troops on us, seized our goods and lead away citizens as hostages. I protested the ravaging of my people with all that was within me, but my protests fell upon deaf ears and I was lead away, stripped, and whipped in public.
You may think what happened to me was disgrace enough, and under normal circumstance, you would be right, but what came next was such a horror to me, I still weep heavily when I remember it. I was forced to watch while they raped my two beautiful, innocent daughters! There are no words that can ever convey the horrors of that day, but I can tell you that while others of my relatives were taken into slavery, and the soldiers confiscated more goods, chattel and personal wealth, I vowed to seek my revenge on the savages that had done such irreparable harm to my family, and my people.
After this total and complete humiliation, I somehow gathered my inner strength and fed it with a hate so powerful toward the Romans, I ultimately emerged as absolute ruler, and war leader of the Iceni. Protesting that it was indeed usual for Britons to fight under the leadership of women, other tribes came flocking to my banner; the Trinovantes, the Coritani, and the Catuvellauni, for which I was, and am forever grateful.
I marched my army, 100,000 strong, to the center of the Roman administration in Britain, Camulodunum, which was once the Trinovante capital. While we marched, Catus Decianus, who by this time was back in London, sent 200 legionaires to reinforce the garrison, which was comprised of retired veterans and auxilliary troops. Quintus Petilus Ceralis, commander of the IX Hispania Legion at Lindon in the land of the Coritani, was hastened south to protect the Roman capital.
We ambushed the IX Hispania, consisting of some 6,000 legionaires and 500 cavalry and I surprised even myself when I proved to be a military strategist of exceptional merit! The IX Hispania had a long battle record having fought in the Iberian campaigns against the Celts before being sent to Pannonia, where the legion had helped in the pacification of the Balkans.We annihalated this elite force, except for Petilius Cerialis, his general staff and his 500 cavalry, who managed to escape back to their fortress at Lindon. We had no time for seigework, so we turned back to Camulodunum.
We took the town of Camulodunum, and burned it within two days, destroying the buildings raised by the Romans to mark their conquest and domination, including the great Temple of Claudius. We then turned on Londinium. The population of 20,000 consisted mainly of Roman veterans, traders and civil administrators who had followed the Roman armies in their new conquest. Being the financial capital of Roman administration, and a large trading port, the II Augusta Legion was ordered to march from the south and defend it, but the camp marshall Poenius Postumus, hearing of the fate of the IX Hispania, refused to march out. After learning of our destruction of Londinium, he took his own life rather than face court martial.
Next, we turned our sites on Verulamium, the third major Roman settlement in Britain, where we smashed into the city and destroyed it.
After that conquest, the only other major Roman force left in Britain was the army of the Roman governor and military commander Seutonius Paullinus, who had the XIV Gemina and XX Valeria Legions with him in what is now known as North Wales. When he turned and marched his legions back to the southeast at the news of our uprising, I feared it was the beginning of our end, so I gathered my daughters before me in a chariot, and entreated each tribe giving my final war speach as we entered:
"But now, it is not as a woman descended from noble ancestry, but as one of the people that I am avenging lost freedom, my scourged body, the outraged chastity of my daughters. Roman lust has gone so far that not our very persons, nor even age or virginity, are left unpolluted. But heaven is on the side of a righteous vengeance; a legion which dared to fight has perished; the rest are hiding themselves in their camp, or are thinking anxiously of flight. They will not sustain even the din and the shout of so many thousands, much less our charge and our blows. If you weigh well the strength of the armies, and the causes of the war, you will see that in this battle you must conquer or die. This is a woman's resolve; as for men, they may live and be slaves.".
In the aftermath of the final battle, those that were captured by the Romans were "ravaged with fire and sword" according to Tacitus; and Tacitus also tells us that the Iceni had neglected to sow their crops before leaving their lands, and so when those families returned home, many starved. This gives an indication that the rebellion lasted perhaps the better part of a year.
Elsewhere, some leftover contingents that had broken away from the final scene were still fighting, feeling they had nothing at all at this point to lose.
I Boudicca, survived the final battle and to returned to my home and poison myself.
It is extremely unlikely that Nero would have excercised clemency in her case, or the case of her daughters, which may explain why they, too, fell out of history along with their mother. If Boudicca had survived and been captured, she could have counted on being the feature of Suetonius' triumphal parade in Rome, and subjected to unspeakable horrors, the last of which might have been execution in the gladiatorial arena.