The Rebellion of Boudicca
In the year AD 60, Boudicca, a woman of the royal house of the Iceni led a fierce British revolt against the Roman occupation, during which Londinium was reduced to ashes.
The last few years have thrown new light on the great rebellion that so nearly cost Rome the province of Britain less than twenty years after the Claudian conquest. Most of it has been due to archaeology, but not all. Closer scrutiny of the narrative of Tacitus and Dio Cassius has shown that we must revise both the date of the rebellion and the name of its leader.
Boudicca has been accepted, by scholars at least; the traditional Boadicea belongs to nothing more venerable than an error in the first printed edition of Tacitus. The traditional date, A.D. 61, derives from Tacitus himself; but Professor Syme has recently shown that there is confusion in the annalistic account, and that the real date is 60.
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