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The
chronology and major events of this novel are drawn
from the Annals of the Roman historian
Tacitus, written some forty years after the Boudican
rebellion. Tacitus’ account is presumed accurate
because he had an eye witness in his father-in-law,
Agricola. Boudica is historical, as are her two
daughters, although their names and ages are
unrecorded. She did marry Prasutagus, but we don’t
know when, or how old she was at the time. While
the cause of Prasutagus’ death is not recorded, he
did leave a will with the provisions described in
the novel. Togodumnus and Caradoc (Latin Caratacus) are factual, as is the latter’s
betrayal by Cartimandua, who was queen of the
Brigantes from at least 52 A.D. to about 69 A.D.
Antedios is known only from coin-finds; his
relationship to Boudica, if any, is not certain.
Other
details not mentioned by Tacitus, most notably the
gruesome torture of Roman women in the nemeton at
Londinium, come from Dio Cassius’ Roman History,
written in Greek about 230 A.D. The novel’s
archaeological underpinnings and general depictions
of Celtic life in Iron Age Britain are indebted to
the works of modern historians and archaeologists
too numerous to be listed here.
Where
the historical record is mute or scant, I have
exercised the novelist’s prerogative of creative
interpolation. Drustan (a variant of Tristan) is
fictional, although it seems a reasonable assumption
that a woman of Boudica’s power and beauty would
have had a lover. Marnadunum is fictional in name
and conjectural in location, for no site which can
be positively identified as the tribal center of the
Iceni before the insurrection has yet been
identified. “Marna” is my coinage for the name of
the goddess worshiped by the Iceni, whose ancestral
homelands were along the River Marne in northeast
France. She is historically attested under her
Latin title Matrona (an epithet sometimes applied to
the Roman mother goddess, Juno), but her original
Celtic name is unknown. Dunum (Irish dun,
Welsh dinas, akin to English “town”) is
Celtic for “fortified place”; it appears, alone or in
compounds, in numerous place names in Britain and on the
Continent.
The historical
sources disagree about the manner of Boudica’s death.
Tacitus says unequivocally that she poisoned herself,
while Dio Cassius reports somewhat vaguely that she fell
sick and died during or perhaps soon after the final
battle with Suetonius. The more heroic death I accord
her better befits a woman depicted as a charismatic war
leader driven by a vision of a united Britain. That
depiction may run against the grain of scholarly
opinion, yet it seems difficult to explain otherwise how
she was able to raise so quickly an army even larger
than Vercingetorix’s coalition at Alesia a hundred years
earlier. While Tacitus names only the Trinovantes as
Boudica’s allies, he reports that 80,000 Britons fell at
the final battle, a number arguing that many other
tribes must have been drawn to her cause. At one point,
Dio Cassius puts Boudica’s forces at 120,000; later he
increases the figure to 230,000. Even allowing for
exaggeration, such a large army could only have been
levied by a powerful and visionary leader who offered
more to her followers than mere revenge or the promise
of booty. Might not Suetonius be near the mark when he
tells Agricola that Boudica is “the living embodiment of
the goddess, no less divine to her people than our
Emperor is to us”?
Poenius
Postumus’ failure to march from Isca (Exeter) with the
Second Legion is a great mystery. Was it due to
cowardice, a lack of command confidence or to a heavy
siege by rebel forces? His ultimate fate, however, is
no mystery. Tacitus reports that out of shame for
refusing Suetonius’ order and depriving the Second of
sharing in the glory of Boudica’s defeat, he ran himself
through with his sword (se ipse gladio transegit).
Of the
remaining Roman officials involved in the conflict,
three ended their careers more worthily. Although
recalled from Britain in 61 A.D. for excessive zeal in
punishing the defeated Britons, Suetonius continued a
life of public service, standing as Consul in 66. He
did write his Memoirs, but unfortunately only
fragments of the work survive, none of which mention the
Boudican rebellion. We have no records for him after
69. Petilius Cerialis, shamed by his ignominious defeat
at the hands of Boudica, redeemed himself through a
distinguished campaign against rebel factions in
Germany. He served as Governor of Britain from 71-74,
during which time he crushed an uprising of the
Brigantes under Venutius, Cartimandua’s former husband.
Agricola, in his late thirties, also returned to
Britain, serving as Governor from 78-85. He achieved
the final subjugation of the Ordovices and waged
campaigns in Scotland.
As for
Catus Decianus, the brutal procurator whose intemperance
sparked the rebellion, Tacitus notes only that he fled
to Gaul after the sack of Verulamium (St. Albans).
Curiously enough, after that, he disappears from history
altogether. The more fitting death that he suffers in
the novel is based on the conjecture – indeed, the hope
– that he never actually got to Gaul.
More references:
Settings & Map,
Who's Who, Glossary of Terms,
Frequently Asked Questions
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