Londinium Lite

In-depth analysis

Londinium at risk, AD59

Map showing tribes around London
The tribes around London and the main settlements at Camulodunum (Colchester), Verulamium (St Albans) and Londinium

In AD59 the Roman governor, Suetonius Paulinus, was in Wales, launching an attack against the Druids who were based on the island of Anglesey and who were suspected  as being a major source of opposition to Roman rule.

At the same time, Prasutagus, king of the Iceni, a tribe in East Anglia, died. There seems to have been some special relationship and alliance with Rome, perhaps in return for services rendered by Prasutagus at the time of the invasion in AD43 when the Romans had not conquered the powerful Iceni tribe but made a pact with their king. This arrangement, which enabled the Romans to concentrate their army elsewhere, was tactically astute but strategically hazardous.

When Prasutagus died, the Iceni assumed that the king’s status as client ruler would pass automatically to his wife, Queen Boudica. The Romans, however, saw client status as a convenient temporary arrangement which could be terminated at will.

The king had named the emperor as his co-heir with his wife and two daughters. By making such a will, Prasutagus vainly hoped to secure half of his property for his family. However, the new rulers in Rome, the emperor Nero and his advisors, were not persuaded to continue this relationship. They felt that they no longer had the need of a client kingdom in East Anglia since the province had expanded further west and north.

The official view was that the personal fortune and estates of a deceased client king should become imperial property. Catus Decianus, the procurator (financial administrator) of the province took over the full estate of Prasutagus. This involved an inventory of lands, livestock and family possessions.

Soldiers moved in to seize control and any resistance was treated as an act of rebellion and the infuriated queen suffered the indignity of being stripped and lashed like a common criminal. Her daughters were considered to be spoils of war and were raped. The emperor was entitled to half of the kingdom but by complaining about their treatment, the Iceni lost the remainder because the procurator saw their action as one of defiance that had to be punished.

There were other grievances - the repayment of loans demanded by eminent Romans as well as the reclaiming of property. The final straw was the setting up of a colonia (a settlement of discharged army veterans) in Colchester, the tribal centre of the Trinovantes.

The Trinovantes were ready for insurrection - they had suffered too much at the hands of the new colonists. The veterans had been turning the natives out of their houses and taking their land. Compulsory purchase is never a popular move. In addition, a temple dedicated to Claudius was being built in Colchester and the British tribes were to pay large annual financial contributions for its upkeep. Agitation by the Druids played on this theme and fuelled resentment. Soon the Iceni, with the Trinovantes, their neighbours to the south, had risen in revolt.

 

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