Boudicca’s Revolt
The island of Britain was a consistent sore spot for the Roman Empire, causing problems in one way or another throughout its occupation. The Romans, realizing they could never conquer or occupy Britain as a whole, decided to wall off the northern side with two large walls that spanned the width of the island in the north. However, this didn’t mean that south of the walls was pacified and Romanized in its entirety, with the occupied portions experiencing revolts, tribal incursions, invasions, and civil war. One of these revolts, the Boudicca Revolt, has gone down in history and is vividly remembered along with its eponymous leader.
The most historically accepted cause of the revolt is that in 60-61 CE, a chieftain named Prasutagus of the tribe Iceni died, leaving his tribe’s holdings to his two daughters and the Roman Emperor Nero. The Iceni were a friendly tribe to the Romans and were one of the six tribes that welcomed Julius Caesar on his expedition to Britain in the 50s BCE, so leaving part of his holdings to Nero was not a radical gesture. However, the Romans chose to ignore this will and seize all the holdings of the Iceni instead, stripping the Iceni of their status as allies and declared them subjugated instead. To add more insult and injury to the Romans flogged the wife of Prasutagus, Boudicca, and raped her two daughters, causing her to of course seek revenge against the Romans.
Boudicca rallied her tribe, using the behavior of the romans to also rally her neighbors, the Trinovantes, and smaller tribes around them. Her message of rebellion spread from the Trinovantes to other tribes, both allies and enemies of Rome. By the time Boudicca was ready to begin her rebellion, she had amassed a reported 100,000 native Britons under her command. Boudicca’s first move was to attack the former capital of the Trinovantes, modern day Colchester – then known as Camulodunum. The city was populated by Roman legionary veterans, who further angered the locals by building a massive temple to the late Roman emperor Claudius (paid for by the native Britons). Boudicca marched on Colchester whilst a reliving Roman legion, the famed Legio IX Hispania, marched to intercept her army. The Romans were soundly defeated, with massive losses to the legion. Reportedly, every infantry soldier was killed or captured, with only the legions commander and a small number of calvary escaping. The inhabitants of Colchester appealed to the Romans for further assistance but only 200 auxiliary forces arrived, essentially dooming the city to Boudicca, and were massacred, with the last forces holing up the temple of Claudius for two days before they were killed. Next, Boudicca marched on London, then known as Londinium. London was not the capital of Roman Britan but was a town centered around trade and travel, making it important. Roman general Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, who had been campaigning in the north of the province, had received word of Boudicca’s movement and began marching his forces south, quickly arriving in the city ahead of Boudicca’s forces. However, after assessing the situation and determining he would be defeated if he fought the rebels at London, he opted instead to withdraw and leave the city to Boudicca’s vengeance. Although Paulinus opted to not defend London, he did take as refugees those citizens who opted to flee. Those who did not flee were killed and massacred by Boudicca’s force and the city burned. Lastly, Boudicca and her army marched to Verulamium (modern St. Albans) and repeated what they had done in Colchester and London. It is estimated that between the three cities and the legion, 70,000-80,000 Romans and Roman-allied Britons were killed in the revolt.
Paulinus began to prepare to fight Boudicca and her forces on his own terms, although exactly where the battle took place is unknown. Paulinus had around 10,000 men under his command, consisting of Legio XIV Gemina and detachments from Legio XX Valeria Victrix. Legio II Augusta was also requested to join but their commander disobeyed orders and did not march to join Paulinus’ forces. Boudicca had an estimated 200,000 but as with all ancient military numbers, this should be taken with extreme skepticism, however it is thought her forces were lightly equipped due to previous disarming of the native Britons in the preceding years. Boudicca was confident in her success and allowed the families to pool their baggage wagons to the edge of the battlefield and watch her impending victory, but this proved to be a disastrous decision. The Roman historian Tacitus describes the battle like this:
“At first, the legionaries stood motionless, keeping to the defile as a natural protection: then, when the closer advance of the enemy had enabled them to exhaust their missiles with certitude of aim, they dashed forward in a wedge-like formation. The auxiliaries charged in the same style; and the cavalry, with lances extended, broke a way through any parties of resolute men whom they encountered. The remainder took to flight, although escape was difficult, as the cordon of wagons had blocked the outlets. The troops gave no quarter even to the women: the baggage animals themselves had been speared and added to the pile of bodies. The glory won in the course of the day was remarkable, and equal to that of our older victories: for, by some accounts, little less than eighty thousand Britons fell, at a cost of some four hundred Romans killed and a not much greater number of wounded.”
The rebellion suffered a total defeat and was not able to continue its rampage although Boudicca’s fate after is unknown with sources saying she either committed suicide by poison or she fell ill and died after. The rebellion almost caused the Romans to recommend to Emperor Nero that Britain should be abandoned. Her burial site is also unknown and today is hunted for by archeologists. However, the legacy of Boudicca is still felt today, with a statue of her in Westminster, London (across from Westminster Palace at the entrance to the tube station) and her rebellion is taught to all students in Britain as they go through their schooling. Further, she is celebrated as one of Britain’s first national heroes and her rebellion is written and discussed positively.
The Sundial
Sundials - you may have seen them in your weird aunt’s garden growing up, on some obscure British documentary regarding solar worship, or maybe you are a watch nerd like me and heard that sundials predated modern watches but are shit compared to what we have now. You may be wondering how accurate they are, who used them, and how did they have a religious use. Or maybe you aren’t. Regardless, you now find yourself reading a short article on the history of sundials and some notable examples of their uses. Lucky you! You must be fun at parties.
So let’s start with what is a sundial – a device with a circular or semicircular disc base, markers for hours or some way to signify time, and with a pointed angled pole in the center known as the gnomon (Greek for pole) that casts a shadow from the sun onto the markers etched or inscribed into the disc base. As the sun moves throughout the day, the shadow of the gnomon tells us what time it is using those markers.
Ok, so now that you know what a sundial is, let’s understand its uses. There are a number of uses but let’s start with the most obvious: a clock. Our ancient friends created the sundial to be a clock. Humans have been fascinated by the passage of time and as soon as we could count the hours, we have been frustrated with people for being late. The sundial was one of the first, most common clocks and was even used well up into the 19th century to check the accuracy of mechanical clocks. A second use of sundials is in the study of astronomy. Early astronomers, such as the Greek Aristarchus of Samos, created sundials that marked the passage of time and seasons, by studying the sun. A third use of the sundial was for a religious function, they were used to mark important seasonal festivals and for marking the specific times of day used for prayer. An example of this would be the use of sundials during the medieval period to mark when Muslims were supposed to pray. In fact, most sundials from the golden age of Islam indicate times on the sundial for when prayer was supposed to occur.
Some notable examples of famous sundials are the Egyptian shadow clocks that date to 1500 BCE. There was at one point a belief amongst historians that even the Egyptian obelisks could have been used as large sundials to measure the passage of time, but this idea has since been discounted mostly. The Greeks seem to have been particularly fascinated with sundials, two examples would be the Hemicycle by Aristarchus of Samos. This sundial not only measured time but also a concept (that goes way over my head) known as seasonal hours depending on the length of the shadow. Another is an octagonal building known as the Tower of the Winds in Athens. The building, completed around 100BCE, had eight “planar” sundials facing the cardinal directions of the compass. The Romans, as always, stole a famous example from a rival tribe, the Samnites. They put this sundial on display in the city of Rome in 290BCE and the first original Roman sundial for the city was not built until over 100 years later.
So, what killed off the sundial and relegated it to a garden ornament? Well, of course, the mechanical clock. Mechanical clocks started to come around in the 14th and 15th century and as they become more accurate with springs, pendulums, and gears, sundials started to disappear. They were stubborn as hell though, and lasted well into the 19th century to measure the accuracy of mechanical time keeping devices. So, next time that weird aunt with the sundial in the garden invites you over, make sure you regale her with the EXTREMELY exciting uses and past of the sundial.