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Documentary, 8 Days That Made Rome S01E05 - Boudica's Revenge
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00:00Ancient Rome, one of the greatest superpowers in history, whose far-reaching legacy continues to shape our lives.
00:09For close on a thousand years, the Romans dominated the known world.
00:16Theirs was an extraordinary empire that heralded an age of unprecedented prosperity and stability,
00:23but that also ruled through violence and oppression.
00:27Rome's rise to greatness wasn't inevitable.
00:32Its epic history was often decided by single critical moments.
00:39In this series, I'm exploring eight key days that I believe help to explain Rome's remarkable success.
00:49To understand the full significance of these eight days, I'm travelling across the Roman world.
00:55I am incredibly lucky to get access to this archaeological site.
01:01Examining remarkable finds.
01:03We have molten glass from that day, that exact time when Boudicca attacked the city.
01:08And investigating the complexities of what it was to be Roman.
01:17One of the days I've chosen happened here in Britain around 60 AD.
01:24It was the day when Roman forces flogged and dishonoured the queen of a proud native tribe.
01:31I am Boudicca.
01:32I am Boudicca.
01:33And it triggered an uprising, the likes of which Rome had never seen.
01:39This day reveals how fragile Rome's wit was on its empire.
01:44And the lengths it would go to, to keep control.
01:48Rome, the settlement that fought, bought, and plundered its way to become the most powerful empire in the world.
02:04Rome had risen to become a Mediterranean superpower after crushing Hannibal's Carthage.
02:10Victory for Rome!
02:12Led by an omnipotent emperor, Rome's hunger for land was ferocious.
02:18And it spread outward, consuming the territories that surrounded it.
02:23To those it conquered, Rome brought security, education, sanitation, technology, even a form of welfare.
02:31Rome's genius was that she managed to get her defeated enemies to buy into the Roman project,
02:39giving people across three continents in Europe, Asia, and Africa a sense of belonging,
02:45of being part of something greater than themselves.
02:49But not everyone wanted to be a cog in the well-oiled Roman machine.
02:53On a single day, around 60 AD, here in Britain, that brutality backfired spectacularly.
03:12Rome's violent flogging of a native queen was intended to crush her people into submission.
03:17Instead, it sparked an unprecedented outburst of civil strife and rebellion that would spread across Britain.
03:25The leader of the revolt was Boudicca, still a British icon today, a proud symbol of resistance against injustice.
03:35And I'd argue that the day that Rome humiliated her is critical to our understanding of the Roman story,
03:42because it shows that not everyone bought into the grand idea that was Rome.
03:48And it helps us to see things from the other side,
03:51to get a sense of what it was like to live under Roman rule.
03:5843 AD, 17 years before Boudicca's flogging.
04:03By now, the Roman Empire under Claudius had spread right across Europe,
04:07even over the channel to the enigmatic island of Britannia.
04:13But keeping control of such a vast empire required a delicate balancing act.
04:19Rome used the carrot as well as the stick to get local rulers on board.
04:25Rulers of tribes like the Iceni.
04:27Home to a young noblewoman who'd one day face the dark side of Roman rule.
04:34Boudicca.
04:37So you want us to bow down before your emperor in Rome.
04:43And you want me to keep my people from cutting off your balls.
04:48And in return, in return, you keep your throne.
04:52You keep your lance.
04:54We'll give you military protection.
04:56And I have a gift from the emperor.
05:00Open it.
05:01You think we can be bored with gold?
05:11No.
05:13But I think you can recognize good terms when you're off on it.
05:16Spying on us?
05:25No.
05:26Hear anything interesting?
05:28I don't trust the Romans.
05:29Boudicca's tribe, the Iceni, allied with Rome.
05:36It was just one of a patchwork of small, independent tribal kingdoms that made up Britannia in 43 AD.
05:42This is Warram Camp in East Anglia, an Iceni stronghold for at least 100 years before the Romans arrived.
05:55Now, it might not look like much from down here, but if you look from above, you get a sense of just how impressive this place was 2,000 years ago.
06:06These ramparts were built as defences against constant attacks from neighbouring tribes.
06:18The fact that the tribes of Britain were often at one another's throats was great news for Rome.
06:251,800 years before the word mafia had been invented, the Romans had set up a kind of massive protection racket right across the empire.
06:33They would promise to protect a particular tribe in return for cooperation and loyalty and good behaviour.
06:42For many leaders, this was an offer they couldn't refuse, and the native Britons were no different.
06:50In all, 11 of 17 British kingdoms became allies of Rome, including the Iceni, who'd one day come to regret that decision.
07:00We know from the great Roman author Tacitus, whose father-in-law was actually stationed here in Britannia,
07:08that one of the tribes, the Brigantes, was actually ruled by a woman, Queen Cartamandua.
07:15Now, Queen Cartamandua had handed over her territory as a client kingdom to Rome.
07:21It meant that she could still rule, but she had to submit to Rome's authority.
07:25This is a rain ring from a chariot, and it is decorated...
07:30Dr. Julia Farley is a leading expert in Iron Age Britain.
07:34It is a fascinating situation, because for Romans, women should very definitely be second-class citizens.
07:40They are not expected to wield real political power.
07:44So how do they react to what's going on here?
07:46Yeah, I mean, it's really interesting to read the sources we have about Queen Cartamandua,
07:51because obviously she's an ally of the Romans, and so they're actually talking about her quite negatively.
07:58Tacitus talks about her being treacherous and cunning and self-indulgent,
08:02because he doesn't really approve of a woman holding power in that way and how she behaves.
08:07So I think it's really kind of difficult for the Romans, because they need, like, powerful leaders like Cartamandua on side.
08:14That's how they're controlling these areas of the provinces.
08:17So they're having to make this adjustment to deal with her, even though she's a powerful woman.
08:21I mean, there obviously are things that really appeal to the native Britons,
08:24that it can be a very good deal to sign up to the Roman project.
08:28I mean, for someone like Cartamandua, this is really, in some ways, a no-brainer,
08:32because her ability to be supported by the Romans makes her more important,
08:38not kind of, you know, a weak leader who's sided with the enemy,
08:42but a powerful woman who's got these connections that span all across Europe.
08:49We're constantly finding evidence of how the native Britons, particularly the posh ones,
08:54coded up to the Romans.
08:56The A1 road in the north of England at Scott Corner was recently widened,
09:00and during the building work, archaeologists rescued these fantastic treasures,
09:08177,000 of them, dating from the time of the Roman occupation.
09:15Now, tellingly, this territory was originally Queen Cartamandua's heartland,
09:20and time and time again, we find that these beautiful artefacts
09:25have a distinctly Roman flavour.
09:27This evidence appears to show how an alliance with Rome
09:32could be very beneficial, even for women.
09:36But Romans had a word for the people of Britain.
09:41Britonculi.
09:42Pathetic little Brits.
09:46And 2,000 miles from Britain,
09:48evidence has been uncovered that reveals
09:50what Romans really thought of their remote province.
09:53Here in Aphrodisias, modern south-west Turkey,
09:58we can see the true face of the imperial vision.
10:02These are sculptures from the Sebastion,
10:05or Monument to Emperors,
10:08a collection of around 80 pieces of imperial propaganda.
10:11And here we can see how Rome portrayed its conquest of Britannia
10:17to the rest of the empire.
10:19You know, I think this is one of the most disturbing images
10:23from across antiquity.
10:25What you're looking at is the Emperor Claudius
10:28triumphantly dominating a naked woman.
10:33Britannia.
10:34This tells us a huge amount,
10:39both about Rome's attitude to its new province,
10:42but also about its attitude to women.
10:45It is merciless, it's misogynist,
10:49and it's also a chilling foreshadowing of what was to come,
10:54of that day when Rome's dismissive attitude to women
10:57would come back to haunt it.
11:01No!
11:02No!
11:03Don't touch my girl!
11:05No!
11:06No!
11:15By 47 AD,
11:17four years after the invasion,
11:19great swathes of Britannia
11:20had signed up to the Roman project,
11:23seduced by the opportunities offered by the empire.
11:29Rome's domination over Britannia
11:31included most of the south and east.
11:34As well as the Iceni,
11:36there were the Trinovantes,
11:37also in East Anglia,
11:39and the Brigantes in the north,
11:41with rebels fleeing to Wales.
11:46Subject tribes were expected to adopt new laws and customs,
11:50in keeping with the rest of the empire.
11:52One of Rome's demands would prove particularly hard to swallow
12:00for one of its loyal client kingdoms.
12:06People of Iceni,
12:08the carrying of weapons is now prohibited.
12:10All weapons must be surrendered.
12:13Failure to surrender your weapons will be treated as a violation of your privileges.
12:18For Boudicca and the Iceni,
12:21swords were an integral part of their tribal culture,
12:25an important symbol of status.
12:28I offer you my sword.
12:31This is a mistake.
12:50Boudicca would soon see what happened if you dared to defy Rome.
12:54Rome came down hard on the Iceni,
13:03quickly crushing their rebellion.
13:06The message to the client kingdoms of Britannia was clear.
13:10Stay in line,
13:11or pay the price.
13:14We don't know what happened to their king,
13:16but we do know that despite the rebellion,
13:19the Romans still allowed the Iceni to be ruled by one of their own.
13:26On the condition that they gave up their precious swords,
13:29the new client king that would have to carry out Rome's demands
13:33was Prasuticus,
13:36Boudicca's husband.
13:41What should I say to the tribe?
13:46It's not what you say that matters.
13:52It's what you do.
14:16Under Prasuticus,
14:36the Iceni surrendered their weapons
14:38and, for now,
14:40were left to their own devices
14:42under Rome's watchful eye.
14:44The king keeps his sword.
14:55The legacy of the new opportunities for trade
14:58opened up by the Roman occupation
15:00is still with us today.
15:03At its heart,
15:04the new town of Londinium.
15:07Romans and locals rubbed shoulders
15:08and made money.
15:09In 2010,
15:14an incredible discovery in London's financial heart
15:17revealed much about what mattered to its early inhabitants.
15:22The Romans and natives living here
15:24left behind some writing tablets.
15:28These are the most remarkable finds, aren't they?
15:31Yes, they're wonderful voices from the remote past.
15:36And it's wonderful.
15:37They survived over 1900 years.
15:40This is writing, literacy, coming to Britain.
15:43So do we get a hint from these
15:44of the kinds of jobs that people are doing
15:46and what their life was like in Londinium, for instance?
15:49Well, we've got scraps of it.
15:51We're getting these random glimpses
15:52of largely a business community in London.
15:56We've got a nice example over here.
15:59This is the man.
16:01It starts in mid-sentence.
16:02Per foruntotum, glorianta.
16:04They're boasting through the whole marketplace
16:06that you have lent the money at interest.
16:09Clearly, this is money that's been lent
16:11to a rather uncredit-worthy recipient,
16:13and they're boasting the fact
16:14that they've actually got the money.
16:16And basically, this does seem to be
16:18a wheeler-dealer,
16:20carpe-bagging business community.
16:23These tablets show that under Rome,
16:26Britannia was thriving,
16:28becoming a literate,
16:30Latin-speaking, connected society.
16:36But a change in leadership in Rome
16:38would threaten this new civilization.
16:42The conquering emperor Claudius died in 54 AD,
16:46and his great nephew,
16:47the infamous Nero, took control.
16:51For Nero, the provinces of Rome
16:53were all about lining his pockets.
16:57This greed would put Boudicca
16:59on a collision course with Rome.
17:01One man was instrumental in triggering
17:04the events that led to that confrontation.
17:07Nero's procurator,
17:09or chief revenue officer,
17:12Cetus Decianus.
17:14An ambitious man,
17:16he was keen to show Nero
17:17how profitable Britannia could be
17:19under his management.
17:20What news?
17:23Prasutagus is dead.
17:35I, King Prasutagus,
17:36of the Iceni hereby declare that
17:39in the event of my death,
17:41I will.
17:44Very Roman.
17:46In the event of my death,
17:49half my kingdom shall pass
17:50to the emperor of Rome,
17:52and half I bequeath
17:53to my two daughters.
17:56Decianus.
18:04What Decianus does next
18:06will shatter the peace
18:07and tear the province
18:09of Britannia apart.
18:12I believe this is the day
18:13that we see the true face
18:15of Rome.
18:31Have you come
18:32to pay your respects, Roman?
18:36This land now belongs to Rome.
18:39You will all serve the emperor.
18:41All royal property
18:43will be handed over to me.
18:44No.
18:45My husband left a will.
18:47Sadly,
18:48the kingdom wasn't his to give.
18:50Certainly not the two elves.
18:53You insult his memory.
18:57Stand aside, woman.
19:00Get your filthy Roman feet
19:03off our sacred land.
19:08Take everything.
19:09Flog her.
19:12Rape them
19:12and leave all three of them alive.
19:14No.
19:15No.
19:16No.
19:16Don't touch my girl!
19:18No!
19:19No!
19:20Don't touch my girl!
19:23No!
19:26No, no, no!
19:27Don't touch my girl!
19:28No!
19:29Oh, no!
19:32Oh, no!
19:33Oh, no!
19:35Oh, no!
19:35Oh, no!
19:36Oh, no!
19:37Oh, no!
19:37Oh, no!
19:38Oh, no!
19:38Oh, no!
19:39Oh, no!
19:39Oh!
19:39Oh, no!
19:39Oh, no!
19:45The outrage against Boudicca and her daughters
19:47was disgusting.
19:49It was a horrific, invasive, personal attack.
19:53But it was more than that, too.
19:55It was the dishonoring of a queen
19:57and the disgrace of her people.
20:00This was Rome using rape as a weapon of war.
20:05And for many millions of so-called barbarians,
20:09the peregrini,
20:10the foreigners who lived under Roman military occupation,
20:14this must have been the stark reality,
20:17the savage face of Roman control.
20:20Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no.
20:50We will make them pay.
21:12Boudicca's revenge for this day will cost the empire dear.
21:32Rome's brutal violation of Boudicca
21:35and her two daughters was a grave mistake for the empire.
21:40No doubt the Romans thought that a humiliated and now leaderless Iceni would collapse and surrender.
21:48It was another page out of the Roman conquest notebook, absorbing a kingdom once a client king had died.
21:55I'm sure the very last thing that they expected was for a woman to take control,
22:01but as we've seen with Cartamandua, for the native Britons, there was zero problem accepting female leadership.
22:31Forgive me, my love.
22:39Boudicca knew the Iceni wouldn't be able to fight the Romans alone.
22:47She'd need to convince rival tribes to join her cause.
22:53She first approached her nearest neighbours, the Trinovantes.
23:01I am Boudicca, Queen of the Iceni. I've come to speak with your king.
23:06We have no king. Rome is our king now.
23:11The Iceni will no longer take orders from Rome. We will drive them out.
23:19We will fight them, but we need weapons. I know you haven't given over all your swords.
23:26Who says so?
23:27You seem unable, are unwilling to take them up yourself.
23:41So hand them over to us. We would be happy to do your work for you.
23:46Why should we hand our swords over to you?
23:48If you don't give them to us, we will take them.
24:00Or you could take them up yourselves and fight the Romans alongside us.
24:08If, though, as I say, you have no use for them.
24:15Quiet.
24:17I'm thinking.
24:21Boudicca offered the Trinovantes an opportunity.
24:25Before the Romans arrived, the Trinovantes were considered the most powerful tribe in Britain.
24:30And they had special reason to hate the Romans.
24:35It was here, right in the heart of the Trinovantes' tribal land, that the Romans had built their provincial capital.
24:42Camila Dunham, now Colchester.
24:44It had come to house a military garrison.
24:47And the farmland all around had been dished out to Roman veterans.
24:51Part of a retirement package after 25 years of service in the legions.
24:56Boudicca had played this to her advantage, harnessing the festering fury of the Trinovantes and gaining a crucial ally in the fight with Rome.
25:14Makes me sick to my stomach.
25:17Their temple.
25:18To their emperor.
25:20That we paid for.
25:26What you're looking at here is the remains of a Norman castle.
25:32But originally there was a much bigger building on this site.
25:36All these bits of red brick were part of a Roman temple.
25:39Dedicated to the emperor Claudius.
25:42Who'd been deified, turned into a god after his death.
25:46Pretty much standard practice for emperors.
25:49This giant temple was even taller than the building that's here now.
25:55And it was a real focal point for the city.
25:59It wasn't just a place of religious importance where animal sacrifices were made.
26:04It doubled up as a meeting place where money was lent and where people traded goods.
26:09In 2016, hidden under modern Colchester, archaeologists discovered clues that revealed the astonishing scale of the temple complex.
26:24So explain to me what it is I'm looking at here.
26:29Well, you're looking at the remains of this massive monumental arcade.
26:33It's called an arcade because it's a series of arches.
26:35Uh-huh.
26:36Temple of Claudius is the largest classical-style temple that we know of in Britain.
26:40And this is the big, huge arcade forming the front of it.
26:43So you'd pass through the centre of this arcade to get into this public space and to access the temple.
26:50And what we see here is the core, the remains, of this support for two arches.
26:56This would have gone up a total of eight metres and then split to form two arches.
27:00Uh-huh.
27:01And one would have come down to the remains of the next support over there.
27:05So that little second block is?
27:07And do we know in the original how many arches there'd have been in total?
27:10We calculated there would have been 26 arches in all.
27:15Because that's really big, isn't it?
27:17And it would have been 120 metres long.
27:19That's enormous.
27:21I mean, it's a huge structure then, this.
27:23It is ginormous.
27:25Amazing.
27:26Yes.
27:29Archaeologists have created a computer reconstruction
27:32showing the vast scale of the arcade surrounding the temple.
27:36It was unlike anything else in Europe,
27:38and its purpose would have been solely to impress anyone who saw it.
27:43For the locals, I mean, this would be completely alien and really intimidating.
27:49Well, it must have been like a spaceship had landed in a big field for most of them.
27:53Yeah.
27:54So it was very intimidating.
27:57This was Rome proclaiming its absolute power,
28:01just as it did the day it flogged Boudicca and raped her daughters.
28:04For the locals, it was a daily reminder of their oppression.
28:09And now the people of Colchester, both Romans and native Britons alike,
28:15were about to feel the heat of that simmering resentment.
28:20SIRphenic
28:46Go! Run! Get out! Get out!
28:53Come on, Harry! Come on!
29:16No!
29:22Alex!
29:24Please, no.
29:26Please, no.
29:28Please!
29:40No!
29:46The day that Rome flogged Boudicca was intended to crush her.
29:52Instead, she unleashed an onslaught of fire and fury
29:57that left thousands of Romans and native Britons dead.
30:10Down here is all that's left of the Temple of Claudius.
30:13And these are the original foundations.
30:16And up above, for two days,
30:18the petrified surviving inhabitants were barricaded in
30:22as Boudicca's army systematically ransacked the town,
30:26house by house.
30:28For years, we've relied on the historian Tacitus' writings
30:33for a description of Boudicca's fiery vengeance.
30:37But recently, there have been some truly remarkable discoveries
30:42that not only support Tacitus' accounts,
30:45but also give us incredible evidence of what happened here.
30:49We have brilliant written accounts of this event.
30:54How good is the archaeology for it?
30:56Through the burning, we have some material as a kind of snapshot
31:00from that day, that exact time when Boudicca attacked the city.
31:03Amazing.
31:04It's this kind of brilliant irony, isn't it,
31:06that that destruction actually saves history for us.
31:09Yes, like examples of Samianware that were reduced to this dark black colour.
31:14Amazing.
31:15Glass was reduced to these molten fragments.
31:20It's kind of hideous, in a way, holding this
31:23and thinking of the suffering that would have accompanied this.
31:26You know, there, you can feel the heat of Boudicca's fury.
31:30Yes.
31:31And in 2014, they uncovered a larder
31:34and they found lots of foods that people would have been eating at the time.
31:37So you have the burnt lentils here.
31:40Yeah.
31:41And here's the modern equivalent.
31:42Amazing.
31:43And then dates, which of course would have been incredibly exotic then.
31:48Yes, they would have been.
31:49I can safely say this is the first time in my life I've ever held a 2,000-year-old date.
31:53Well, yes.
31:54Possibly the last as well.
31:55Yes.
31:56And was it just food that survived there or was there anything else in the larder?
31:59Well, no, actually.
32:00Buried beneath this mundane daily material
32:05were an exceptional collection of jewellery items.
32:09When Boudicca attacked the town,
32:11whoever was living in the household at the time acted in pure desperation.
32:14They found all of their most precious items
32:17and they decided to hide them underneath the floor.
32:20Oh, it's heavy.
32:21It is.
32:22Gold is very heavy.
32:23Yeah, yeah.
32:24But it's such a large, large item.
32:25It is quite weighty.
32:26And so lovely to hold it.
32:27That's absolutely beautiful, beautiful piece.
32:31We don't have any traces of who they were.
32:33This is the one snapshot we have of their life.
32:36But it does have that close personal story that does make it even more exciting.
32:40This is a history-making, game-changing moment.
32:43And our evidence, as well as the gold, is a burnt date.
32:47It is, yes.
32:48Exactly.
32:51It is sobering thinking of the death and destruction that would have been suffered here.
32:57Archaeologists tell us that not a single building was left standing.
33:02Boudicca had embarked on a war of annihilation.
33:11Word of the carnage spread, inspiring more disaffected natives to choose their countrymen rather than Romans as allies.
33:21Decianus realised he'd underestimated Boudicca.
33:26He dispatched the 9th Legion, a unit of around 5,000 battle-hardened soldiers to deal with her.
33:35He also sent word to the Roman governor of Britannia, Suetonius Paulinus, who was crushing rebel forces in North Wales.
33:43Paulinus left Wales and raced to Londinium to organize a defense.
34:02What's this I hear, Decianus?
34:05Rome humiliated by an army of illiterate half-breeds led by a woman?
34:11I sent the 9th Legion.
34:14Well, that's all that's left of the 9th Legion.
34:17And Boudicca is marching on Londinium.
34:20Are you ready for her, Decianus?
34:23Because you don't look ready.
34:27And I suspect the Emperor will have you executed for this debacle.
34:31Boudicca's defeat of the 9th Legion would have shocked the Romans.
34:36General Paulinus knew he couldn't defend London with the few men he had with him.
34:47Our details of what happened next are pretty sketchy, but one thing is certain, Decianus did not hang around.
34:54When he heard that Boudicca's army was advancing on London, he slipped onto a boat and sailed across the Channel, where he disappears from history.
35:04Boudicca and her rapidly growing army descended on Londinium and destroyed it.
35:11If you weren't with her, you were against her, Roman and pro-Roman Britons alike.
35:16She was said to have cut the breasts off women and sewn them into their own mouths.
35:24Boudicca's following continued to grow as she swept onto Verilanium, St Albans, and burnt it.
35:31Three towns in ashes, thousands dead.
35:34General Paulinus, reunited with his army in Wales, headed south in a desperate attempt to crush the rebellion.
35:43The Empire relied on its reputation of military invincibility.
35:49Paulinus couldn't afford to be driven out of Britannia, particularly by a woman.
35:54Maas, help us all.
36:11Boudicca's Rebellion had united tribes across the south-east against the Romans.
36:16At an unidentified place, probably in the West Midlands, Boudicca's army, now in the tens of thousands, came face to face with General Paulinus and his small force of 10,000 Roman legionaries.
36:35This was Boudicca's chance to drive Rome from Britannia's shores.
36:40The confrontation would come to be called the Battle of Wattling Street.
36:48I thought there'd be more of them.
36:54What?
36:56What is it?
36:59I have a bad feeling, Macedo.
37:03No.
37:05You don't.
37:07Because of you, we have these numbers.
37:10We stand united for the first time against a common enemy.
37:14You do not have a bad feeling about this.
37:21No!
37:28Sounds like there are more women and children than men.
37:33Keep your soldiers together.
37:35And on my work, advance and don't stop.
37:40Boudicca's forces outnumbered the Romans by perhaps as many as three or four to one.
37:50But they'd never met a disciplined Roman army in full combat before.
37:54Everything hinged on this confrontation.
37:57The size of Boudicca's army actually began to work in Rome's favour.
38:03As the rebels surged forward, those at the front were crushed against an immovable wall of Roman shields.
38:12And then they faced Roman blades.
38:13And then they faced Roman blades.
38:25They're never here.
38:26Who's blackish così's on or half would never get a happend smarqu at precedent.
38:27What's that way?
38:28God!
38:29God!
38:30God!
38:31God!
38:32God!
38:33God!
38:35God!
38:37God!
38:38God!
38:39God!
38:40God!
38:41God!
38:44God!
38:45God!
38:46God!
38:47God!
38:48God!
38:49God!
38:50God!
38:51Son of God!
38:52That time!
38:54Jack!
39:24Boudicca's warriors were no match for the dreadful efficiency of the Romans.
39:37They were either crushed or slaughtered without mercy.
39:42Tacitus tells us that 80,000 native Britons died and just 400 Romans.
39:47Even given the doubtless exaggeration, this was a total, shattering defeat.
39:59According to Tacitus, Boudicca took poison as her army was defeated.
40:07But that's actually a literary cliché of the time.
40:10Defeated generals commit suicide, women take poison.
40:14But think of Cleopatra killed by the venom of an asp.
40:19It's actually more likely that Boudicca fell on the battlefield,
40:24where Britannia's hopes of freedom from Rome also died.
40:38Boudicca became a legendary figure for Rome, a kind of uber-woman.
40:42She was described as having tawny hair down to her hips,
40:47and flashing eyes and a strident voice, and being immensely tall.
40:53Basically, in order to explain her successes,
40:56the Romans had to turn her into an anti-superhero.
41:00The day of Boudicca's flogging, the rape of her daughters and the revolt it unleashed,
41:12ultimately led to the very opposite of what she'd fought for.
41:15For the next 350 years, most of Britain was part of a vast, intercontinental super-state,
41:25the Roman Empire, and its legacy is still felt today.
41:30Literacy, Christianity, the power of the pen were all brought here to Britain,
41:35a shortening of the Latin word Britannia, by the Romans.
41:38Although Boudicca couldn't reverse the occupation,
41:45she did win a place in history,
41:47a symbol so potent that 2,000 years on, she's still a household name.
41:54Boudicca was troubling to the Romans,
41:57proof that a mere woman could get them on the run,
42:00and that there were those who refused to be cowled by Roman force
42:05or wooed by the delights of Roman ways.
42:10A reminder that the human spirit is not easily broken,
42:15and that the idea that was Rome had its limits.
42:20Next time, Rome's most notorious emperor, Nero,
42:31drives the empire into a crisis.
42:34What have you done?
42:36To order the murder of your own mother was unprecedented.
42:41His downfall would bring an end to Rome's first dynasty.
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