Secret London: What Do You Know About London?

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Vimto Male, 40-49, Europe 1988 Posts	Wednesday, July 25, 2012 6:32:56 AM I love this guy's stuff. I lived in west London for years and know none of this.

Angilion Male, 40-49, Europe 9533 Posts	Tuesday, July 24, 2012 7:40:56 PM If you're looking for a person who could be considered an admirable leader of violent British resistance to Roman rule, I suggest Caractacus. He didn`t massacre civilians - his targets were all military. He led his forces to victories, it took the Romans almost 10 years to defeat him and it only happened because he went to Cartamandua, queen of the Brigante, to try to talk her into bringing the Brigante into his resistance alliance. Unfortunately for him, she`d already made an agreement to become a client kingdom of the Roman empire and had him imprisoned instead, then turned over to the Romans.

Angilion Male, 40-49, Europe 9533 Posts	Tuesday, July 24, 2012 7:28:23 PM Oh and no, Londinium wasn't the place where she led the assault against the Romans. It was just another place where she massacred civilians, most of whom were British. No doubt some of them were British Romans and some were Romans from other parts of the empire, but most of her victims wouldn`t have been. The place where she led the grotesquely mismanaged assault against the Romans isn`t known, but it is known that it wasn`t Londinium because the Roman general knew it wasn`t defendable. It was a recently built trading town and port without any defences (the wall was built later) and the Roman army was outnumbered many times over, probably in the region of 10 to 1 (the records give a higher figure, but are probably exaggerated).

Angilion Male, 40-49, Europe 9533 Posts	Tuesday, July 24, 2012 7:21:49 PM So old Londinium must be the place where one of those old druid Queens, Boadicea, led an assault against the Romans. The assault was so ferocious and her tactics so Burn Your Bridges Behind you-ish the scar on the land can still be seen today, or so I've read. Not quite - you need to dig to see it. Also, you need some expert knowledge to know what you`re looking at. But there is a layer showing the massacre and devastation. Yeah, massacre. Boudicca (not Boadicea) led the slaughter of entire cities of civilians (the Roman army was in Wales at the time). Not a hero. Not a druid, either. Not much of a general either - it was really not a good idea to allow a Roman army time to gather and attack it uphill after giving it time to fortify. Either she had no control over her forces or no military sense (or both). But she was a queen.

nayrbarr Male, 13-17, Europe 350 Posts	Tuesday, July 24, 2012 2:29:46 PM Being English, I am really supprised that I knew nothing about this. I quite enjoyed finding out :) @drawman61, made my day. (Yes, I'm easily amused)

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