Who was Boudicca's daughter?

That's interesting because the Romans obviously had this vast empire, very well organized in terms of sort of military campaigns and infrastructure and communications.

And they kind of bash up against this different philosophy about leadership and warfare.

I think if I remember rightly, and the ancient world is not my particular area of study, but they had very different fighting styles as well.

Is that right? Is that something you talk about in the book at all?

I mean, I have to be honest, my interest was more in Boudicca as a family drama rather than getting into the nitty gritty of the fighting techniques.

But you're absolutely right.

Yes, there were very different fighting techniques.

I mean, the Britons and the Celtic people in sort of France and Spain kind of famously fought semi-clothed.

Of course, this is Roman accounts, so you have to take it slightly with a pinch of The idea of them sort of rushing into battle naked in a frenzy, you know, their bodies painted with woad and tattoos, their helmets with kind of animal hair and feathers and all the rest of it.

So they came across as quite wild.

They also made use of chariots in warfare to quite great effect.

Julius Caesar talks about the British chariot fighters when he kind of stuck a toe into ancient Britain and then decided, actually, no, I'm not going to try and conquer this place.

So, yes, their fighting style was different.

And certainly Boudicca's final battle, she was hugely outnumbering the Roman force.

But in the end, it was the very kind of dedicated and systematic military tactics of Paulinus the general facing her that defeated a much larger force.

You know, he chose the site of the battle and was waiting there for her.

So he kind of made the most of the lay of the land.

And in the end, kind of overwhelming force and frenzy wasn't enough to defeat there.

So what about most of the sources we have? Are they all Roman?

All Roman.

This is one of the really big problems when looking at the ancient British people and Boudicca in particular is, you know, the sources are not hugely sympathetic.

I think there's a significant lack of curiosity about customs and beliefs.

So we really just get another culture filtered through fairly hostile eyes.

I would say that Tacitus is probably for his own reasons of trying to kind of use the trope of the noble barbarian versus, you know, decadent Rome is perhaps more sympathetic to Boudicca than we might think in that he gives her very kind of dramatic speeches, which are all made up.

Yes, because he's somebody who'd have to be there taking notes, wouldn't they, and actually understanding ancient British, the language, as opposed to Latin.

That's interesting because the Romans obviously had this vast empire, very well organized in terms of sort of military campaigns and infrastructure and communications.

And they kind of bash up against this different philosophy about leadership and warfare.

I think if I remember rightly, and the ancient world is not my particular area of study, but they had very different fighting styles as well.

Is that right? Is that something you talk about in the book at all?

I mean, I have to be honest, my interest was more in Boudicca as a family drama rather than getting into the nitty gritty of the fighting techniques.

But you're absolutely right.

Yes, there were very different fighting techniques.

I mean, the Britons and the Celtic people in sort of France and Spain kind of famously fought semi-clothed.

Of course, this is Roman accounts, so you have to take it slightly with a pinch of The idea of them sort of rushing into battle naked in a frenzy, you know, their bodies painted with woad and tattoos, their helmets with kind of animal hair and feathers and all the rest of it.

So they came across as quite wild.

They also made use of chariots in warfare to quite great effect.

Julius Caesar talks about the British chariot fighters when he kind of stuck a toe into ancient Britain and then decided, actually, no, I'm not going to try and conquer this place.

So, yes, their fighting style was different.

And certainly Boudicca's final battle, she was hugely outnumbering the Roman force.

But in the end, it was the very kind of dedicated and systematic military tactics of Paulinus the general facing her that defeated a much larger force.

You know, he chose the site of the battle and was waiting there for her.

So he kind of made the most of the lay of the land.

And in the end, kind of overwhelming force and frenzy wasn't enough to defeat there.

So what about most of the sources we have? Are they all Roman?

All Roman.

This is one of the really big problems when looking at the ancient British people and Boudicca in particular is, you know, the sources are not hugely sympathetic.

I think there's a significant lack of curiosity about customs and beliefs.

So we really just get another culture filtered through fairly hostile eyes.

I would say that Tacitus is probably for his own reasons of trying to kind of use the trope of the noble barbarian versus, you know, decadent Rome is perhaps more sympathetic to Boudicca than we might think in that he gives her very kind of dramatic speeches, which are all made up.

Yes, because he's somebody who'd have to be there taking notes, wouldn't they, and actually understanding ancient British, the language, as opposed to Latin.