Re: Druids and Boudicca
- From: imipak <imipak@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 4 Oct 2008 16:12:31 -0700 (PDT)
On Oct 2, 10:25 pm, Lumpy <lu...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Any thoughts on Druids and the Boudiccan revolt? I have read that the
actions taking against them may have been partly responsible for the
uprising.
The Druid's centre of power was flattened by the Romans about the same
time (Boudecca met the Romans on their way back from the rather one-
sided battle). Even the most generous of delays between the attack on
the Druids and the attack by the Icini just doesn't give the Druids
enough time to have coordinated the kind of response involved. Claims
that "Pete Marsh" (the nickname for the Lindow bog man) was a Druid
Prince are, as far as I can tell, not based on any actual hard data.
Now, if we reverse the chain - the Romans anticipating Boudecca and
attacking the Druids - we still don't get enough time. You can't just
whistle up elite Roman units, the attack was therefore planned well in
advance, probably on-par with when the Icini first started plotting
with neighboring tribes against the Romans.
Now, this eliminates a major role for the Druids, but can we say they
have no role at all? No. They probably couldn't have stopped the Icini
from their uprising even if they'd wanted to, although I can see no
reason why they would want to. On the other hand, they very likely
were the people conducting the shuttle diplomacy between the Icini and
the other tribes. The tribes were almost constantly at some level of
hostility with each other, making a specific role of envoy rather
pointless, and there aren't too many other known roles that would have
had the political clout to carry off such a mission. Even if it was
one of the other high-ranking power-brokers of the time, without some
sort of tacit support and given the hostile terrain and lengthy
timeframes involved, the Druids could easily have "extraordinarily
rendered" a few diplomats without anyone ever realizing.
We can be certain, then, that the Druids were at least unofficially
supportive, and possibly the individuals key in bringing together such
a massive land army. Beyond that, though, there really isn't any
strong evidence they were involved at all. The attack on the temple to
Claudius could be considered indicative that Colchester was selected
on religious grounds, but it was the Roman capital in Britain and the
Icini wouldn't have passed up an opportunity to slam the Romans at gut
level, so it's not clear proof. The attack on London - the financial
capital - was almost certainly part of a military strategy to hurt the
Romans' morale by hurting their pockets, and to dissuade merchants to
cooperate with the Roman forces in Britain. We see similar tactics
throughout history up to (and including) the modern day. It's very
hard to say if the Druids would have thought that way - I'd have
pictured them more into destroying fortifications near or on the
Pennine Way, weaking Roman influence on the less-subjugated northern
tribes and staying close to territory they were stronger in. Messing
about on open roads, versus stalking the wild peaks, just doesn't
sound terribly Druid.
Problem here is that we know virtually nothing about the Druids. They
put nothing in writing, the archaeological data is limited, and our
primary source is Julius Caesar, who - frankly - was a superb spin-
doctor and arch-egotist who needed Rome to fund his ever-more
eccentric military campaigns. His description of Druids, therefore, is
the description he thought Rome would cough up cash for, not the
description he thought accurately reflected their position in society.
Because we know so little, it is dangerous to go by what sounds right
for what the Druids would do. We just don't know with enough
reliability. As such, my suspicion that London was a purely military
target picked by a warrior not by a religious leader is simply not
verifiable and should not be taken as an indication of actual events.
.
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