Christina Unwin

Since I first heard of Boudica, I've been fascinated by her tragic story: wronged queen, vengeful mother, freedom fighter for her people, warrior queen who came this close to throwing the mighty Roman Empire off the island of Britain. Over the years, I've collected books and articles--many useful and most fanciful. I found Boudica: Iron Age Warrior Queen to be an incredibly useful book--actually two books. "Part I: Boudica" explores the known classical sources, archaeology, and numismatics relating to the British revolt against the Romans in AD 60-61. The authors explore how little we know about Boudica the woman and leader. There are no coins linking Boudica or her husband to the Iceni people (or any Celtic tribe). Although the archaeology is rich with detail on the people living in the three towns likely destroyed by the rebellious tribes, again there is nothing directly linking a female ruler named Boudica to the destruction. Our sole sources for the story are three classical pieces written years after the events, by two Roman men with their own political agendas. Two of those sources are by Tacitus and contain contradictory and different details (in the earlier version Boudica rules the Brigantes, in the later it's the Iceni). This will come as a surprise to the vast majority of us who think we know Boudica's story.

But why do we think we know Boudica's story? That's explained in "Part II: Boadicea" where the authors review how the legend (and name) of the Warrior Queen evolved and grew through the centuries, morphing through "histories," plays, poems, art, TV, movies, museum exhibits, and websites. They comprehensively cover most of the non-classical literary sources, how they portray Boadicea (or any of the dozens of alternate spellings) and how the work was of it's time. I found the following quote from the end of the book, to be of enormous value: "We shape our own past, either to get what we need from it or to answer questions about the times we ourselves live in--we get the past we desire." Boudica's legend has been interpreted by many people to get the past they wanted--including Tacitus and Dio--our primary sources.

I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to see past the veils of legend and dig into the real history--as far as we can know. It is a research book, filled with footnotes and quotes, but the language is accessible. Published in 2005, it has a good survey of current archaeological evidence and revisits some earlier finds with updated interpretations.… (mere)

This might have worked better for me in English. (I read the German translation). I certainly wonder several places what terms were used in the original. Also most of the pictures are from the V&A meaning that even in the non-British selections the choice of items was not what I would have expected. The British emphasis would probably not have been as blatant in English.

Especially in the biography pages, there should have been more illustrations. Over all the choice seemed to be based on chance (or available pictures?) rather than on a plan of what needed to be shown.… (mere)

It's not a very long book, just over 200 pages, I believe. I didn't make it through the amount of information about things we apparently don't know.

It's amazing how someone can write a book about a historical figure and completely focus on circumstantial things and everything we don't know for sure. Well, since this woman lived about 2000 years ago, I really did not need to be told that all stories are based on other stories and conclusions which are based on archeological findings. Just tell me about the woman.

Well, that didn't happen.… (mere)