Battle of Watling Street

Battle of Watling Street, battle fought between Britons and Romans in 61 CE about 25 miles west of modern metropolitan Birmingham. In this final decisive battle of Boudicca’s revolt against Roman rule in Britain, a large British force was routed by the heavily outnumbered Romans under the command of Gaius Suetonius Paulinus. The battle marked the end of resistance to Roman rule in southern Britain, which was to last until 410.

When King Prasutagus of the Iceni died, he left his lands to be divided between his daughters and the emperor, Nero. However, the Romans ignored Prasutagus’s will and seized his lands, flogged his widow, Boudicca, and raped their two daughters. While the Roman governor, Suetonius, was campaigning in Anglesey, Boudicca led the Iceni and an allied tribe, the Trinovantes, in rebellion. She attacked Camulodunum (Colchester), where her troops slaughtered thousands and set fire to the temple of Claudius, killing those who sheltered inside. She then turned her attention on London, burning the Roman city and killing anyone who could not escape. Suetonius gathered his forces, amassing around 11,000 soldiers and officers.

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Boudicca’s rebel forces and Suetonius’s outnumbered but well-drilled army, comprising the Second Augustan and Ninth Spanish legions and perhaps 4,000 auxiliary troops from nearby garrisons, met on the Roman road called Watling Street, near Wroxeter in Shropshire. The exact battle site is not known, but following the Roman writer Tacitus, modern historians place it near Mancetter in Warwickshire. Roman rule in Britain was in the balance, so Suetonius had to choose his battleground carefully: as Tacitus describes it, “He chose a position approached by a narrow defile and secured in the rear by a wood, first satisfying himself that there was no trace of an enemy except in his front, and that the plain there was devoid of cover and allowed no suspicion of an ambush.” Boudicca was thus forced to engage the Romans in a massive frontal charge that was funneled into a tight mass and cut down by volleys of javelin. Once the Britons were in disarray, Suetonius ordered his forces forward in typical Roman wedge-shaped formation. Despite their numbers the poorly armed Britons were no match for superior Roman discipline, armor, and weaponry. As the Britons retreated, the ring of wagons belonging to their families impeded their escape, and they were massacred. Boudicca committed suicide after the battle, and with her death the revolt of the Iceni came to a prompt end.

Losses: According to Roman sources: British, 80,000 men, women, and children; Roman, 400.