Boadicea, Queen, -62

Boudica or Boudicca (UK: /ˈbuːdɪkə, boʊˈdɪkə/, US: /buːˈdɪkə/), also known as Boadicea (/ˌboʊ(ə)dɪˈsiːə/, also US: /ˌboʊæd-/) or Boudicea, and in Welsh as Buddug (IPA: [ˈbɨðɨɡ]),[1][2] was a queen of the British Iceni tribe who led an uprising against the conquering forces of the Roman Empire in AD 60 or 61. According to Roman sources, shortly after the uprising failed, she poisoned herself or died of her wounds, although there is no actual evidence of her fate. She is considered a British folk hero.[3]

Boudica's husband Prasutagus, with whom she had two daughters whose names are unknown, ruled as a nominally independent ally of Rome, and left his kingdom jointly to his daughters and to the Roman emperor in his will. However, when he died, his will was ignored, and the kingdom was annexed and his property taken. According to Tacitus, Boudica was flogged and her daughters raped.[4] Cassius Dio explains Boudica's response by saying that previous imperial donations to influential Britons were confiscated and the Roman financier and philosopher Seneca called in the loans he had forced on the reluctant Celtic Britons.[5]

In AD 60 or 61, when the Roman governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus was campaigning on the island of Mona (modern Anglesey) on the northwest coast of Wales, Boudica led the Iceni, the Trinovantes, and others in revolt.[6] They destroyed Camulodunum (modern Colchester), earlier the capital of the Trinovantes but at that time a colonia, a settlement for discharged Roman soldiers and site of a temple to the former Emperor Claudius. Upon hearing of the revolt, Suetonius hurried to Londinium (modern London), the 20-year-old commercial settlement that was the rebels' next target. He lacked sufficient numbers to defend the settlement, and he evacuated and abandoned Londinium. Boudica led a very large army of Iceni, Trinovantes, and others against a detachment of the Legio IX Hispana, defeating them, and burning Londinium and Verulamium.

An estimated 70,000–80,000 Romans and Britons were killed in the three cities by those following Boudica,[7] many by torture.[7] Suetonius, meanwhile, regrouped his forces, possibly in the West Midlands; despite being heavily outnumbered, he decisively defeated the Britons. The crisis caused Nero to consider withdrawing all Roman forces from Britain, but Suetonius's victory over Boudica confirmed Roman control of the province. Boudica then either killed herself to avoid capture (according to Tacitus),[8] or died of illness (according to Cassius Dio).[9]

Interest in these events was revived in the English Renaissance and led to Boudica's fame in the Victorian era.[10] Boudica has remained an important cultural symbol in the United Kingdom.

Boudica has been known by several versions of her name. In the 16th century, Raphael Holinshed called her Voadicia, while Edmund Spenser called her Bunduca, a variation of which was used in the popular Jacobean play Bonduca of 1612.[11] In the 18th century, William Cowper's poem Boadicea, an ode (1782) popularised an alternative version of the name.[12]

Her name was spelt Boudicca in the most complete manuscripts of Tacitus, which through investigation of the language of the Celts was also proven to be misspelt with the addition of the second 'c.'[13] The misspelling by Tacitus was copied, and further deviations of her name began to appear. Along with the second 'c' becoming an 'e,' in place of the 'u' appeared an 'a;' this is where the medieval (and most common) spelling 'Boadicea' is derived from.[13]

In an epitome of Cassius Dio's histories in Greek she was Βουδουικα, Βουνδουικα, and Βοδουικα.[14]

Kenneth Jackson concludes, based on the later development in Welsh (Buddug) and Irish (Buaidheach), that the name derives from the Proto-Celtic feminine adjective *boudīkā 'victorious', that in turn is derived from the Celtic word *boudā 'victory' (cf. Irish bua (Classical Irish buadh) 'victory', Scottish Gaelic buaidheach 'victorious; effective', Welsh buddug, buddugol 'victorious', buddugoliaeth 'victory'), and that the correct spelling of the name in Common Brittonic (the British Celtic language) is Boudica, pronounced [boʊˈdiːkaː]. Jackson explains: "The philological fact is that the name must have been Boudica, pronounced in phonetic terminology /boudi:ka:/, or, to put it in a less technical form, in 'English' spelling it would be 'Bowdeekah', where ow means the diphthong seen in e.g. the phrases 'tie a bow' or 'bow and arrow', and the stressed syllable is the dee, with long vowel, the final a being also long."[15] The Gaulish version is attested in inscriptions as Boudiga in Bordeaux, Boudica in Lusitania, and Bodicca in Algeria.[16][17] John Rhys suggested that the most comparable Latin name, in meaning only, would be "Victorina".[18] Alternatively, Graham Webster claims the name can be directly translated as "Victoria."[19]

There are two primary sources from the classical period which reported on Boudica specifically, namely Tacitus and Cassius Dio.[20] Tacitus' mention of Boudica appears in only two of his vast number of works: the Annals, c.AD 115-117; and the Agricola, c. AD 98.[21] Both were published many years after Boudica's revolt, but Tacitus had an eyewitness at his disposal for the retelling of some of the events; his father-in-law Gnaeus Julius Agricola served in Britain three times as a military tribune under Suetonius Paulinus; it was during Suetonius' absence that Tacitus says the Britons began to congregate under Boudica.[22] Cassius Dio's account, published over a century after Boudica's death, is only known from an epitome, written by John Xiphilinus. Dio provides a considerable amount of information not found in the work of Tacitus, suggesting that the sources he used were lost long ago.[23]

It is generally agreed that Dio based his account on that of Tacitus, but simplifies the sequence of events.[24] The abuses which Boudica and her daughters suffered at the hands of the Romans is not mentioned in Dio's account, instead he cites three different causes for the rebellion: the recalling of loans that were given to the Britons by Seneca; Decianus Catus' confiscation of money formerly loaned to the Britons by the Emperor Claudius; and Boudica's own entreaties.[25][26]

In AD 60 or 61, the current governor and most senior Roman administrator in the province, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, was leading a campaign against the island of Mona (modern Anglesey) in Wales, where he had been participating in campaigns long before this one.[22] Mona was conquered by the Roman army, who then heard the news of Boudica's rising and had to march rapidly eastward again. Under Boudica's lead, the Iceni and the Trinovantes comprised an army 120,000 strong to fight their common enemy, the Romans.[40] Dio claims that before the initial revolts, Boudica called upon the British goddess of victory, Andraste, to aid them in battle.[41]