Roman vs Britons Battle of AD43 Never Happened Says Academic

Ancient Origins ^ | December 26, 2019 | Ashley Cowie

[centurion316]

Roman commanders, including Vespasian did not make their reputations with peaceful arrangements with local tribes. Conquest paid off, so their accounts may have been slightly exaggerated

[PLMerite]

“Car Dyke”

There’s a Subaru joke in there somewhere.

[Oatka]

Literally the only evidence Boudicca ever lived is found in a Roman account.

Boy, did she ever get her butt handed to her HERE. in 60 A.D. (7:15)

Some neat displays of Roman Tactics (starts at 2:00) - discipline beats a mob, despite the odds.

[oldvirginian]

“Those claiming victim status only got what they deserved by being so greedy.”

I think we can agree that if the people of Ireland, Britain, France and other places had merely handed over to the peaceful farmers the gold, silver and nubile wenches the farmers needed so badly then later depredations would have been unnecessary.

If only Burknee O’Sanders had been in Ireland to show the wayward Irish the way!

[Bob Ireland]

***The economy boomed and traded by sea even into Byzantine times, it remained remote from tumults on the continent, and the supposed revolts were short-lived and quickly eliminated and forgotten***

well, of course there was Hadrian's Wall... ;^) Those Pesky Picts...

[SunkenCiv]

The Roman Army was recalled for more urgent things during Agricola's campaign, which devastated the Caledonians. The Scots remained Irish for a couple of hundred years after the Romans left, cowering in their kilts. :^) There were two walls, with the more northerly abandoned due to there being nothing much of value between there and the line of what became Hadrian's Wall.

The last big excursion north of Hadrian's wall was by Septimius Severus. It again left Caledonia chastised, but his dynasty was the last before the Crisis of the 3rd C. Late in the 3rd, Carausius, the pretender who controlled the Roman fleet in oceanic Gaul, moved his naval operations to Britain, basically making his position unassailable from Rome -- but he is sometimes given credit for building the forts of the Saxon Shore, which regardless of who built them were an attempt to stop the Germanic raids and invasions.

[poconopundit]

Dave, even if many historical events are indeed true. Imagine how much of the details of these events have been "docudrama-ed" so as to be totally distorted.

"What is history but a fable agreed upon?" Napoleon

[Bob Ireland]

***There were two walls, with the more northerly abandoned due to there being nothing much of value between there and the line of what became Hadrian's Wall***

My comment was a bit off-handed; but your reply may be a more pithy reason for Hadrian's Wall than troublesome rebels... there was nothing much of value above Hadrian's Wall. Like Arthur's Avalon - just separate the Picts from the real {Roman} world. :^D

Of course the Roman garrisons stationed on Hadrian's Wall may contradict that view.

[poconopundit]

Hey SunkenCiv, apparently the Brits have a knack for malarkey.

When Doug Bower and his co-conspirator Dave Chorley first created a representation of a “flying saucer nest” in a wheat field in Wiltshire, England, in 1976, they could not have foreseen that their work would become a cultural phenomenon.

Almost as soon as crop circles became public knowledge, they attracted a gaggle of self-appointed experts.  An efflorescence of mystical and magical thinking, scientific and pseudo-scientific research, conspiracy theories and general pandemonium broke out.

The patterns stamped in fields were treated as a lens through which the initiated could witness the activity of earth energies and ancient spirits, the anguish of Mother Earth in the face of impending ecological doom, and evidence of secret weapons testing and, of course, aliens.

Crop Circles: The Art of the Hoax — Smithsonian Magazine

[SunkenCiv]

The Roman army in Britain was often pretty thin, because it was such a quiet province, and the Wall made the frontier easy to guard and made commerce simple to control. Much of the length of the wall is atop natural ridges and other commanding landscape features. Most of the purpose was probably analogous to the British Empire's Great Hedge in India, which was control of commerce. There were at least three other Roman wall systems to define and/or control frontiers -- the limes system in Germany, the long barrier that crosses the landscape a good bit east of Israel, and at least one wall system in northern Africa.

[nomorelurker]

Book I started reading some years ago (don’t recall title or author) did not finish was not that good, had the plot/premise of an ugly Anglo-Saxon woman who kept waiting to be captured by the Vikings. Raid after raid she was passed over, finally went and captured the slowest least fierce Viking she could find. Started a family that was ruled by the women with men as figureheads, to comply with the ensuing culture across the centuries. Extra males were sent off to war, boarding school, navy and colonies never to come back. Think of a very secluded English manor. Not sure that plot is PC or “woke” now. Starting premise is un PC but women controlled in the end.

[SunkenCiv]

Up by the wall in one of the forts not too many years back an archive of discarded correspondence was found, preserved by wet soil. One of the commanders of that fort, writing a report to his superiors, referred to the locals (in Latin of course) as "dirty little Brits".

[SunkenCiv]

Yeah, the Roman governor / commander really knew his stuff, and he had a mere legion and a half vs 75,000 murderous crazed Celts. Picked his ground, didn't wait for the rest of the troops he'd summoned to show up, and let the Celts attack on his terms. I think I read that they'd pulled up the wagons to give their young a better view of their inevitable victory, but that served as a barrier so that when they broke and tried to flee, they couldn't get out fast enough. It could be that the Battle of Watling Street actually selected out those least likely to accept Roman rule right near the beginning, and everyone who hadn't flipped out were the ones who had all the descendants.

[poconopundit]

Now I know what archeologists live by.  Amid the tortuous and relentless digging and finding nothing, at long last gems like are discovered, and a lifetime of hope disappointed is all worthwhile.

My wife from Sasebo gets the TVJapan (NHK) channel.  Quite frequently they run historical shows highlighting famous people of the past.

And very often we'll see an archivist wearing white gloves opening up a vault and displaying a medieval document for the cameras.

Lovely to see how reverently they try to preserve and re-animate their sunken civilization.

It's one reason to look forward to the Tokyo Olympics this summer.  They are sure to put on a memorable show...

[dfwgator]

Olympics aren’t happening this year. Canada just announced they aren’t going. Expect many other countries to follow.

[poconopundit]

Hey Dave. Then you are a bit like your beloved Nassim Taleb, another guy who doesn’t suffer fools.

And how, may I ask, are you and your wife keeping busy in your retirement years? Cheers.

[poconopundit]

It’s a shame. Maybe they can postpone it a year.

[Red Badger]

The Romans didn’t do anything to the ancient Britons that they weren’t doing to each other for hundreds of years..................hmmm........sounds familiar.....................

[Grampa Dave]

‘may I ask, are you and your wife keeping busy in your retirement years? Cheers.’

The first year I retired, our CPA warned me not to consider working as a large part of my retirement package was front end loaded as well as a good monthly stipend due to taxes.

After a few weeks,my wife said that I needed something to do. :)

So, I did a lot of local fly fishing and then in Oregon/Washington.

Also, I traveled to see family and friends. 2 adult sons were working in Portland or nearby. I did some joint outdoor vacations with them. My fly rods and gear went on these trips.

A good friend had relocated to Floriduh, and I went there to fish with him several times.

We went back to visit our Mothers, and they came out here.

My wife and I had a timeshare to swap and get good deals in Mexico, and we took a couple cruises to Mexico. We did a combo trip to England for some sightseeing, ancestral hunting, and some incredible fly fishing,for me. We don’t do the Mexico thing anymore. That stopped about 10+ years ago.

One son got married and a year later, our first grandchild was born, and we became semi parents on Wed., so Mom could get a break. That lasted with her and her later brother until they went to private high schools.

I did a lot of one man and committee work with our church re committees with a specific time span re job finish.

Then, I ran focus groups and got paid well. It evolved into lot of travel.

That was getting old, again our acct. told me to stop and focus on managing our IRA’s. Half of my pay went to pay taxes, state/federal, SS, Medicare/?. That was in May 2001.

At first my wife said no. Our CPA told her to buy a new Homer’s bucket and fill it with 10 and 20 dollar bills every week.

Then, when I came home for the weekend, my wife could get in the back of my Ridgeline and throw the money at the homeless as we drove by.

She continued to work until she was 70 something. She negotiated increased 401K donations by her bosses and maximized her payments into their 401k, and we set up her own SEP/Ira.

Now that she is retired, we can go to the Coast anytime for a day or midweek.

Our church, grand kids, sons and our families here and away are our main focus with some long term church friends are stymied with this shelter in place stuff.

My wife is known as the texting grannie, sister, cousin, aunt and friend, and she keeps in touch with a lot of folks. They also, wear out their ears on the phone.

I have a few surviving family members, whom I text or email regularly.

I have out lived most of my longtime friends, and those still on the top side of the grass,don’t text/email. So we chat on the phone about once every 2-3 months.

My wife is a rabid book reader. She gets and reads 5-7 books a week. I use kindle and sometimes keep 3 books going at the same time. About once a month, she suggests one of her library books. I like about half of them. She just handed me a new John Sanford book, “Holy Ghost”. I will start that today or tomorrow.

So, we keep busy with each other and out of each other’s way.

No daytime tv, and we cut the cable 3 years ago. We watch zero news and only a handful of CBS shows and a ton of old and new Brit shows. Our tv’s die of old age not over use.

We joke about how did we do a lot of this and working hard, decades ago.

[poconopundit]

Well, a very nice explanation. Much more than expected. But good to read.

I’m still a spring chicken at 67 years old. I was not so successful financially, so I continue to work. But at least the work is interesting — writing research and journal stories in high tech.

My wife (62) is crazy over pickleball. And she goes every weekday (though she’s now going stir crazy that they shut down the courts for the Chinese virus).

I enjoy outside exercise, mowing lawn, trimming the bushes.

Last weekend we put up a couple of fence posts for our 6 foot picket fence around the property. It was a pleasure - work up a little sweat, we had fun together mixing the concrete in a large aluminum cooking bowl and pouring around the post.

Eating is a big deal for me and my wife is skillful in the kitchen.

My wife is from Japan so I often join her watching the Japanese dramas at night-time. The NHK channel is excellent. Very few ads. Surprising how with good dramas you don’t really need to understand Japanese, though sometimes they have English subtitles.

I do enjoy audiobooks, especially the American history type as in Bill O’Reilly’s “Killing” series.

Daughter and baby child are in California. Hope to see them this summer perhaps.