BOADICEA, more correctly, BOUDICCA, Queen of the Iceni, a British tribe, inhabiting what are now the counties of Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Norfolk and Hertfordshire. She died about 62 A.D. The celebrated earthworks still extant, known as the Devil's Ditch, at Newmar ket heath, and at Six-Mile bottom, are sup posed to be the fortifications of this tribe, and perhaps of this Queen, against the Romans. She was a contemporary of Nero, and was a woman of remarkable character, both for firm ness and ability. Her husband, the King of the Iceni, Prasutagus, dying, left Nero and his own two daughters joint heirs to his great wealth, hoping thereby to preserve his family and king dom from the rapacity of the conquerors. But immediately on his death his kingdom was taken possession of by the Roman centurions. For some real or imaginary offense, the British Queen was publicly scourged by the execu tioners, and her daughters were abandoned to the lust of the slaves. Stung to frenzy by this outrage, taking advantage of the absence of Suetonius Paulinus, the Roman governor, from that part of England, Boadicea raised the whole military force of her barbarians, and bursting upon the Roman colony of London, reduced the city to ashes, and put to the sword in that and neighboring places,— of Roman citizens, trad ers, Italians and other subjects of the empire,— at least 70,000 individuals. Suetonius lost not a moment in hurrying to the scene of action, although it was well known that the Queen of the Iceni was in command of 120,000 men, which gradually increased to 230,000, according to Dion Cassius, while he could bring into the field in all less than 10,000 soldiers. It is true
that absolute credit cannot be given to state ments of prodigious numbers, such as the above, but at all events the disparity of force was extraordinary. The legion, posted on heights, where its flanks and rear were covered by woods, seems to have received the attack passively, sheltered from the missiles of the Britons by their large, oblong bucklers, until, when the darts and arrows of the barbarians began to fail, by one compact charge they car ried all before them. They spared nothing; women, children, the beasts of burden, the dogs, were all cut to pieces. It is said that 80,000 Britons were butchered that day, while of the legionaries only 400 fell, and about as many more were wounded. It is believed that the action took place not far from Saint Albans, Verulamium, a Roman colony, which at the first irruption had shared the fate of London. The Queen, seeing that her cause was lost, com mitted suicide, rather than submit to the con queror. The victory was decisive as it estab lished Roman authority in Britain. Beaumont and Fletcher's play, 'Boadicea,' is founded upon the resistance made by Boadicea against Suetonius. Boadicea's story is well known through the poems of Cowper and Tennyson. Consult Tacitus, (Agricola' ; id., (Annales) (Furneaux's ed., Oxford 1891) ; Elton, (Ori gins of English History' (London 1882) ; Hay erfield, Romanization of Roman Britain) (Oxford 1912) ; Rhys, (Celtic Britain' (Lon don 1882).