The British Rebellion

When Julius Caesar and Caesar Augustus were in charge of the Roman Empire, Rome was strong and prosperous. But bad emperors like Nero started to weaken Rome. Even worse, some of the countries that Rome had conquered began to resist Roman rule.

The Celts who lived in Britain had never liked Roman rule. And the Romans had never managed to control all of the British islands. Some of the Celts obeyed Roman laws and paid taxes to the Romans. But others rebelled.

One of these disobedient Celtic tribes was particularly annoying to the Romans—because their leader was a woman! In ancient times, women weren’t considered to be brave or strong. Men thought it was very embarrassing to be beaten by a woman.

But the leader of this Celtic tribe was no ordinary woman. She was a powerful warrior queen named Boadicea. A Roman writer named Cassius described Boadicea: She was very tall, taller than a man, and her voice was strong and powerful, loud enough to echo from mountain to mountain. She had fierce, piercing eyes, and long, thick, red-brown hair that hung down past her waist. She wore a billowing tartan cloak and a thick gold collar around her neck.

Boadicea refused to make her tribe part of the Roman Empire. Instead, she led the Celts in raids on the Roman settlements. The Romans seemed powerless to stop them! They even raided the biggest Roman settlement in Britain—Londinium. Later, this Roman settlement became the city of London.

Soon, the Romans in Britain were terrified of Boadicea and her warriors. The Roman citizens who lived in the settlements started telling each other that they had seen strange things, signs that Rome was doomed to be defeated by the Celts. The statue of Victory fell face down without being pushed! A woman claimed that she had seen the sea turn as red as blood. Other people said that they saw a ghost town in ruins near Londinium.

Did these strange things really happen? Probably not. But the stories show how nervous the Romans were about Boadicea.

Boadicea collected more and more Celtic warriors around her. Soon there were a hundred thousand British marching down on ten thousand Romans. That means that there was one Roman for every ten British fighters. Just before the final attack, Boadicea rode around and made a famous speech to all her warriors. “We British are accustomed to having women in command!” she shouted. “The gods will grant us revenge against the Roman invaders! I plan to win this battle—or die trying! Let the men live as slaves to the Romans if they want to—but I refuse to live in slavery!”

Then the Celts attacked. They rode into battle without any plan. They charged in at top speed, each soldier doing exactly what he wanted. But the Romans stayed together. They did what their general said. Even though they were outnumbered, they won!

The victory in Britain was only temporary, though. Soon the Romans were forced to leave Britain altogether. Today, in Britain, you can still see the ruins of Roman walls and roads. Those ruins are all that is left of the Roman settlements in Britain.