Editing Boudica (section)

===Attacks on Camulodunum, Londinium and Verulamium===
[[File:Map of the Boudican Revolt.svg|alt=map of the places involved in Boudica's rebellion|thumb|upright=1.25|A map of the [[Boudican Revolt]]]]
The first target of the rebels was [[Camulodunum]] (modern [[Colchester]]), a Roman {{lang|la|[[Colonia (Roman)|colonia]]}} for retired soldiers.{{sfn |Webster |1978 |p=[https://archive.org/details/boudicabritishre0000webs/page/88/mode/2up 88]}} A [[Roman temple]] had been erected there to Claudius, at great expense to the local population. Combined with brutal treatment of the Britons by the veterans, this had caused resentment towards the Romans.{{sfn |Hingley |Unwin |2006 |p=[https://archive.org/details/boudicaironagewa0000hing/page/70/mode/2up 71]}}

The Iceni and the Trinovantes comprised an army of 120,000 men.<ref name="Hingley Unwin 2006 p. 70">{{harvnb |Hingley |Unwin |2006 |p=[https://archive.org/details/boudicaironagewa0000hing/page/70/mode/2up 70]}}</ref> Dio claimed that Boudica called upon the British goddess of victory [[Andraste]] to aid her army.{{sfn |Hingley |Unwin |2006 |p=[https://archive.org/details/boudicaironagewa0000hing/page/54/mode/2up 55]}} Once the revolt had begun, the only Roman troops available to provide assistance, aside from the few within the colony, were 200 [[Auxiliaries (Roman military)|auxiliaries]] located in London, who were not equipped to fight Boudica's army. Camulodunum was captured by the rebels;{{sfn |Webster |1978 |p=[https://archive.org/details/boudicabritishre0000webs/page/90/mode/2up 90]}} those inhabitants who survived the initial attack took refuge in the [[Temple of Claudius, Colchester|Temple of Claudius]] for two days before they were killed.<ref name="Webster 1978 p. 91, 93">{{harvnb |Webster |1978 |pp=[https://archive.org/details/boudicabritishre0000webs/page/90/mode/2up 91, 93]}}</ref> [[Quintus Petillius Cerialis]], then commanding the [[Legio IX Hispana|Legio IX ''Hispana'']], attempted to relieve Camulodunum, but suffered an overwhelming defeat. The [[infantry]] with him were all killed and only the commander and some of his [[cavalry]] escaped. After this disaster, Catus Decianus, whose behaviour had provoked the rebellion, fled abroad to [[Gaul]].{{sfn |Hingley |Unwin |2006 |p=[https://archive.org/details/boudicaironagewa0000hing/page/48/mode/2up 49]}}

Suetonius was leading a [[Roman conquest of Anglesey|campaign against the island of Mona]], off the coast of North Wales. On hearing the news of the Iceni uprising, he left a garrison on Mona and returned to deal with Boudica.<ref name="Hingley Unwin 2006 p. 70"/> He moved quickly with a force of men through hostile territory to Londinium, which he reached before the arrival of Boudica's army<ref name="Webster 1978 p. 91, 93"/> but, outnumbered, he decided to abandon the town to the rebels, who burned it down after torturing and killing everyone who had remained. The rebels also sacked the ''[[municipium]]'' of [[Verulamium]] (modern [[St Albans]]),<ref name="Vandrei 2018 p. 2">{{harvnb |Vandrei |2018 |p=2}} "After sacking the settlements of Camulodunum (present-day Colchester) and Verulamium (now St Albans) Boudica's army brought its destructive force to Londinium. Footnote 4: The destruction of Verulamium follows that of Londinium in some accounts."</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Tacitus|title=Annals|pages=14.33|quote="eadem clades municipio Verulamio fuit – Like ruin fell on the town of Verulamium"}}</ref> north-west of London, though the extent of its destruction is unclear.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wall |first1=Martin |title=The Lost Battlefields of Britain |date=2022 |publisher=[[Amberley Publishing|Amberley]] |location=Stroud, England |isbn=978-1445697086 |chapter=2. The treacherous lioness: Boudicca and the great British revolt (60–61)}}</ref>

Dio and Tacitus both reported that around 80,000 people were said to have been killed by the rebels.<ref name="Hingley Unwin 2006 p. 52–53"/> According to Tacitus, the Britons had no interest in taking the Roman population as prisoners, only in slaughter by "[[gibbet]], fire, or cross".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cunliffe |first1=Barry W |author1-link=Barry Cunliffe |title=Iron Age Communities in Britain: an account of England, Scotland, and Wales from the seventh century BC until the Roman conquest |date=1978 |publisher=[[Routledge|Routledge & Kegan Paul]] |location=London; Boston |isbn=978-0-7100-8725-6 |page=143}}</ref> Dio adds that the noblest women were impaled on spikes and had their breasts cut off and sewn to their mouths, "to the accompaniment of sacrifices, banquets, and wanton behaviour" in sacred places, particularly the groves of Andraste.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Henshall |first1=K. |title=Folly and Fortune in Early British History: from Caesar to the Normans |date=2008 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |isbn=978-0-230-58379-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cC19DAAAQBAJ|page=55}}</ref>