Boudicca's Fight 4 Freedom-Author Note

“Boudicca’s Battle for Freedom” has been inspired from the accounts found in Tacitus and Dio Cassius’s books. Boudicca, a well known woman in British history, is famous for the uprising against Roman rule. Her display of power towards the Romans, show that she stood for what she believed and cared for. During her lifetime she faced much controversy against the Romans who invaded Britain after her husband had died. Boudicca was lashed with whips and her daughters raped. So Boudicca revolted, not because of just her daughters and herself, but for the Romans taking back their words of honour and taking their land. Boudicca was perceived as a terrifying woman; a noble, strong and intelligent woman. As a wife and mother, she had deep love and devotion towards her family. She also had appreciation for her country and would do anything to defend it. This can be seen by looking at the reason for why she went into battle.

The aim of this novel, in a way, was to create a sense of how Boudicca acted and felt during her lifetime. Being a woman didn’t change the way she valued her loved ones and country, but it gave her strength and courage to revolt against Roman rule. During this novel, the battle between Boudicca and the Romans has been extensively described so that the reader can get a feel to how it would have been like. This battle between the Britons and the Romans in 60 CE is considered important because during this period of history, women were not regarded as important as men. Even though this was the case, Boudicca still revolted against the Romans, and today people see her as a woman who defended the liberty of her country against a foreign invader. Boudicca was a highly intelligent woman; using this and her status, she was able to revolt against the tyranny rule of the Romans and become known as a woman who stood up for she believed in. 

For this novel many problems exist in the sources. Only a few sources account for the battle with Boudicca and nearly all of them are accounts from Roman writers. The most detailed sources are that of Tacitus and Dio Cassius. These two Roman writers particularly note the battle of Boudicca and the Romans, describing how the battle developed and crashed for the Britons. Many of the internet sources had been branched off from the sources and many had different analysts of each source. Though, from research, some of these sources were unreliable. From the accounts from Tacitus, ‘The Annals of Imperial Rome’, Boudicca has a moment where she addresses her army. An internet source too has referenced to Tacitus book, though when Boudicca addresses her army in the internet source, it is completely different. Translation may have been a factor to this difference, though when it is thoroughly compared with the original source, they still contain many differences.

All these sources that have been used, suggest that the Britons were barbarians, uncivilized and unethical. The main reasons for this would have been because the sources were only written by the Romans. This is because the Celts did not record any of their history, they only historical evidence we know of the Celts is from archaeological finds and the accounts from Roman history. With this, it could be said that these sources from the Romans are bias. Because Romans saw themselves with the highest of authority during this time, they would have seen the Celts are barbarians and uncivilized from they way they lived, even though for the Celts, they were advanced for their period of development.

The intention of this novel was to illustrate that when it comes to history, women too have an important parts they play. It shows that women were not all intellectual an unimportant, but had important roles in history that shaped the way we live today.  Boudicca was a woman who did stand up for what she believed in and with this made her mark in history. You as a reader should notice that even though events might not turn out for the good, Boudicca is still regarded as one of the important women in British history. It was not because of who she was, but of what she did that people today remember her by. At the end, you should realise that history doesn’t always involve the achievement of men, but of women also. Without their input to this world and our history, the way we live toady might have been completely different.