Boudicca
- Submitted by: jtgrulz
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- Category: History: European
- Date Submitted: 08/30/2010 12:22 AM
- Pages: 3
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With reference to both modern and ancient sources, account for the changing image of Boudicca through different periods in history.
Ancient
Tactitus/ Dio Cassius > downplay the leadership of Boudicca
Archaeology in Colchester
Modern
Re- emergence of Boudicca in the renaissance with the discovery of writings of tacitus > shakes peares yound contempories > portrayed as?
Victorian era named as queen victorias name sake + building of statue by prince albert
Inclusion of Boudicca in recent films and novels > fiction > legend
Ancient accounts of Boudicca often downplay her success and undermine her heroic nature. Dio Cassius, for instance, describes Boudicca as ‘not someone descended from great ancestors avenging her kingdom and her wealth, rather she was an ordinary woman avenging the freedom she had lost, her body worn out with flogging and the violated chastity of her daughters’ such an account highlights her womanly flaws in leadership as she has a personal attachment to the conflict. Such illustrations of Boudicca accompanied with a possibly exaggerated number in the defeat of 80 000 fallen Britons in comparison to 400 roman casualties portray Boudicca’s ultimate failure in leadership of the 60AD revolt. As Dio Cassius was a Roman consult his accounts of Boudicca are quite unreliable as they are from the perspective of a Roman bias who not only were the enemies of Boudicca and the Britons but also refused culturally condone women as leaders.
Similarly, Tacitus also degraded Boudicca on account of her gender however he acknowledges her leadership qualities as he describes her as having ‘a woman of the British royal family, who possessed more spirit than is usual in a woman’, such acknowledgement of royalty and spirit indicates the Roman ability to recognise the perspective of the opposition. Tacitus also describes Boudicca as tall in stature and impressively dressed. The greater ability of Tacitus to highlight the attributes...
Ancient
Tactitus/ Dio Cassius > downplay the leadership of Boudicca
Archaeology in Colchester
Modern
Re- emergence of Boudicca in the renaissance with the discovery of writings of tacitus > shakes peares yound contempories > portrayed as?
Victorian era named as queen victorias name sake + building of statue by prince albert
Inclusion of Boudicca in recent films and novels > fiction > legend
Ancient accounts of Boudicca often downplay her success and undermine her heroic nature. Dio Cassius, for instance, describes Boudicca as ‘not someone descended from great ancestors avenging her kingdom and her wealth, rather she was an ordinary woman avenging the freedom she had lost, her body worn out with flogging and the violated chastity of her daughters’ such an account highlights her womanly flaws in leadership as she has a personal attachment to the conflict. Such illustrations of Boudicca accompanied with a possibly exaggerated number in the defeat of 80 000 fallen Britons in comparison to 400 roman casualties portray Boudicca’s ultimate failure in leadership of the 60AD revolt. As Dio Cassius was a Roman consult his accounts of Boudicca are quite unreliable as they are from the perspective of a Roman bias who not only were the enemies of Boudicca and the Britons but also refused culturally condone women as leaders.
Similarly, Tacitus also degraded Boudicca on account of her gender however he acknowledges her leadership qualities as he describes her as having ‘a woman of the British royal family, who possessed more spirit than is usual in a woman’, such acknowledgement of royalty and spirit indicates the Roman ability to recognise the perspective of the opposition. Tacitus also describes Boudicca as tall in stature and impressively dressed. The greater ability of Tacitus to highlight the attributes...