Dreaming the Eagle
Page 61
The tribe who occupied the lands immediately to the west of the Eceni are currently known as the Corieltauvi. However, after due consideration, it seems that for the reader unfamiliar with local archaeology this name is too readily confused with the Catuvellauni, who lay to their south, and so, for purely editorial reasons, I have reverted to their former title, the Coritani.
With respect to the Roman aspects of the narrative, the sources are many and varied. In researching the character of Gaius/Caligula and the events in the winter of A.D. 39/40, I have chosen to accept the interpretation of Anthony Barrett in his book Caligula—The Corruption of Power, particularly with respect to the events surrounding the “surrender” of Amminios.
The character of Corvus is entirely fictional but his military career is based loosely on that of Atatinus Modestus, a commander cited by John Spaul in his book Ala,2 whose career began in Augustan times in the Ala II Gallorum and went on to sixteen years in the Legio X Gemina.
Finally, on the Roman side, I have followed Webster’s depiction of Galba as L. Sulpicius Galba in the light of Suetonius’s contention that he did not take on the name Servius until he took the throne in the year of the four emperors.
Details of the invasion itself remain a source of contention amongst professional archaeologists. Dio outlines two battles, both taking place at a river, but does not give us either the exact number of legions which took part or the geographical location of the landings, both of which are vital to an understanding of the events of this period. From a study of military records in the post-invasion period, it is generally accepted that four legions, plus their attendant auxiliaries and cohorts, took part—a total of around forty thousand armed men, twice as many as Caesar brought in 55 and 54 B.D. Best estimates suggest that a thousand ships would be required to transport them from the continent—nearly ten times as many as took part in the Spanish Armada.
At the time of writing, two schools of thought exist concerning the site of the landings. The first is that they landed at Richborough in Kent (the geography of the coastline was somewhat different from that which exists today) and marched west to meet the native forces, first at the Medway and then at the Thames. This theory is backed by the fact that the landing site is a six-hour sail from Boulogne—the shortest possible route—and archaeological evidence of Roman military activity, which has been fixed at around the time of the invasion. This landing site has the advantage of being close to the Thames and Trinovantian territory, both of vital strategic importance.
The second theory has the invaders landing on the south coast at or near Fishbourne—this being supported by the fact that the Roman excuse for invasion was to return Berikos (Verica) of the Atrebates to his home kingdom. This gives the invasion the advantage of a landing in friendly territory and access to food, water and fuel while establishing bases. Against this is the fact that the crossing from Boulogne takes twenty hours and must run against two tides.
For the novelist who is required to build a fictional reality, it was always going to be necessary to choose one or other theory, until a paper published by E. W. Black,3 examining other classical sources, proposed a third theory—that two separate landings took place, one at each location. We are unlikely ever to resolve this but, given the logistical nightmare of landing a thousand ships at any single location, this third theory makes more sense than either of the other two and is the option I have chosen. You, of course, are free to imagine your own alternative, as with all the rest.
1 Graham Webster, The Roman Invasion of Britain (Routledge, 1999).
2 John E. H. Spaul, Ala. The Auxiliary Cavalry Units of the Pre-Diocletianic Imperial Roman Army (Nectoreca Press, 1984, 2000).
3 E. W. Black, “Sentius Saturninus and the Invasion of Britain,” Britannia 31 (2000), 1–10.
NAMES AND THEIR PRONUNCIATION
This is a complex field, not least because we are dealing by and large with a language that no longer exists. Clearly the inhabitants of tribal Britain in the first century A.D. did not speak English in any form—that came later, with the Anglo-Saxon invasions of the Dark Ages. Instead, two forms of early Gaelic were spoken: In the early fourth century B.C., “q-Celtic” spread from Ireland to the Isle of Man and Scotland, evolving into the Gaelic of today. The other form, “p-Celtic,” was spoken in the south and east and gave rise over time to the Brythonic languages of Welsh, Cornish and Breton.
Some characters of Boudica’s time had names already in place and it was simply a question of choosing which form to use. In the list below, characters whose names are recorded in history have an asterisk.
As for the fictional characters, there are records of Gaulish names and it is therefore possible to choose those consistent with the period. However, for ease of reading in the modern world, I have incorporated some contemporary Welsh and Irish names as well.
The names below are spelled phonetically, the sound correspondences for the vowel sounds followed by an approximation of how to pronounce each name. In each case, there is equal stress on all syllables.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Barrett, Anthony, Caligula—The Corruption of Power (Routledge, 1993).
Campbell, Brian, The Roman Army 31 B.C.–A.D. 337 (Routledge, 1994).
Cheeseman, G. L., The Auxilia of the Roman Imperial Army (Ares Publishers Inc., 1975).
Crummy, Philip, City of Victory: The Story of Colchester—Britain’s First Roman Town (Colchester Archaeological Trust, 1977).
Cunliffe, Barry, The Ancient Celts (Oxford University Press, 1997).
Dixon, Karen R., and Southern, Pat, The Roman Cavalry (Routledge, 1997).
Gilliver, C. M., The Roman Art of War (Tempus Publishing Ltd., 1999).
Goldsworthy, Adrian Keith, The Roman Army at War, 100 B.C.–A.D. 200 (Oxford University Press, 1996).
Hyland, Ann, Training the Roman Cavalry (Alan Sutton Publishing Ltd., 1993).
Le Bohec, Yann, The Imperial Roman Army (B. T. Batsford Ltd., 1994).
MacKillip, James, The Dictionary of Celtic Mythology (Oxford University Press, 1998).
Ó hÓgain, Dáithí, Celtic Warriors. The Armies of One of the First Great Peoples in Europe (Pegasus Publications Ltd., 1999).
Peddie, John, The Roman War Machine (Alan Sutton Publishing Ltd., 1994).
Rees, Alwyn and Brinley, Celtic Heritage. Ancient Tradition in Ireland and Wales (Thames & Hudson Ltd., 1961).
Salway, Peter, A History of Roman Britain (Oxford University Press, 1993).
Shirley, Elizabeth, Building a Roman Legionary Fortress (Tempus Publishing Ltd., 2001).
Spaul, John E. H., Ala. The Auxiliary Cavalry Units of the Pre-Diocletaianic Imperial Roman Army (Nectoreca Press, 1984, revised edition, 2000).
———, Cohors. The Evidence for and a Short History of the Auxiliary Infantry Units of the Imperial Roman Army (BAR International Series 841, 2000).
Webster, Graham, The Roman Invasion of Britain (Routledge, 1999).
———, Rome against Caratacus. The Roman Campaigns in Britain A.D. 48–58 (Routledge, 1993).
———, Boudica, the British Revolt against Rome A.D.60 (Routledge, 1993).
———, The Roman Imperial Army (A & C Black, 1997).
Woolf, Greg, Becoming Roman. The Origins of Provincial Civilisation in Gaul (Cambridge University Press, 1998).
Woolliscroft, D. I., Roman Military Signalling (Tempus, 2001).
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Manda Scott is a veterinary surgeon, writer and climber. Known primarily as a crime writer, her first novel, Hen’s Teeth, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize. Her subsequent novels are Night Mares, Stronger than Death and No Good Deed, for which she was hailed by the Times of London as “one of Britain’s most important crime writers.” Born and educated in Scotland, she now lives in Suffolk.
Don’t miss Dreaming the Bull, the next book
in the Boudica series
Dreaming the Bull continues the story of Breaca—acclaimed as bringer of victory to her people�
�and her half-brother, Bán, now an officer in the Roman cavalry. Each stands on either side in a brutal war of attrition between the occupying army and the defeated tribes, each determined to see the other dead. Caught in the middle are Cunomar and Graine, son and daughter of two of the greatest warriors their world has ever seen. While in the heart of Rome, the Emperor Claudius and his implacable wife hold lives in their hands.
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Copyright © 2003 Manda Scott
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