5. A Whirlwind of Vengeance That Swept Through Roman Britain
Disgruntled Britons rallied to Boudica by the tens of thousands, and she led them in a whirlwind campaign of vengeance. Sweeping out of East Anglia, with Boudica at their head on a war chariot, the rebels annihilated a legionary detachment sent to subdue them. They then went on a rampage, in which they burned what are now Colchester, Saint Albans, and London. They also massacred tens of thousands of Romans and Romanized British collaborators, torturing and executing them in a variety of gruesome ways ranging from impalement, to flaying, to burning alive, to crucifixion.
Eventually, the Romans rallied, gathered their legions into a powerful force, and marched off to meet Boudica. When the armies eventually met, the Romans were greatly outnumbered, but they were a disciplined force of professional legionaries, against an untrained and disorganized enemy. Boudica led her forces in person and charged at the Romans in her war chariot, but discipline and professionalism prevailed over courage, and the Romans won. Defeated, Boudica took her own life to deny the Romans the satisfaction of parading her in chains in a triumphal parade.
