Written by Guest Author: Alicia Whitcome
It’s always been risky to be a woman. Women have been feared for their ferocity, their duality and their power since times long since forgotten. We live in a time where our eyes are constantly being veiled, our choices are always second guessed, and our voices are rarely heard. We live in a civilized world and thank the gods for that.
Its 60 CE and the Romans have invaded the Isle, taking whatever their hands can touch, land, livestock, gold and flesh. The king of the Iceni tribe is dead, and his lands and people are seized, his daughters are raped, and his wife is publicly flogged. Boudica was her name and she sprang forth with a vengeance for the blood of her people. Being a Celtic woman she had the wild mind of a warrior and took up the reins of a war chariot, "It is not as a woman descended from noble ancestry, but as one of the people that I am avenging lost freedom, my scourged body, the outraged chastity of my daughters…this is a woman's resolve; as for men, they may live and be slaves.” In her first strike against the civilized Romans she and her people attacked the capital city of Camulodunum (Colchester) and utterly destroyed it. The Iceni people and their queen went on to destroy 3 Roman settlements, leaving only devastation in their wake. Boudica impregnated her people with the spirit of fire and freedom and perhaps if she had one more swift victory the world would be a far different place. Boudica did not live to see the Romans pushed from her lands or her people but she did not give up or give in to their ideals.
Boudica came from a barbaric culture in view of the Romans and they took everything they could from her. She was a woman of her times and woman we could use today. She took the injustices pushed upon her and she turned them into a vengeance that nearly changed the entire course of history. She stood her ground for herself, her daughters and for her people and she refused to back down, she refused to stop fighting until death.
Boudica is a name we should all know and remember.
-Written by Guest Writer: Alicia Whitcome: historian, doggie mama, wife, and our very own Boudica
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boudica