Smiffys Horrible Histories Boudica Costume, Green with Dress, Shawl & Shield, Officially Licensed Horrible Histories Fancy Dress, Child Dress Up Costumes

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This History primary resource assists with teaching the following Social Studies First level objective from the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence:

The first target of the rebels was Camulodunum (modern Colchester), a Roman colonia for retired soldiers. [16] A Roman temple had been erected there to Claudius, at great expense to the local population. Combined with brutal treatment of the Britons by the veterans, this had caused resentment towards the Romans. [17] Gender expectations and social strata among Boudica’s society are not neatly defined by the ancient material. Nevertheless, it is clear that the Roman occupation questioned the authority of her family and their local position of power. Boudica’s motherhood was key to her success. Her response to the Romans followed a primal instinct to avenge her daughters. However, her call to action instigated uncontrolled violence on the part of her army, initiating a vengeful response by the Romans that endangered all Britons. The actions of her army were used in part to justify the need for Roman control. The Britons are not all peaceful, however. The Iceni’s neighbours, the Trinovantes, want revenge on the Romans for overthrowing their oppidum (town) and building the Roman colony at Camulodunum (now Colchester). The film takes on board an idea emphasised in recent academic accounts that the ancient peoples of Britain were not united in their actions and that resistance to Rome was piecemeal. Boudica was called 'Voadicia' in the English historian Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles, published between 1577 and 1587. [38] [40] A narrative by the Florentine scholar Petruccio Ubaldini in The Lives of the Noble Ladies of the Kingdom of England and Scotland (1591) includes two female characters, 'Voadicia' and 'Bunduica', both based on Boudica. [38] From the 1570s to the 1590s, when Elizabeth I's England was at war with Spain, Boudica proved to be a valuable asset for the English. [41]Tacitus: The Annals of Imperial Rome. Translated by Grant, Michael (Reviseded.). London: Penguin Books. 1988 [1956]. ISBN 978-01404-4-060-7. Cassius Dio began his history of Rome and its empire about 140 years after Boudica's death. Much is lost and his account of Boudica survives only in the epitome of an 11th century Byzantine monk, John Xiphilinus. He provides greater and more lurid detail than Tacitus, but in general his details are often fictitious. [5] [6] I can discuss why people and events from a particular time in the past were important, placing them within a historical sequence .

Early in the film, Boudica visits a Roman city apparently quite close to where she is living and dresses as a Roman lady. Boudica has been portrayed in many other accounts (such as Miranda Aldhouse-Green’s Boudica Britannia ) as instinctively anti-Roman, so the depiction her pro-Roman family at the start of this film provides an interesting contrast. Not all the Romans are depicted as horrid. Emperor Nero (Harry Kirton), who resides in the city of Rome, is a troubled figure who wants to be a musician and seems to abhor violence.

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Boudica’s actions as a warrior are left to the imagination, as Tacitus attributes the destruction to a universalised ‘Briton’. Boudica’s impact is visible as she rallies her army. Before the final battle, she speaks to her warriors, using her personal injury to galvanise an entire people to action. As one woman among many, she calls for justice on behalf of all those assaulted by the Romans. She asserts that it is British custom to fight under a female leader, and proclaims the necessity to win or die trying. Even the gods are on their side, so how could they lose? Despite her exhortation, the Romans win handily, and Boudica commits suicide rather than allow herself to be taken prisoner. Her courage in death is admirable. Like Cleopatra, she would rather die than be paraded in a Roman triumph. A "vocal minority" has claimed Boudica as a Celtic Welsh heroine. [56] A statue of Boudica in the Marble Hall at Cardiff City Hall was among those unveiled by David Lloyd George in 1916, though the choice had gained little support in a public vote. [57] [56] It shows her with her daughters and without warrior trappings. [58]

Boadicea and Her Daughters, a statue of the queen in her war chariot, complete with anachronistic scythes on the wheel axles, was executed by the sculptor Thomas Thornycroft. He was encouraged by Prince Albert, who lent his horses for use as models. [51] The statue, Thornycroft's most ambitious work, was produced between 1856 and 1871, cast in 1896, and positioned on the Victoria Embankment next to Westminster Bridge in 1902. [52] Cowper's 1782 poem Boadicea: An Ode was the most notable literary work to champion the resistance of the Britons, and helped to project British ideas of imperial expansion. It caused Boudica to become a British cultural icon and be perceived as a national heroine. [46] Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem Boädicéa (written in 1859, and published in 1864) drew on Cowper's poem. Depicting the Iceni queen as a violent and bloodthirsty warrior, the poem also forecasted the rise of British imperialism. Tennyson's image of Boudica was taken from the engraving produced in 1812 by Stothard. [48] Another work, the poem "Boadicea" (1859) by Francis Barker, contained strongly patriotic and Christian themes. [49]Dio and Tacitus both reported that around 80,000 people were said to have been killed by the rebels. [4] According to Tacitus, the Britons had no interest in taking the Roman population as prisoners, only in slaughter by " gibbet, fire, or cross". [26] Dio adds that the noblest women were impaled on spikes and had their breasts cut off and sewn to their mouths, "to the accompaniment of sacrifices, banquets, and wanton behaviour" in sacred places, particularly the groves of Andraste. [27] Defeat and death [ edit ] The Scottish “Celts” are also deeply involved in the action and appear to be the same people referred to in the film as “northern Britons”. The term “Celt” has sometimes been erroneously used to suggest that the population of Iron Age Britain formed a unified whole. Depictions of the Britons and Romans Having selected a significant individual from the past, I can contribute to a discussion on the influence of their actions, then and since