In 43 CE, Prasutagus ruled the Iceni tribe in modern-day East Anglia, but it was his wife who would go down in history.
Prasutagus wanted to keep his family and his kingdom safe – in his will, he left his territory and wealth to his daughters, but Emperor Nero was made co-heir. With the Romans on side, what could go wrong?
It turns out that Prasutagus hadn’t entirely thought it through. The governor of Britain, Suetonius Paulinus, wasn’t the kind to go along with this. When the Iceni king died, Paulinus plundered his lands. Then he went a step further – he dragged Boudicca out and had her publicly flogged, while her daughters were raped by Roman slaves. Led by Boudicca, the Iceni had one response – all-out rebellion. No Romans were spared – according to Tacitus, 70,000 were slaughtered, and the number included Britons who were in support of the Roman conquest. They even found the 9th Legion and hacked it to pieces. Camulodunum, Verulamium and part of Londinium (Colchester, St Albans and London, respectively) were all razed to the ground. Boudicca was having her slice of revenge.
It would never last. The only reason the rebellion had gone on so long was because Paulinus had been away. Now he was back, and it was his job to put a stop to it.
A bloody battle ensued and the Iceni were defeated. No one knows exactly how Boudicca died – the most prevalent theories are that she poisoned herself or died of shock – but it was the end of one of the most famous revolts against Roman rule the ancient world had seen.