_The Alhambra_ (New York, ed. 1880).

BOADICEA, strictly BOUDICCA, a British queen in the time of the emperor
Nero. Her husband Prasutagus ruled the Iceni (in what is now Norfolk) as
an autonomous prince under Roman suzerainty. On his death (A.D. 61)
without male heir, his dominions were annexed, and the annexation was
carried out brutally. He had by his will divided his private wealth
between his two daughters and Nero, trusting thereby to win imperial
favour for his family. Instead, his wife was scourged (doubtless for
resisting the annexation), his daughters outraged, his chief tribesmen
plundered. The proud, fierce queen and her people rose, and not alone.
With them rose half Britain, enraged, for other causes, at Roman rule.
Roman taxation and conscription lay heavy on the province; in addition,
the Roman government had just revoked financial concessions made a few
years earlier, and L. Annaeus Seneca, who combined the parts of a
moralist and a money-lender, had abruptly recalled large loans made from
his private wealth to British chiefs. A favourable chance for revolt was
provided by the absence of the governor-general, Suetonius Paulinus, and
most of his troops in North Wales and Anglesey. All south-east Britain
joined the movement. Paulinus rushed back without waiting for his
troops, but he could do nothing alone. The Britons burnt the Roman
municipalities of Verulam and Colchester, the mart of London, and
several military posts, massacred "over 70,000" Romans and Britons
friendly to Rome, and almost annihilated the Ninth Legion marching from
Lincoln to the rescue. At last Paulinus, who seems to have rejoined his
army, met the Britons in the field. The site of the battle is unknown.
One writer has put it at Chester; others at London, where King's Cross
had once a narrow escape of being christened Boadicea's Cross, and
actually for many years bore the name of Battle Bridge, in supposed
reference to this battle. Probably, however, it was on Watling Street,
between London and Chester. In a desperate soldiers' battle Rome
regained the province. Boadicea took poison; thousands of Britons fell
in the fight or were hunted down in the ensuing guerrilla. Finally, Rome
adopted a kindlier policy, and Britain became quiet. But the scantiness
of Romano-British remains in Norfolk may be due to the severity with
which the Iceni were crushed.

See Tacitus, _Annals_, xiv.; _Agric_. xv.; Dio lxii. The name Boudicca
se