Paulinus occupied the island of
Mona (Anglesea), the chief seat of the religion of the Druids. While he
was engaged in this undertaking a serious revolt broke out among the Iceni
and Trinovantes, who lived between the Wash and the Thames. It was caused
by the severity of the Roman administration and in particular the
ill-treatment of Boudicca, the queen of the Iceni, who headed the
insurrection, by Roman procurators. The Roman towns of Camulodunum
(Colchester), Verulamium (St. Alban's), and Londinium (London) were
destroyed, and 70,000 Romans were said to have been massacred. A Roman
legion was defeated in battle and it was not until Paulinus returned and
united the scattered Roman forces that the insurgents were checked. The
Britons were decisively defeated and Boudicca committed suicide.

*The conspiracy of Piso, 65 A. D.* About 62 A. D. there began a long
series of treason trials in Rome occasioned partly by the desire to
confiscate the property of the accused and partly by the suspicion which
is the inevitable concomitant of tyranny. The resulting insecurity of the
senatorial order naturally produced a real attempt to overthrow the
princeps. A wide-reaching conspiracy, in which one of the praetorian
prefects was involved and which was headed by the senator Gaius Calpurnius
Piso, was discovered in 65 A. D. Among those who were executed for
complicity therein were the poet Lucan and his uncle Seneca. Other notable
victims of Nero's vengeance were Thrasea Paetus and Borea Sonarus, the
Stoic senators, whose guilt was their silent but unmistakable disapproval
of his tyrannical acts. No man of prominence was safe; even the famous
general Corbulo was forced to commit suicide in 67 A. D.

*The rebellion of Vindex, 68 A. D.* Upon Nero's return from Greece, a more
serious movement began in Gaul where Caius Julius Vindex, the legate of
the province of Lugdunensis, raised the standard of revolt and was
supported by the provincials who were suffering under the pressure of
taxation. Vindex was joined by Sulpicius Galba, governor of Hither Spain,
and other legates. The commander of Upper Germany, Verginius Rufus, who
remained true to Nero, defeated Vindex, but, the revolt spread to the
troops of Verginius himself and these hailed their commander as imperator.
He, however, refused the honor and gave the Senate the opportunity to name
the princeps. Nero's fate was sealed by his own cowardice and the
treachery of the prefect Sabinus,