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By clicking around a couple of search engines, we found a brief biography and a poem about Boadicea and learned that she was a bloodthirsty queen of the Britons born about 30 A.D. Searching a little further, we realized that it would be difficult to find historical documents about a culture that had yet to develop a written language. It turns out that most of what we know about this first-century Celtic warrior comes from Roman historians, enemies of her people. The Romans spent hundreds of years trying to subdue the "terrifying war spirit of the Celts" in Britain and Gaul. Boadicea married into the Iceni royalty of Southeastern Britain around
48 A.D., and, after her husband's death in 60 A.D., led an army of nearly a hundred thousand warriors against the Roman forces. Apparently the Romans were awed and outraged by the courage and fierceness of the tall Celtic women warriors, who led the charge with swords and axes. Legend suggests that Boadicea destroyed the Roman colony of Colchester, and sacked settlements at London and St. Albans. When the Romans finally suppressed the revolt, Boadicea poisoned herself rather than surrender to the conquerors. Coincidentally, there's a cute little pneumatic walking robot being developed at MIT, modeled after a cockroach, who goes by the name Boadicea. Of
course, we'd rather enjoy a cold pint of Boadicea Chariot Ale than tangle with artificially intelligent roaches or Roman legions.
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