Literature and history

Hello and Welcome to Literature in History. Episode 65, Seneca and the Giulio Claudians.

This program is about the life and works of the Roman philosopher and playwright

Lucius Anaya Seneca who lived from about 1 b.C. until 65 c.

And I want to start this episode with a story.

The year was 60 CE and in the eastern reaches of the newly conquered province of Britannia, trouble was brewing.

In this part of Britannia, a cloudy and often foggy stretch of lowlands, often drizzled with rain from the North Sea near the modern day city of

Norwich, a great crime had been committed against a king called Prossetagis. Prossetagis ruled over a formidable tribe called the Ikeni. In his will, Prostotagus had specified that when he died, half of his money would go to the Emperor of Rome, and the other half would be given to his two daughters.

It was a diplomatic plan, one designed to placate the colonizer, and at the same time pay deference to the colonized to bow under the yoke of imperial

oppression and simultaneously maintain the indigenous power structure that predated Roman

rule. But something went horribly wrong.

When the king died, Prostotagus' lands and his personal property were pillaged and his entire estate was confiscated.

His wife was tied up and whipped and his daughters were raped.

Prominent tribesmen of the Ikeni had their estates taken.

The king's wife surely traumatized that the Roman assault on her family and her kingdom

survived.

And while ancient sources have conflicting accounts of what exactly caused the murderous

persecution of the Akeny upon the death of the king, they are in agreement about several prominent features of the Queen.

The Queen was not content to fade into obscurity as a disenfranchised colonial subject. She was brave and cunning and would stop at nothing to exact

revenge against her territory's overlords. Her name was Budica and she would be remembered forever after for spearheading one of the most sudden and most ferocious provincial revolts Rome ever faced.

Cassistio describes the famous warrior queen as, quote,

very tall, with a most sturdy figure and a piercing glance.

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