the rebellion led by queen boudicca took strength from the defeat of the ninth legion the iceni were
joined by the trinovantes tribe as they setup on both londinium and verulam ium they razed the
cities to the ground and desecrated our temples suetonius informed by varus legatus of the ix legion
of the seriousness of the situation returned from subduing rebels on the island of mona and
confronted the enemy at viro conium a she travelled back along watling street in his own words
despite being outnumbered ten to one the bravery and heroism of our forces and my careful choice of
the battleground and tactics ensured our decisive and glorious victory whoever masterminded the
battle the enemy lost many thousands against just a few hundred of our own troops and agricola was
left to secure the region acting with ruthless efficiency perhaps in part to at one for his guilt
over the previous loss he supressed the rebellion boudicca possessed of the perilous ness of her
situation took her own life cursing the ixth legion as she died but a battle is not a war and the
true peril was about to be revealed a captured enemy spy revealed that they had be enable to
decipher captured battle orders and communications which had been encrypted using the caesar cipher
this device invented by julius caesar himself had secured military and diplomatic communications
across the empire for decades it was no longer safe and neither were we suetonius s despatches to
the emperor were careful to give himself the credit for the defeat of boudicca and left no doubt
that agricola was to blame for the uprising the loss of the legions aquila was said to have
encouraged the local tribes to rebel and it was hinted that agricola may also have been to blame for
the loss of the caesar cipher what suetonius failed to reveal was that it was agricola who
engineered the defeat of the tribes on watling street but if you wish to know the truth of that day
then you will need to travel further to the isle of thorns