Ossian Collection > Thoughts on the origin and descent of the Gael

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the people from insults, he named the Emperor
and his two daughters his heirs. But this mea-
sure was not attended with the effects he meant
to ensure by it. His kingdom was made a prey-
to the captains, and his house pillaged by the
soldiery. His wife, Boadicea, was whipped, and
his daughters ravished. The chiefs of the Iceni
were deprived of their estates, and persons of
the first distinction were treated as the meanest
slaves.
The Britons, feeling the disgrace of their situ-
ation, took arms under the conduct of Boadicea;
(for, as Tacitus observes, the Britons made no
distinction of sex in point of government, and
that it was not unusual for them to go to war
under the conduct of women); and having united
a considerable force, vanquished the Romans who
opposed them. Soon after, however, they expe-
rienced the superiority, not of Roman valour, but
of military skill; for in their next battle against
the Romans they were vanquished, with the loss
of 8000 men. Such are the horrible effects at-
tending the spirit of conquest, that ever to be
lamented spirit, which still stimulates the minds
of men, and deluges the earth with streams of
human blood.
We find Boadicea, called by Dio, Bunduica,
thus described by him : " ^v Sa xxl rl <rZftx ^ttay/r-), ««<
" TO u^Ci /iXeirv^ulxrts, ri, n fiXifificc ^^tfAvimn' xmi to ^ikyf^x t^x^v
*' iij^V Tw'v T£ yJfiti) 7rXii<r/>v TS Kcii |«v(loT«T«y qutm jt;;,^g< rm yM'Sluv