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Thoughts of an Iceni gladiator, awaiting the opening of the arena portcullis: |
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Memories of rebellion (Carnage at Camulodunum): |
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Iceni Messenger: Hearken! The Ninth Legion has been put to the sword! |
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The war-Chief of Queen Boudicca: Onwards to Camulodunum... wet your swords! |
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Redden the earth with Roman blood! |
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I remember the carnage at Camulodunum... |
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The glorious clash of Celtic sword against Roman gladius |
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The pride in the eyes of our war-queen |
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As we hacked down the Imperial Eagle |
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And the severed heads of centurions gaping atop our spears |
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Bloodshed and Battle: 61 AD (C.E.) |
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They had gone too far, these invaders from the east, with their imperial eagle |
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Which they dared to drive into our sacred soil... pompously claiming our |
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Island as their own. They who marched across the world expanding their empire |
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All for the greater glory of their succession of debauched emperors, reclining |
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Upon their ivory thrones in the heart of sweltering Rome. Aye, they had gone |
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Too far... After their brutal annexation of our sovereign Iceni lands and the |
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Vile rape of our Queen Boudicca's royal daughters, the Romans had the sown the |
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Fields of carnage and they would reap a grim harvest of slaughter, without |
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Doubt! They had enraged the Red Queen, and by the gods, they would pay! |
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We certainly taught the arrogant invading dogs a lesson, at any rate. The |
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Omens and portents spoke of vast bloodshed and great carnage, and after our |
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Slaughterous victories at Camulodunum (the Temple of Claudius burned |
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Wonderfully!), Londinium and Verulanium, the cursed Romans finally dared to |
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Meet us honourably upon the field of war at Mandeussedum. They sent fifteen |
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Thousand legionaires, their armour gleaming like gold in the sun... but it |
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Would still yield to our swords and spears, no matter how it sparkled |
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The Roman scoundrel, Governor Suetonius Paullinus, battle-scarred from his |
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Campaigns against the Druids, was able to choose the ground upon which to make |
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His stand, and so it was that he selected as the battlefield a narrow valley |
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Fronted by a flat plain, with dense woodland at its rear. Aye... Mandeussedum |
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"the place of the chariots"... I remember it vividly |
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The Governor's army looked unnerved as wee took the field. I'll never forget |
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That, iron Roman fortitude or not! We were one hundred thousand strong |
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Infantry and cavalry, both men and women warriors, as is our Celtic custom, in |
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The ranks together, all annointed with woad, all roaring oaths and vows to our |
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Ancient gods, who were surely grimly watching the epic confrontation from |
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Their great thrones and vast halls. Our war-chariots thundered up and down the |
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Roman front, the charioteers screaming abuse at the grim legionaires |
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Decurions and centurions, and hurling spears and other missiles which |
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Clattered against the Imperial shield wall. And not one Roman javelin or pilum |
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Was hurled in response, not one arrow was loosed in retaliation. They were |
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Disciplined, I'll give them that. We were swelled by our victories, empowered |
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By our noble cause, enraged with the battle frenzy; thirsting to take as many |
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Roman heads as our bright blades could sever! |
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And yet we were perhaps somewhat overconfident that day... |
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Abducted from the Iceni: |
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In the aftermath of our defeat at Mandeussedum, I was captured by Romans with |
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A veiled intent... (though three of them died at my hands in the attempt!) |
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Nero was growing bored with the gladiators, slaves and lion-fodder at his |
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Great Circus, and so had requested Suetonius Paullinus to provide the citizens |
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Of Rome with new entertainment... The Emperor had heard much of the wildness |
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And fighting spirit of these barbaric Britons who had brought such woe to his |
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Far-famed legions; these painted, pagan tribesmen who had resisted the |
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Empire's iron fist where the glorious phalanxes of the East had not |
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"Agents of the Imperium... hearken to my words", Nero had demanded. "Bring to |
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Rome some of these tribesman for the Games. Let us pit them against our most |
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Ravenous beasts and our greatest gladitorial champions." |
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And so I was taken in fetters aboard a Roman trireme, the blood of slain |
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Legionaires still crusted upon my thews, I was taken far from the fens of my |
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Beloved homeland, to tread the sun baked sand of the Circus Maximus... to |
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Fight for my life in the Imperial Arena |
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Arrival at the Circus Maximus: |
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The Circus Maximus was certainly a splendid sight, I'll admit. A vast |
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Colosseum with great stone columns and tiers, huge ornate arches and mighty |
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Statues of grey marble. Countless people filled the seats surrounding the |
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Sandy floor of the Arena... and in his opulent royal enclosure, flanked by |
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Gleaming guards and grovelling lackeys, sat the great Emperor himself... |
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Emperor Nero: Fight, barbarian outlander! Please us, and mayhap Mars will |
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Smile on thee this day! |
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Iceni warrior: Bah! I do not hail to your Roman gods, and you are not my |
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Emperor! By Cernunnos, the blood of my enemies shall stain the sand of this |
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Cursed arena red this day! |
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The Combat Commences: |
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They unleashed the lions first. Hunger maddened beasts, goaded into a frenzy |
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By the cruel point of many a pilum... And yet my own hunger, the hunger for |
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Revenge, was greater, and my honed steel was sharper than bestial fang and |
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Claw. And so they ranged their finest warriors against me. Three more iron |
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Gates around the arena yawned open, and they strode from the colosseum tunnels |
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Amidst a cacophony of cheering from the assembled Roman spectators, urged on |
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And showered with martial adulation from the massed arena crowd, who howled |
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Their bloodlust without cessation |
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I studied my opponents... there were two trained gladiators, champions I was |
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Told, who had never met defeat in the Games... and then there was another like |
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Me, a captured warrior forced to fight for his life. This one was a towering |
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Reaver from the Northlands with a bright yellow beard, hefting a crude axe |
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With a single iron head. I lifted my iron bladed Celtic shortsword with its |
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Bronze hilt (the same sword which, mere days before, had been slaked with |
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Roman blood... and its blade would soon be red once more with the blood of my |
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Captors, by all the gods!) and nodded to the reaver. An understanding passed |
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Between us... we knew we were here simply as sword-fodder, and we knew we |
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Would both fight these Roman dogs to the death! |
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The first gladiator moved towards me; he was a giant of a man, standing nearly |
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Seven feet tall and clad in dark leather and bronze armour from head to toe |
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His full-face visored helmet was set with ornate metal fittings and encrusted |
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With jewels of various hues, and a vast black horse hair plume rose from the |
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Metal crown. Strapped on to his forearms were two black vambraces, to each of |
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Which had been secured twelwe inch serrated blades, and they gleamed brightly |
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In the hot afternoon sunlight. He began to circle me slowly, his eyes hidden |
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Beneath his great helmet. To his left, I saw the second gladiator begin to |
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Close on the Northman. The yellow-bearded axeman's opponent was a huge |
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Steel-helmeted Nubian, wielding a wickedly pointed trident and carrying an |
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Embossed iron buckler with a great spike jutting from its polished centre |
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Far above, upon his great dias, the Emperor gave the signal for the combat to |
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Begin, and with the battle-lust engulfing me, with the red mist swirling |
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Before my eyes, I vowed to my northern gods that I would show these leering |
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Romans the fighting spirit and battle prowess of my people... I would leave |
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The arena littered with the bloody corpses of my opponents... |
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I would cast off the imperial fetters and return to the fens! Aye, I would |
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Escape, and make all Romans fear my name, and compel Nero to rue the day |
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Julius Caesar had first ordered his legions across the grim grey sea to my |
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Ancient island... BLOOD FOR BOUDICCA... CARNAGE FOR CERNUNNOS!! |
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To be continued in "Escape from The Circus Maximus"... |
