Elodie Harper

And then we have Cassius Dio who was writing significantly later, and it's a much more lurid account.

But one area where they agree is on the idea that there was a great deal of financial extortion going on.

So, of course, I've chosen to focus on the family drama aspect for my novel.

But looking at the history of it, it's likely that widespread discontent at financial oppression was going on.

People were forced to take out loans.

Those loans were then being

were called.

They were being forced to pay for building projects like the Temple of Claudius in Colchester.

Local men were being rounded up and taken off to be conscripted into Rome's armies.

the natural resources that the land were being taken, people were being stolen from.

So it was a lot of unhappiness at how things were being done.

And within this context, then Tacitus tells us there was this ruling family in the Iceni heartlands, which is kind of Norfolk, Suffolk, some of Essex, possibly some of Cambridgeshire as well.

I think it's really interesting that

it is thought that Prasatagus and Boudicca themselves, potentially even before the rebellion, had different attitudes towards Rome.

Interesting.

Yeah, which is very interesting.

So the idea is that perhaps Boudicca was always...

more warmongering, had a more negative feeling about Rome.

Prasatagus did not join in the rebellion of Caraticus some years previously against Rome.

That was an earlier rebellion against Roman rule in Britain.