At first, the legion kept its
position, clinging to the narrow defile as a defence; when they had
exhausted their missiles, which they discharged with unerring aim on the
closely approaching foe, they rushed out in a wedge-like col-
SUETONIUS DEFEATS QUEEN BOUDICEA |
umn. Similar was the
onset of the auxiliaries, while the cavalry with extended lances broke
through all who offered a strong resistance. The rest turned their back in
flight, and flight proved difficult, because the surrounding waggons had
blocked retreat. Our soldiers spared not to slay even the women, while the
very beasts of burden, transfixed by the missiles, swelled the piles of
bodies. Great glory, equal to that of our old victories, was won on that
day. Some indeed say that there fell little less than eighty thousand of the
Britons, with a loss to our soldiers of about four hundred, and only as many
wounded. Boudicea put an end to her life by poison. Pœnius Postumus
too, camp-prefect of the second legion, when he knew of the success of the
men of the fourteenth and twentieth, feeling that he had cheated his legion
out of like glory, and had contrary to all military usage disregarded the
general's orders, threw himself on his sword.