50bookchallenge, 15000pages

[gwynhefar]

Book #47 -- Miranda Aldhouse Green, Boudica Britannia, 254 pages.

A fascinating biography of Boudica, such little as we know of her, and the historical and political event that both led up to her rebellion and resulted from it. I really enjoyed this -- growing up here in the States it's sometimes amazing to me that one can actually build a relatively detailed picture of an event that took place almost 2000 years ago from both the archaeological record and contemporary or near-contemporary sources. The book also rekindled my early interest in archaeology -- among other things, Boudica's tomb has never been discovered, and *I* want to be the one to discover it (fat chance, but a girl can dream). Even more, it is uplifting to know that even so long ago there were women who were strong enough and determined enough to make such a difference in the world, whether you agree with what she did or not. This book is definitely recommended for anyone interested in British or Roman history.

Progress toward goals: 179/365 = 49.0%

Books: 47/50 = 94%

Pages: 15708/15000 = 104.7%

2007 Book List

cross-posted to 15000pages, 50bookchallenge, and gwynraven

Comments

[tewok.livejournal.com]

Does the book answer my burning question about Boudica -- which is how do you pronounce her name? I've seen a number of spelling and heard a number of pronunciations. Boudica, Boudicca, Boudicea and Boudiccea for the spellings. BOO-dick-uh, BOO-diss-uh, BAH-dick-uh, BAH-diss-uh for the pronunciations. It's probably just one of those words that everyone has their own.

[gwynraven.livejournal.com]

Nope. Although it does mention that the Boadicea variation is probably a mis-transcription of Tacitus. And there is no soft 'c' in the Celtic languages, so my best guess is BOO-dick-uh.

[tewok.livejournal.com]

Yup, there is no soft 'c' in (some? all?) Celtic languages, but "Boudica" doesn't fit one of the basic spelling rules of some of those same languages. This implies that there could have been a mistranscription in that particular letter as well.

[gwynraven.livejournal.com]

True enough. But then, in 60AD thereabouts they weren't actually speaking any Celtic language we now know - only older versions of what would eventually become the Celtic language and which were apparently much more closely allied with the continental Gallic languages than one would suspect from the later deviation. Not to mention the fact they the early Britons were working with an alphabet imported from the Romans, and being taught to spell according to Latin customs. I doubt we'll ever know exactly what her name was. Best we've got is Tacitus, who apparently reported how it was spelled in official Roman records, which we may assume, reflect the phonetic transcription of some Roman somewhere who heard it pronounced.

IIRC, the Romans weren't much for soft 'c's either, at least in that placement, so I still stick by my approximation.

[tewok.livejournal.com]

I'm not at all doubting your approximation. I was only making a point about the spelling of Celtic languages. Since Celtic languages are only fairly recently to being written, so there's no telling what happened ~2000 years ago.

But y'know, I'm very happy to defer to your knowledge in this. You read the book, after all, so you know piles more about B. than I do.

[gwynraven.livejournal.com]

Damn internet making communication difficult. I wasn't trying to be argumentative. Just stating my take on it. Until we invent the time machine, all we can really do is speculate.