Boadicea was at their head,--a woman of masculine spirit, but precipitant, and without any military knowledge.
The event was such as might have been expected.

Paulinus, having chosen a situation favorable to the smallness of his numbers, and encouraged his troops not to dread a multitude whose weight was dangerous only to themselves, piercing into the midst of that disorderly crowd, after a blind and furious resistance, obtained a complete victory.

Eighty thousand Britons fell in this battle.
[Sidenote: A.D.

61] Paulinus improved the terror this slaughter had produced by the unparalleled severities which he exercised.

This method would probably have succeeded to subdue, but at the same time to depopulate the nation, if such loud complaints had not been made at Rome of the legate's cruelty as procured his recall.
Three successive legates carried on the affairs of Britain during the latter part of Nero's reign, and during the troubles occasioned by the disputed succession.