See Reptilia, Index.

ROADICEA, a valiant British queen in the time of the emperor Nero. She was the wife of Prasutagus, king of the Iceni, a people inhabiting the eastern coast of Britain. On his deathbed, A.D. 60, Prasutagus named the emperor heir to his accumulated treasures conjointly with his own two daughters, in expectation of securing thereby Nero's protection for his family and people; but he was no sooner dead than the emperor's officers seized all. Boadicea's opposition to these unjust proceedings was resented with such cruelty, that orders were given that she should be publicly whipped, and her daughters exposed to the brutality of the soldiers. The Britons took up arms, with Boadicea at their head, to shake off the Roman yoke; and the colony at Camalodunum or Colchester was taken, and the Romans were massacred wherever they could be found. The whole province of Britain would have been lost to Rome, if Suetonius Paulinus had not hastened from the Isle of Mona or Man to London, and at the head of 10,000 men engaged the Britons, who are said to have amounted to 230,000. A battle was fought with great obstinacy on both sides, and for a time with doubtful success, but at last victory inclined to the Romans. This conflict took place A.D. 62. Boadicea, who had displayed extraordinary valour, soon after despatched herself by poison. (Tac. Ann. xiv., Agric. 15-16.; Dion Cass. lxiii.)