Bill's posts with tag: heroines
"She was huge of frame, terrifying of aspect, and with a harsh voice. A great mass of bright red hair fell to her knees: she wore a twisted torc, and a tunic of many colours, over which was a thick mantle, fastened by a brooch. Now she grasped a spear, to strike fear into all who watched her." Dio Cassius
One of my personal favourite women, along with the much later Laxmibai, Rani of Jhansi, and the even more modern Rosa Luxembourg and Dolores Ibarruri (La Pasionaria) lived and died a long time ago in a world that - by today's standards - was far, far away...
If you would rule over a foreign land, as many conquerors have discovered, it's easier and more sensible to use vassal rulers to handle the day to day administration. The job is easier, the vassals are happy, the people also have at least an illusion of independence.
What you do not do is strip the late vassal's widow naked and flog her in public and rape her daughters. Some women won't take it lying down.
I first heard of Boudicca of the Iceni at the age of eight (in those days she used to be called Boadicea). I was impressed right off, though naturally my teacher didn't mention the rape and stripping, just "flogging and humiliation". Many women - most in fact - would have slunk away, probably killed themselves, or at least disappeared from view, which was what the Roman conquerors of Britain certainly intended. The average Roman matron would have done just that.
The British warrior queen was perhaps just too "uncivilised" to fall into that trap. What a pity that despite burning and destroying city after city, her troops were simply too undisciplined to succeed.
Roll on the anti-imperialistic struggle.
H'm, it strikes me that every one of the women I mentioned above ended on the losing side. Hence let me modify the last bit...
Roll on feminism.
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