Verica, the ruler who ruled the Atrebates in southern England between 15 and 42 AD and who history records as the man – whose exile prompted the emperor Claudius to invade Britain – may actually have been a woman.
This is the hypothesis put forward by archaeological research conducted at Bournemouth University by archaeologist Miles Russell, director of field research at the university, and presented in an article in the journal Current Archaeology.
Starting from a new interpretation of the coins and finds linked to Verica, Russell suggests that it was not a king, but a queen who led the Atrebates: a reading which, if confirmed, would rewrite part of the history of the leaders of Iron Age Britain.
However, it is a discussed hypothesis, which presents many critical issues and which at the moment the majority of the academic world does not share.
But who was Verica?
Ruler of the Celtic tribe of Atrebates, he reigned over a territory corresponding in part to the current counties of Hampshire and West Sussex, in southern England.
He is known above all as a “client king” of Rome, that is, a local sovereign allied to the Empire and linked to it by relationships of loyalty, and for this reason he had a far from marginal role in the history of the British Isles.
Around 40 AD, in fact, in the context of conflicts with the Catuvellauni, another British tribe settled further north, he was deposed and forced to leave Britain, finding refuge in Rome with the emperor Claudius (41-54 AD).
According to the Greek-speaking Roman historian Cassius Dio (155-235 AD), it was precisely the request for help from Verica, who wanted to take back the throne, that convinced Claudius to intervene militarily on the island, starting the Roman conquest of 43 AD
But what are the clues on which Russell is based?
In support of his interpretation, Russell first indicates the name Verica, which ends with the letter “a”, a recurring characteristic in female names in Celtic Britain of the time.
The same pattern is found in those of Boudica (60-61 AD), queen of the Iceni (tribe of present-day eastern England), and Cartimandua (51-69 AD), ruler of the Brigantes (tribe originally from present-day northern England).
A second element concerns the coins issued by Verica, on which the Latin title appears rextranslated as “king”. According to Russell, the term would not necessarily have been reserved for men and could also indicate a sovereign.
The main argument is made up of the images present on the coins: while other British leaders of the Iron Age depicted male warriors, those attributed to Verica would show naked female figures on horseback, armed with spears. Russell believes that these elements, taken together, support the identification of Verica as a woman.
The hypothesis fits into a broader framework of research on the role of women in the societies of pre-Roman Britain.
In the article about Current ArchaeologyRussell also recalls ancient DNA analyzes conducted on 50 individuals buried in Winterborne Kingston, Dorset (southern England).
The results identified kinship links between numerous individuals and a mitochondrial lineage shared by several members of the group, compatible with the permanence of women in the community of origin and the movement of men.
Data which, according to Russell, would help to outline the social context in which a woman could have exercised power. In this case, Verica would join Boudica and Cartimandua as the third major female figure leading an Iron Age British population.
As suggestive as the theory proposed by Russell is, its obvious critical issues cannot be ignored. First of all, although rare, British male names ending in “a” are attested in the sources, such as Cara, Docca, and Veda.
Furthermore, it must be taken into consideration that the name “Verica” comes to us through coins with a legend in Latin, with a form which therefore could have been adapted or declined to make it compatible with the Roman language.
Furthermore, the use of the male terminal “rex” on the coins of Verica could hardly be related to her being a woman: it is true that in ancient times in some cases female sovereigns used the male term for themselves, but these are cases linked to the oriental world and in much more ancient times.
The main argument Russell uses, the female warrior on horseback on a coin minted by Verica, is equally problematic.
The iconographic repertoire adopted by Verica in its coinage is very varied and influenced by the Roman one. In many coin types, Verica himself is represented on the obverse, according to the typical models of Roman power: in profile, with a male hairstyle and Adam’s apple.
The iconographic choices of the themes represented on the other coins, when they are not directly borrowed from the Roman repertoire, can have an infinite number of different interpretations.
A bare-breasted warrior woman on horseback (assuming that the level of detail of the coinage allows her sex to be distinguished) could have simply been a female warrior deity, or a revival of well-known Mediterranean models, such as the Amazons.
Finally, the case of the Winterborne Kingston necropolis is extremely specific, and tells us very little about the power dynamics in Iron Age Britain, without taking anything away from the depth of the figures of great British sovereigns such as Boudica and Cartimandua.
