Fresh Roman troops streamed across the channel to ravage rebel lands. The Britons were already depleted by famine, since warriors on the march had had no chance to sow next season’s crop. The Iceni had beaten their plowshares into swords, thinking they would soon dine on captured Roman provisions. All told, hundreds of thousands died in England within a year’s time, the worst cataclysm yet suffered under Roman imperial rule. In the aftermath, official Rome sought the causes of the disaster, and some held Seneca to blame. According to Dio’s account, before the rebellion began, Seneca had called
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