ladies who should be playing mythical head bitches in charge | CATE BLANCHETT as BOUDICA, the queen of the british iceni tribe who rose in rebellion against the roman forces, who burnt cities to the ground and slaughtered thousands in her wrath, and who finally took her own life rather than be enslaved.

“But now,” she said, “it is not as a woman descended from noble ancestry, but as one of the people that I am avenging lost freedom, my scourged body, the outraged chastity of my daughters. Roman lust has gone so far that not our very persons, nor even age or virginity, are left unpolluted. But heaven is on the side of a righteous vengeance; a legion which dared to fight has perished; the rest are hiding themselves in their camp, or are thinking anxiously of flight. They will not sustain even the din and the shout of so many thousands, much less our charge and our blows. If you weigh well the strength of the armies, and the causes of the war, you will see that in this battle you must conquer or die. This is a woman’s resolve; for as men, they may live and be slaves." - lewis j. j., translation from tacitus