Visit of Roman Soldier - 2008

On Friday, 25th January a Roman soldier came to visit Mowden. All the 4th years went to the gym to meet him. He was dressed as a Centurion and was a bit scary because he was such a large man. He told us his name was Maximus and called us Britanculae which means horrible little Britons.

First he talked about his own uniform and then showed us other helmets, swords and ring mail. We tried on all these things and found that they were very heavy, especially the ring mail so we think that Roman soldiers must have been very strong.

Then it was our turn to be Roman soldiers but luckily ours wasn't as heavy as real armour. First we put on a leather tunic and then helmets. Then we were given shields and swords and had to line up until everyone was ready. Maximus told us we were going to become Roman soldiers.

First we had to learn some Roman orders in Latin. Then we had to do a slow march and a quick march all around the gym. Then he showed us how to fight. We had to stab with our swords and then make ourselves more frightening by roaring. We could also make a lot of noise by bashing our swords on our shields.

Once we had finished being as fierce as possible Maximus divided us into 2 groups. The boys made a testudo and the girls threw stones, but really plastic balls, at the testudo to try to break it up. Then we swapped over so the girls made the testudo and the boys threw stones.

We did some of this again for Mr Lord to take photos and finished by making a really big testudo. Lastly we asked lots of questions and then it was time to finish.

We would like to thank Mrs Solly for organizing the visit and Maximus for coming to school.

Extracts from work by 4H