Visit to Mowden of Maximus, a Roman Soldier
On Wednesday the 4th years went to the gym to see a Roman Soldier. He was no ordinary soldier, he was a Centurion. He was really large and scary and his name was Maximus. He taught us how to say 'good morning' in Latin, which is 'Salve'. He replied, 'Salvete Britunculae', which means 'Good morning, horrible little Britons'.
Once Maximus had introduced himself we went to sit on the benches and he told us about a soldier's uniform. He wore a helmet with an arch shaped brush and we were able to try on a similar one made of bronze and iron. He wore armour that made him look as though he had a six pack. He also wore leg guards that looked like golden shin pads and for weapons he had a sword that was quite heavy and the handle was made of bone. He showed us his javelin that could stick into the ground and the tip would bend so that it couldn't be thrown back at the Romans.
Then Maximus showed us the standard bearer's uniform and helmet. Most standard bearers wore a wolf or bear skin but the one he showed us was a leopard skin. He also showed us the chain mail that some soldiers wore. It was made of more than thirty thousand rings and we all had a turn to hold it. It was very, very heavy.
Maximus also had some of his own things which he kept in a pocket. He had a thing like a key ring but it had a tiny spoon on it for cleaning his ears, a scraper to clean his finger nails and tweezers to pull out hairs. He also had a sponge to use instead of loo paper. He kept it clean by putting it in vinegar. He let Miles smell it and Miles said it didn't smell at all.
After this, we all put on our own uniform. The uniform was a leather tunic with bells on it so we all made a jangling noise when we moved. We also had a plastic helmet and a light sword and a wooden shield. Next, Maximus taught us how to march and we marched round the gym. We all learned how to scare the enemy by roaring and banging on our shields. It was very noisy and Mrs Solly and Mrs Knight had to cover their ears.
Then we all formed into a testudo and we walked slowly to the other side of the gym. We used our shields to make the testudo and it was very tight and it hurt our heads a lot. Then some of us put our shields and swords down and became Celts. The other team became Romans in a testudo. The Celts pelted stones (well, plastic balls) at the Romans to see if their testudo could stay together. Then we all changed over. It was good fun.
Extracts from work by members of 4S and 4K
