We came, we saw, we conquered!

Blog entry written by Holly Altman

Last Friday Class 3 went on a school trip to a Roman fort called Brigantium, near York, to become trainee roman soldiers for the day. We were met by a roman centurion who took us to the fort where we were split into four groups. Our adults became Optios.

The Centurion told us that we were from a Celtic village, we were going to be trained as roman soldiers. We had to wear a red tunic tied with rope and a black neck scarf. We were also given a helmet, shield and spear. The class were trained to march - sin (left), dex (right). Weapons training was also included, we learnt how to use swords and javelins.

We also had to learn to how to protect ourselves byputting our shields around and above us. As part of our recruitment, we had to fill in application forms using roman writing and roman numerals. With Flavia, we made oil lamps out of clay.

In the afternoon we took turns to guard the fort. But we were rudely interupted by a Celtic villager who said we should go back to Rome so he could have his Celtic village back. To get him away we marched towards him as a group and he ran away. Centurion was so pleased with us he paid us for our good days work with one silver coin each!

It was time to go home so we became school children again and our Optios became adults again. We had a great day out! Hail Caesar!!