On Saturday 8th March at the University of Birmingham a wonderful event was held for teenagers who have a passion for Classics and Ancient History. The event was staged by the Birmingham and Midlands Classics Hub which includes lecturers and students from the University itself, and I was kindly invited by my friend Philip Myers, a Phd student at Birmingham, to come and talk to the group about the daily life of a Roman soldier and his equipment.
The talk was a great success as the group enjoyed holding and trying on some of the equipment as well as asking some thought provoking questions. I was even given a chance to talk about one of the possible reasons as to why lorica segmentata went out of use as one of my back straps snapped whilst putting the armour on! During the talk we were also lucky enough to make an equipment comparison between a Roman legionary soldier of the first century A.D. and a Mycenaean warrior of the Bronze Age as the University had some impressive replica Bronze Age equipment.
Along with my topic of the Roman army there were other areas of the ancient world to discover as the group learnt about Ancient Myth in the Theatre and some Latin. Finally, to my surprise, despite being teenagers the group put their embarrassment aside and agreed to do some marching on the campus which was great fun for all involved. I shall look forward to returning to the event later in the summer.
Verdun Howells
The talk was a great success as the group enjoyed holding and trying on some of the equipment as well as asking some thought provoking questions. I was even given a chance to talk about one of the possible reasons as to why lorica segmentata went out of use as one of my back straps snapped whilst putting the armour on! During the talk we were also lucky enough to make an equipment comparison between a Roman legionary soldier of the first century A.D. and a Mycenaean warrior of the Bronze Age as the University had some impressive replica Bronze Age equipment.
Along with my topic of the Roman army there were other areas of the ancient world to discover as the group learnt about Ancient Myth in the Theatre and some Latin. Finally, to my surprise, despite being teenagers the group put their embarrassment aside and agreed to do some marching on the campus which was great fun for all involved. I shall look forward to returning to the event later in the summer.
Verdun Howells