Fnuraban #29 I Am Legion

The other day I was fortunate to be able to visit the British Museum, to see their exhibition Legion: Life in the Roman Army.  the first thing to say is that it's well worth a visit if you have any interest in the Roman Army,  but be sure to book ahead and be prepared for it to be pretty busy! ( not intolerably so at 11:00 am on a Thursday morning,  I'm glad to say ). 

I took some pictures, and I'll simply show those I think, with a brief commentary.  Of course these are only a minority of the objects in the whole show. So, in more or less the order of the exhibition: 

Auxiliary Infantry

 There were a fair number of these sculptural pieces depicting Roman soldiers with identifiable weapons, standards etc. I didn't take detailed notes, but I think these are 3 auxiliary spearmen.  

 

Legionary Sandals 

Some amazing survivials of perishable items were included - there was even a pair of legionary socks, with a division for the big toe,  allowing them to be worn with sandals. Sadly I didn't get a picture of that.  

Legionary equipment: Sword, Belt, Dagger, Tools

An interesting point made was that the mark of being a Roman soldier  was the belt, sword and dagger etc rather than any particular items of clothing/uniform.  One of the caption cards even stated  there was no specific uniform beyond a military belt.   Now that very much caught my eye, given the very uniform appearance of all modern depictions of Legionaries - though it was also stated that helmets, armour etc did tend to be standardised (even if made in local workshops which allowed some variation), and I suppose this would tend to impose a 'uniform' look.  

Another fact that I had not been aware of was that soldiers were expected to provide or pay for their own equipment - the narrative of the show was maintained by following the story of a real soldier of the early second century AD whose letters have survived. In fact, most of the letters quoted seemed to be dominated by his pleading requests for money or equipment ( 'I have replaced my  footwear twice a month').  It was also interesting that there were hurdles to be cleared even to join up - only a Roman Citizen could be a Legionary, and they needed letters of reference to support their application. Our example soldier had to join the lower-status Marines first, before eventually getting into a Legion.   Surprisingly to me, the pay rates quoted were 250 denarii per annum for an Auxiliary (non-citizen) but only 300 denarii for a Legionary. Obviously, more senior ranks were paid a lot more - a Junior Centurion about 15 times the Legionary rate, I think? 

There were quite a few depictions of actual soldiers in their equipment, taken from their funeral monuments - it seems that they signed up for 25 years service, but only about 50% survived to see out the full term, owing to disease as much as battle. Many of the monuments were to men aged 30 or below.  I took pictures of a small selection of them, including a young Centurion named Marcus Favonius Facilis,  who had died at Colchester sometime before the Boudicca revolt of 61AD.  

Literate soldier holding a book 

Standard Bearer with 'Emperor head'

Grave Monument of a Centurion (Marcus Favonius Facilis) at Colchester, 50-60AD 

Legionary Shield and Boss

..and from the back

Now this was really interesting, and may be the only complete example of such a shield in existence?  It was stated that the wood and leather construction means that the curve has been exagerrated by shrinkage/warping over time, it would originally have been more gently curved. Note also the metal boss, of course.  It was fantastic to see this item, along with one or two others (see below) it was worth the price of admission just to see that! 

 

Swords, Daggers and Helmets (and someone trying on a replica helmet!)

'new pattern' short sword, c.79AD

high-quality helmet and segmented armour

Legionaries in Battle Formation

Cataphract Horse Armour c.200AD - amazing stuff!

The Cataphract Horse Armour was another real eye-opener - if you are interested in the later Roman army, you probaly have to see it.   Pretty much the entire 'trunk' of the horse was covered by overlapping metal scales, which must have been pretty heavy, too!   

And then to complete a trio of wonders, an almost-complete Legionary Cuirass...  This was stated to have come from the battle site of the huge defeat in  9 AD , at the hands of Arminius ( aka 'Herman the German')  in the Teutoburger Wald, and I think stated to be the most complete that has been found.   Another 'worth the price on its own' moment? 

Complete Legionary Cuirass - from Teutoburger Wald

Father and Son soldiers - with hand-me-down equipment

After the required 25 years there would be a handsome bonus for retiring soldiers - and non-citizen auxiliaries would be granted citizenship. The Army was a tough life, but was clearly seen as a good career, and sons would follow fathers into the ranks - sometimes weapons and equipment would be passed down, as depicted above. 

I was also interested to learn about the size of the army - we are told that when Augustus first instituted the Imperial  Roman army,  it had a strength of about 300,000 (half of them Legionaries),  while the population of the Empire stodd at about 60 million.  A map of the empire about 100 years later ( which I really should have photographed!) showed I think about 20 to  30  legions and where they were stationed in the Empire - unsurprisingly, most were along the borders with barbarian areas and other empires such as the Parthians. From my memory, the whole of Gaul required only one Legion.  Given the sheer size of the Empire, a surprisingly modest establishment?   ( c.f. today's British army, also defending about 60 million population - much less than 300,000! )   

If all this (and the chance to wear a replica helmet at one point, which I did not take alas )  inspires the re-enactor in you, the gift shop will oblige - I was slightly surprised that the armour was priced at about £200 - I think I would have expected it to be more! Didn't see anyone buying, though. The exhibition catalogue is well-produced and  doubtless most interesting, but at £30 for the paperback version, I thought I'm not quite enough of a Romanist.. 

from the Gift Shop : be your own Legion (for a few hundred quid)

And finally, there had to be a gaming angle - in a display on camp/barracks life,  examples of a Roman board game -  and  a dice tower, just as many gamers would use today. The caption stated that these were seen as a way of preventing cheating when rolling dice. Nothing new under the sun...  

nothing new under the sun: that's a Roman Dice Tower!

 

That's about all the pictures I took, I probably should have taken many more and made extensive notes, but it would have been a much slower visit, and I was with a 'civilian' ( i.e.  non-wargaming!) friend! Going at an average visitor pace it was about a 90-minute visit,  I suspect I could have stayed longer. Lunch was required, and the Italian Cafe ( 'Tropea' ) in Russell Square gardens seemed highly appropriate, on a nice sunny spring day.  The exhibition was a thoroughly worthwhile visit;  if you are interested and able to get to London easily then I'd recommend it. 

Meanwhile I have made slow progress painting WW2 Indian infantry, so hope to show the results soon, but next time  I think a bit more recent Roman-related sightseeing. Until then, keep well, everyone.