The Romans

This is the first of the series and is concerned with the Romans in Britain though it does of course relate to the book Ancient Rome.

From Chapter 4 the Roman Army

The Roman Army was very well organised. Like a modern army, it was divided into units with an officer and N.C.Os in charge of each. The largest unit in the army was a Legion which consisted of 5,000 men.

In each legion were ten Cohorts of about 500 men and in each Cohort there were six Centuries. A Century was a company of about 80 men commanded by a Centurion. Every legion had a number and a badge. In the photograph you can see the badge of the Twentieth Legion which was stationed for many years in Chester.

From Chapter 8 Roman Towns

In addition to the big military towns like York and Chester there were also many civilian towns in Roman Britain. The largest of these was London which even in Roman times was the capital of Britain. Many of the other towns like Colchester, Silchester, and St. Albans, were former tribal capitals which were rebuilt after the conquest in the Roman way. They were surrounded by walls with four main gates and the streets were laid out in the same "chessboard" fashion as in military towns.

From Chapter 10 Roman Shops

If you visited a shop in Roman times and bought goods which had to be weighed the shopkeeper would use a scale like the one in the picture. It is called a steelyard and you can see one in the photograph of the butcher's shop on the opposite page.

From Chapter 17 Roman Transport

Wealthy young men often dashed along the roads in fast racing chariots and they were as unpopular with other road users as "ton-up" motorcyclists often are today. Because chariots were so fast and so dangerous special laws were passed in some parts of the Empire to keep them off the city streets during the day when the towns were busy.