The Legions of Rome

Monday 27 May 1998. Now, for those of you who have stumbled here by accident and haven't a clue how you got here, Fran and I are on holiday in Wiltshire and on this particular public holiday are at Old Sarum, the fortified town that was abandoned in the 1200s at which point Salisbury was developed.

Those nice chappies at English Heritage had arranged a display of Roman Army tactics and equipment entitled The Might of the Roman Army.

No "might" about it - here they are! The performers for the day were members of four groups: the Ermine Street Guard, Gemina Project (from Holland), Vexillatio Legionis Geminae and The Troop.

They were representing Imperial Roman soldiers from the second half of the first century A.D. You would not want a Glasgow kiss from someone wearing a helmet like that! They are also carrying the Roman javelin. A volley or two of those would thin out the first couple of lines of mad marauding Celts and Picts. Please note that I have myself recognised the tendency of this blog to become a little bloodthirsty over the last couple of entries but we shall soon be back to normal!

The troupe were representing Imperial Roman soldiers from the second half of the first century A.D. This would be the conquering army of Britain, though they were hard pressed by the guerilla tactics of the native tribes. Their equipment and tactics were well fitted to each other though. On the face of it a great hairy Celt, dressed in nothing but a bit of blue paint and beard and swinging a long sword should have no problem dispatching a chap in a skirt with a short sword.

But long swords are best when swung and when two armies are pressed together by weight of numbers there is no room to swing a sword without lopping off your mates' heads... So the short stabbing swords of the Romans were apt to win the day as long as there were enough of them to keep the enemy in front of their shield wall.

We stood on the walls of Old Sarum as they marched around the inner sanctum. Here they are passing the foundations of Old Sarum's cathedral. Its replacement was Salisbury Cathedral but you can tell from this photograph that the original was an impressive size.

The chap in the middle of the front row was blowing away at his instrument, which was a relief as I thought for a moment he was going to suck and vacuum the grass... He didn't get much of a tune from it, but no doubt in its time there were plenty of hard pressed Romans who were glad to hear it announce the arrival of reinforcements!

Once in the arena, the various items of equipment were displayed and explained and demonstrations of tactics were given. One of the best displays that we saw was the use of the shields to form the testudo (the tortoise), with the men totally protected apart from their legs as they ran around the arena in close formation. Yes, you're right - I didn't get a picture of it as they were too far away at the time. But an image search on Google for roman testudo will give you ample example. (Nice bit of wordplay thrown in there for free!)

In the next entry we'll get away from all this warfare and take a look at a more modern Salisbury and cathedral and at what is perhaps the oldest mechanical clock in Europe.

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Old Sarum

Monday 27 May 1998. Old Sarum - if you know what it is you're looking at - always looks magnificent as you approach it. The ancient hillfort was chosen for its strategic position and commands a view of the surrounding countryside for many miles.

It was a public holiday and we found that there was a visit by the Roman Army who were drilling and displaying. This had two advantages for us: one, we were able to see some of the display and two, when we took time out to explore the site, everyone else was watching the display!

We have a look at the Romans on the next page. Above, we are already standing within the site of the city and looking across to the inner sanctum, the site of the Norman castle.

To get this far there has been a steep climb and we have negotiated (by means of a modern road) the defensive ditches seen above. Imagine running up and down a couple of these, wearing a helmet and carrying sword, shield etc whilst the locals are pelting you with rocks, slingshot, boiling water or oil and nasty pointy things! Before you get to the top you have been hurt and some of your friends are dead. By the time you've got through that ditch the locals have all gone into the inner sanctum, destroying or removing the bridge, and notching a fresh supply of arrows to their bows. If you slip the likelihood is that you will fall onto one of many sharpened stakes and will not be very happy. If you manage to avoid them you will be struck by an idea for putting cubes of cheese on cocktail sticks...

Then you reach the inner sanctum. Ditches fill up with time. This is still deep and treacherous enough to require fencing! At the bottom of the ditch will be sharpened wooden stakes. If you fall going down the side you will be caught on one and have to leave the fun of battle to your mates. On the top of this green bank is a high wooden wall or palisade that must be climbed or broken through once the grassy bank has been climbed. The palisade is lined with unfriendly people. You are starting to invent the term "Bugger this for a game of soldiers..."

Here we see the remains of the royal palace inside the inner sanctum. Immensely strong thick walls of dressed stone over rough rubble and mortar. The ground floor rooms have been packed with earth to ceiling level to make the walls even more impregnable. Knocking a few stones off is not going to make the castle fall down.

The tops of the walls and the narrow windows are full of people shooting the remainder of their arrows and pouring out the heated contents of their plumbing. Over each doorway are death holes. These lead vertically down from rooms above the entrance and down the hole heavy objects or boiling liquid can be dropped onto whoever is trying to batter the door down.

If you get this far you are extremely brassed off... Your commander looks for the castle's sewage system and commands you to crawl through it so you can open the gates from inside... Bear in mind that the opening to the sewerage system is likely to be on at least the first storey so you will need a way of climbing the wall to get into it. It will open directly to the seat above so you have to hope no-one has felt the need.

Sounds fairly horrible doesn't it? Yet most castle seiges either ended because of treachery from within, because the food (or more likely water) ran out in the castle, or because someone had to worm through the sewage outlet into the castle. Once inside, they had to think of a way to either fight off all the guards at the gate or capture a hostage important enough to secure the obediance of the guards.

Happily, they let us in simply through buying a ticket...

Sarum was abandoned in the 13th Century and the nearby city of Salisbury was developed in its stead. The once fine buildings were left to decay in the hilltop fortress, but some walls remain, enabling us to form an accurate picture of how the fortress might have looked in its heyday.

In only one or two places are facing stones left. Elsewhere the walls are the rough undressed stone and mortar, giving a somewhat false picture of how the buildings would have looked.

Looking from the inner sanctum to the wider area of the city, the foundations of Sarum's cathedral can be seen. It is extremely rare (if not unknown) for any monument, castle or ruin to be restored in England. Policy seems to dictate that decay is arrested or retarded and any ground is grassed, regardless of whether the appearance of the structure is known or whether the ground was originally paved. I remember as a child wondering how the grass could have grown inside a cathedral, and I remain unconvinced that the present policy is the correct one.

The sound of a horn being blown announces the arrivals of a Roman Legion. We nip off to have a look and will share this with you in the next entry.

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