The Rotten Romans have invaded the British Museum, and as I discovered for this review of Legion: Life in the Roman Army, the Horrible Histories tie-in means there’s plenty for kids to enjoy as well as adults.
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The latest temporary exhibition at the British Museum, Legion runs until June 23, and manages the tricky balancing act of being fun and interactive (as well as educational) for kids, while still having plenty of detail on Roman life for older teens and adults wanting to learn more about Rome’s fearsome war machine.
Linked together by the life of a genuine Roman solider, Claudius Terentianus (and his rodent counterpart, Claudius Terrattus), the Legion exhibition leads you through all aspects of life in the Roman army, from enlisting to retirement – if you were lucky, that is…
Want to brush up on your Roman history before reading my Legion exhibition review? Buy the books from the Horrible Histories series, including Rotten Romans and Ruthless Romans, and sticker activity book
At its height, the Roman Empire covered almost 2 million square miles and ruled an estimated 60 million people, stretching just beyond the present-day border with Scotland, as well as to north Africa and the Middle East, with its fearsome fighting force at the heart of its power.
And as many as 300,000 men joined the legions – many weren’t citizens and hoped to live long enough to retire, gaining the coveted citizenship for themselves and their family, although many Roman citizens also took the oath in the hope of power, glory, money and a chance to take on the empire’s enemies.
And the exhibition takes you from the starting point for any soldier hoping to enlist, with special bright yellow panels narrated by Claudius Terrattus alongside the more in-depth information on the displays.
At 11, my daughter fell nicely into the sweet spot between still being a big fan of Horrible Histories, and enjoying the rotten side of the Roman Army, and often wanting to read more detail about Roman history, enjoying the interactive elements but also appreciating the impressive exhibits.
If you’re visiting the Legion exhibition with younger kids, there are whole sections aimed purely at children (although no-one is stopping adults from having a play too), as well as the eye-catching yellow boards interspersed along the way.
There are some parts where the Horrible Histories facts are more limited, but the story of Claudius Terentianus is still interesting for all ages, as is getting to see various armour and weaponry (among other exhibits).
It all starts in very child-friendly style with a test to see what chance you had of being accepted into the Roman army – lifting a 27kg pack (happily using a pulley, so even my 11-year-old could comfortably raise it up) and seeing if you met the height restrictions.
I couldn’t quite make the 172cm limit myself on tiptoes – although if you knew the right people, a good reference could sometimes solve the problem – but we were both taken aback to discover one Roman emperor, Maximinus Thrax, was apparently 240cm tall.
Not far off 8 foot, there’s almost certainly a bit of imperial flattery involved, but it seems likely that he was notably taller and stronger than average.
And from the towering to the very everyday, including a nice warm sock, cleverly designed to work with your sandals – reminding me of our visit to Deva Roman Centre in Chester, with its plaintive letter from another legionary to his mum asking for woollen underwear to combat the northern European climate.
As we discovered at this exhibition, Roman soldiers had to provide a lot of their own kit – and even the items which were provided for them were often lower quality than you could get from home.
Living in the 2nd century under emperors Trajan and Hadrian, Claudius Terentianus wrote asking his family for a good sword, and bemoaned the fact that a pair of sandals only lasted around two weeks.
His own journey as a Roman citizen didn’t run entirely smoothly: rejected by one of the more elite legions as his references weren’t good enough, he was forced to begin as an auxiliary, in one of the less coveted legions, doing the more boring and dirtier jobs.
Literate in an age when this was still unusual, he hoped that his ability to read and write would help propel him up the ranks. It certainly gives us a unique insight into what life in the Roman army would have been like, from bouts of food poisoning to helping put down a revolt.
However you started, you could expect to begin with hours of training using blunt but weighted weapons – battered and holey training targets showed how much punishment those would take along the way.
And battle wasn’t the only risk: a skeleton from Herculaneum, is thought to be a solder caught in the volcanic eruption which also destroyed Pompeii, trying to get civilians to safety.
It’s worth knowing that there is a note at the start of the exhibition about the human remains on display, which can also be avoided if your kids don’t like bones.
More soldiers died from disease than fighting though (or volcanoes) – death, retirement after 25 years and medical discharge were the only ways out of the army, and around half fell into the first category.
The exhibition takes you through all the basics as well, from the different groupings within a legion, including cohorts and cavalry, as well as the other individual jobs which soldiers might have taken on.
That also included the trumpeter who’d lead the forces, conveying signals with various different sounds – the trumpet itself was nowhere near as portable as today’s instruments, curving right round behind the trumpeter and over his head.
Behind the trumpeter was the standard bearer – the legions had their own standards, ranging from animals to hands as well as eagles, guarded and venerated far more than the individual legionnaries.
There’s another fun section for kids to twirl through the different options and choose their favourite, as well as a recreated ‘draco’, a dragon’s head with windsock tail which would move and howl as air flowed through it to terrify the enemy.
And while most legionnaries would have fought on foot, the Roman Army did have its own cavalry – including camels for some of the North African provinces!
As we discovered later on in the exhibition, the horses even had their own armour, including mesh bowls to go over their otherwise unprotected eyes.
Whatever your role in the army, everyone got to enjoy the delights (or not!) of camp life – including one of the best interactive sections in the Legion exhibition.
As well as spinning the wheel of misfortune (my daughter managed to die on the first spin, and promptly re-spun it several times to get a better outcome), there are boxes to appeal to difference senses.
A couple for smell, including one more pleasant and one distinctly less pleasant smell, a couple of lids to lift revealing more gruesome sides of camp life, plus two hidden items to touch. Neither, obviously, is dangerous but there’s definitely a moment of surprise when your fingertips touch one of them, if you don’t know what it is!
But the inconveniences of camp life paled when it came to the legions’ biggest task – battle.
The displays of weapons and armour were some of the most intriguing – smiling metal helmets, crocodile-skin protection, decorative daggers and one of the most impressive artefacts of all, a long Roman shield or scutum.
Despite countless tens of thousands having been created, and used for some of the Roman’s most famous defensive military manoeuvres, only a single one remains – on display here at Legion: Life in the Roman Army.
For kids, even getting to see that doesn’t compare to actually trying on a helmet or two, as well as lifting some replica shields – as an adult, I can vouch for the fact that they definitely aren’t light.
I consoled myself for not being up to legionary fighting fitness by trying on one of the helmets as well!
There are separate sections on battle, with a clever video display in the background, conjuring up the speed and sound of fighting.
But the exhibition also looks at what comes afterwards, especially if the Romans won – the Empire’s determination to revel in its triumphs (essential for a military leader’s political survival) as well as the aftermath for the defeated enemy, from looting their possessions to enslavement.
Away from the brutality of the battlefield, the Romans also brought their own version of civilisation to their empire.
For anyone who’s visited the remains of Roman forts and towns along Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland (or elsewhere in the empire), everyday life is also a part of the exhibition.
There were some restrictions on soldiers marrying, although many had ‘unofficial’ families, plus the exhibition includes some fascinating snippets of ordinary life, including a brief glimpse of the women who lived there.
You can see one of the oldest handwritten documents in Britain, a party invitation from a woman who lived at the Roman fort at Vindolanda, as well as ways that the Romans would often cheat the locals.
Later, you can turn an arrow to decide just how rotten a Roman you would have been – only to discover that it’s weighted to point to land on really rotten.
Whether you choose to be equally rotten when you challenge your family to some games is up to you – several which the Romans played are very familiar to us, including a version of noughts and crosses.
Called ‘three pebbles at a time’, or terni lapilli, I did wonder if the Romans were better at forcing a win, rather than endless draws…
Covering every element of life in the Roman Army, there’s just one aspect which remains – surviving to the very end (the soldiers, that is, the exhibition isn’t nearly as taxing).
With death, danger, disease and desertion stopping many from reaching the 25 years of service needed to retire, it definitely wasn’t a forgone conclusion that you’d live to enjoy the spoils of war and your pension, the equivalent of 10 years’ wages.
With one final piece of interactive fun, where you can drop tokens in to see the fate of a legionary and an auxiliary (contrary to real life, our auxiliaries seemed to come off better), we realised two hours had passed and we’d reached the end of the exhibition.
And while it might seem improbable, this Legion exhibition review is still only an overview of what you can expect to see – had I tried to cram in every detail, I might have ended up with a short book on the history of the Roman Army, via Egypt and Boudicca.
With so much to discover, cleverly designed to appeal to younger visitors as well as old, the best solution is to go and see it for yourself!
Legion: Life in the Roman Army exhibition – need to know
The exhibition runs to June 23, 204 and is free for children under 16 accompanied by a paying adult. Tickets for adults cost from £22.
Prebooking is strongly advised, especially for weekends and during school holidays, as early dates have been selling out, although you can buy them at the ticket desk in the Great Court if there is availability.
There are extra Roman-themed drop-in events during school holidays, including February half-term – first come, first served.
Allow plenty of time to explore – we spent around two hours without rushing or dawdling, but there’s plenty of detail to keep you entertained as you go.
You don’t need a separate museum entry ticket – the British Museum is free to enter, and the timed tickets don’t allow you to skip the queue. If the museum does need to limit the number of visitors, your exhibition ticket will allow you in regardless.
There are often shorter queues at the rear entrance to the British Museum on Montague Place than on Great Russell Street, although this is also the way that tour groups enter.
For more tips on visiting the British Museum with younger kids, check out my post
Disclosure: My entry to the exhibition was free for the purposes of review – all opinions are my own (and my daughter’s). This post contains affiliate links – any purchases you make are unaffected but I may receive a small commission
Images copyright MummyTravels
