From cavalry helmets to panels of goatskin used for military tents, a new exhibition looking at the lives of Roman soldiers opens at the British Museum in London this week.
“Legion: life in the Roman army” features more than 200 objects on display, many of which once belonged to recruits or their families.
Among the highlights are what the museum says is the world’s only intact semi-cylindrical legionary shield from Roman times and the most complete classic Roman segmental armour, unearthed in 2018 from the battlefield at Kalkriese in Germany.
“This is an exhibition about the Roman army but it’s told from the perspective of the ordinary Roman soldiers,” Carolina Rangel de Lima, project curator for the exhibition, said at a press preview on Tuesday.
“The spine of the narrative is the story of this actual soldier, Claudius Terentianus, whose … fragments of his letters home survive and tell us about particularly the beginning of his enlistment and his story.”
The exhibition opens to the public on Thursday and runs until June 23, 2024.
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