Romans1.Contents2.Roman Empire3.Invading Britain4.Romans in Britain5.Roman soldiers6.War machines

By Paul1

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Roman EmpireFor 12 centuries Rome was the centre of a big empire. Roman soldiers had conquered large parts of Europe

and North Africa. The Roman army was skilled at fighting and defending the borders from attack and

clever civil servants governed each country

The red shows how far the Romans spread out over Europe.

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Invading BritainJulius Caesar A famous Roman General, Julius Caesar decided to invade Britain in 55 B.C to teach the Britons a lesson for helping the Gauls . He tried twice in 55 B.C. and 54 B.C. His army did defeat the tribes that were waiting for him but both times his boats were destroyed by storms and he went home. The Romans did not come back for another 90 years

The Second InvasionIn 43 B.C. Emperor Claudius decided to invade Britain again. He sent 20,000 troops (4 legions of 5,000 legionnaires each) , who gradually conquered most of the country.After the Romans had conquered most of Britain, the country became peaceful.The Romans were good rulers. They built good roads, and big towns and made sensible laws

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Romans in Britain

Defense: : Hadrian’s Wall

Road building: Approximately 75% of the roads in southern England and the Midlands today are built on top of Roman roads

Baths: public baths were created in every Roman town and fort

The running water, indoor plumbing and sewer system carrying away disease

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Roman soldiers

The Roman Army was successful because it was better equipped and organised than any army before.The Roman soldier was a professional soldier. This means that he joined the army for 25 years and would be paid a salary.

Legions and CenturiesSoldiers belonged to a Legion which had about 5,000 or 6,000 legionnaires. Each legion was divided into companies of 80 men called Centuries

A Centurion was the man in charge of a century

AuxiliaThere were other regiments called Auxilia. These soldiers came from the tribes which the Romans had conquered. Their job was to help the legions

They had to fight in front of the Roman soldiers to protect them from attack. So they got killed first. They were divided into groups of about 500 or 1000 men called Cohorts

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Centurion:Crest, helmet, shield, sword

Legionnaire:The Pilum: similar to a javelinThe Gladius: a swordThe Pugio: small daggerThe Scutum: curved shield

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War machines

The Army had special equipment to help them.

They had large war machine like catapults called ballista that fired arrows and a sort of giant catapult that fired massive pieces of rock.

The Romans were so good at inventing things that they made the first machine gun - which could fire many bolts a minute. No-one invented another machine gun for over 1900 years!