Teaching About The Ancient Romans At the Museum & Art Gallery…
This was always going to be a tough assignment, for when I was first asked to do a Roman session at the Museum, there really was little on offer. Clearly, Birmingham is not known as a Roman settlement but in fact, a fort does lie beneath the ground near the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, called Metchley Fort. A civil settlement (vicus) also lies beneath the ground and the site was built after AD 43 then abandoned by the Romas twice, in AD 70 and AD 120.
So, we have a fort and vicus but nobody can see them…
We also have the 13th century Weoley Castle in Brum too, which was built as a hunting lodge for the Lords of Dudley and a Roman road even passes through Sutton Park. We also have Aston Hall and Blakesley Hall, dating from the 16th & 17th centuries in the city, so perhaps Birmingham is somewhat more than just a Victorian industrial city with a number of canals and a bull called Perry…
 |
| NOT IN ROLE BUT SHOWING THE VINE-STICK... |
My problem was how to present a Roman session to children and in truth I was only asked to provide two or three during the first couple of years of working in the Museum. However, I was able to use the suitcases of Roman artefacts from the schools’ loans service but to be fair, making a useful, interesting, exciting presentation for Year 3 children with a few broken sherds of pottery and a couple of replica togas was going to tax the depths of my imagination and humour…
Getting a couple of children to try on the togas using the illustration provided was a joy though, for I asked the class teacher to help the children into the garments. Rarely did they go on properly, so the humour of it was readily available for me to take advantage of. Sadly, putting together a worksheet for children was like writing a report about a soccer match played in thick fog, so basically a visit to the Museum just to ‘look at the Romans’ was certainly a non-starter.
 |
| AN EARLY SESSION, NOT IN ROLE... |
One item in Gallery 33 though was particularly unusual… There was a brick, made by ancient Britons with gargoyle-like faces upon it and it had been excavated at the Wall Roman site in Staffordshire. It had been used in the building of a ‘pagan’ temple but the Romans had recycled the stones and bricks to build their own replacement shrine and in order to ward off or reverse the influence of any evil spirits, they had reused the bricks with the images on them upside-down…
At Wall’s small site museum, more of those bricks were on display at the time…
However, I think I managed to provide decent sessions, before the Gallery, number 33 was refurbished and it soon became a collection of ethnic artefacts from around the world, leaving me with a few Roman gravestones in Gallery 32, alongside several other artefacts installed. However, as the National Curriculum suggested that a study of the ancient Romans would be rather useful, I thought about borrowing some spare artefacts from Dave Symons in the Archaeology Department and doing some sessions in role… He agreed…
 |
| REPLICA SAMIAN WARE BOWL... |
At first, I was able to borrow a turquoise tunic from a Roman re-enactment group and managed to purchase a grim looking helmet and a belt. Somehow I then had to make up a scenario involving the items I had been given to pass round to the pupils and make the items ‘come alive’, I guess.
 |
| THE AWFUL FIRST COSTUME... |
However, I was told by the head of my department that the tunic was too short and so after a few sessions I had a red tunic made for me, only just above the knees… (Yawn…) My cloak (sagulum) was made from an old blanket of my mum’s, dyed brown.
 |
| THE GLADIUS... |
Using some of the SLD’s capitation though, I was finally able to order a Centurion’s helmet, a belt (cingulum), a gladius (short sword), a dagger (pugio) and a pair of leather sandals, which led me on to thinking about who I could be…
I spent time researching names of Centurions who had actually visited this country and remarkably, one name stood out: Petronius Fortunatus… He actually came here twice and to explain his story, I wrote a poem some years back which I have restored, updated and reproduced below. I’m Peter, so Petronius seemed a good fit…
And for several years, I WAS Petronius Fortunatus…
 |
| IN GALLERY 32 WITH THE ROMAN GRAVESTONES... |
The Centurion Petronius Fortunatus…
His name was Petronius Fortunatus, his rank was Centurion.
An old man he became, an octogenarian,
One year for each Legionary he commanded:
A Century, whose complete obedience he demanded.
Thirteen legions he served in his military career,
Decorated for valour, never harbouring fear;
From Pannonia to Arabia, the Euphrates and Palestine,
To the Parthian Wars, then to York and the Rhine.
During his formative army years,
He was promoted to Centurion by the votes of his peers;
From Librarius, he became the Watch N.C.O.,
Or Tesserarius, before a promotion to Optio.
He was Deputy Centurion in the 1st Legion Italica,
Then was promoted to Centurion of the Sixth Legion Ferrata.
He followed the Legate Adventus to the Parthian Wars,
Winning torques and phallerae for bravery, of course.
The neck-ring torques, to his cuirass were attached,
The small discs or phallerae to his strapped harness were lashed;
These visible signs of his valour ensured
That he gained the infantry’s respect and discipline was assured.
For marriage as a Centurion he was certainly game,
Claudia Marcia Capitolina was his wife’s given name.
She bore him a son, his father’s name he was given
And to join the army ranks he was strongly driven.
Sadly however, his service caused deep-seated pain,
For he was killed during the dangerous northern campaign.
He had served with the 22nd Primigenia,
Then in Upper Germany with the 2nd Augusta…
Thus, harbouring his memories, gnarled and alone,
Petronius’ joints ached, his scars itched, he became chilled to the bone.
Preparations for his burial had already been made
In Algeria’s heat, beneath a cool, leafy glade.
His life had been long, varied and full,
His prayers were generally answered by Mithras the Bull;
Tired, expiring, he lay back beneath a shield
Until his spirit drifted to the dead warriors’ field…
Pete Ray
August 2022
Centurion Petronius Fortunatus: a real person, who visited Britain on two occasions and a character I played the role of during my Museum teaching…
The sessions…
They were brilliant to do…
The kids were enthralled by the costume, which I began by talking about and asking them questions about the uniform and securing their opinions about why the design was as it was.
The art teacher at the Museum, Trish Peate, kindly soaked the sandals (caligae) in a saddle oil, used for her horses because the leather rubbed harshly at my feet… The galea, or helmet was spectacular, the metal greaves for leg protection made me look rather like a robotic wicketkeeper and the strap over one shoulder to hold the scabbard, the baldric, always brought laughter from the adults. I carried a vine-stick too, which for me was merely a metre-long stick found in Sutton Park…
 |
| LEFT-HANDED CENTURION... |
One of the most hilarious interludes in the session was when I described how the gladius, or sword was used. One child had thought that I would waft the sword about, rather like a fencer would do today and he demonstrated whilst standing up next to me with a replica wooden sword, how a swashbuckler would fight…
I simply stood still and stared at the child, who was dancing around like Errol Flynn… I motioned for him to stop for a minute and asked him what use would dancing be when I was supposed to be killing the enemy? Then I began to prance about opposite him, pretending we were Olympic contestants and encouraging him to do more of the same. It was really funny as we skipped about in front of the audience…
Then I stopped him and told him that I didn’t dance well anyway and explained that my gladius was simply a stabbing weapon, for use when shoving forward in a line against an enemy’s line, protecting myself with a shield (scutum), hacking and stepping over dead and dying bodies, treading upon screaming and bleeding bodies, in the chaos of battle. The smells of sweat, fear and death made my use of a gladius rather different to using a sword to dance about with in a one-on-one contest…
The kids would then go very quiet…
The artefacts I showed and passed to the children included pottery lamps, coins, a slingshot bullet, other pieces of pottery, including the more expensive Samian ware. Replicas of complete pots and bowls I did not pass round. A section of a mortarium (grinding bowl) which still had its tiny sharp-edged stones for grinding up food in the bottom of it was always interesting for the children to touch.
 |
| ROMAN LAMPS... |
I had managed to collect a few Roman artefacts of my own too which I would show to the children but not allow any touching of…
Being a Roman Centurion at Sarehole Mill…
My colleague Elfyn Morris and I put together a session about the use of water through history and I was in role at the mill as both an ancient Egyptian and the Roman centurion Petronius Fortunatus…
 |
| EXPLAINING HOW WE ROMANS MOVE WATER... WHAT DID WE EVER DO FOR YOU IN BRITAIN? APART FROM... AND... AND... |
I was there to demonstrate how water was moved by the ancient Romans from a river to a town, or a fort, or a villa, using the mill’s horse trough and gravity to illustrate the way it worked… We pumped the water from the trough into an angled, sloping channel…
 |
| MAKING THE FILM, AS I STAND BY, OR MAYBE STAND TO... |
Now that was a weird experience…
 |
| THE INTERVIEWER LOOKS SCARED STIFF... |
The craziest moments dressed as Petronius Fortunatus…
There were two which readily come to mind…
First of all, during one teaching session, the fire alarm sounded in the Museum. I made sure the children and staff reached the exit first but the security staff insisted that I went outside into Chamberlain Square as well, fully dressed as a Centurion…
Thanks for that…
It was warm, it was crowded and as I walked into the Square, astonished faces greeted me… I could do nothing but greet people, asking how they were and whether they rued the presence of the Roman army in the area.
One mum asked me to look into her pushchair and say hi to her young child, which I did but the kid was so terrified that it bawled and howled at the helmeted idiot who grinned at it in the Square.
The Square was busier than usual though because of a number of Japanese tourists being present and of course they made a rush towards me and I was photographed many, many times… “You take sword out, yes?” So, there was I, stabbing my gladius for the benefit of Japan…
Yeah, thanks, security ‘friends’, thanks a lot…
 |
| PIECES OF MOSAIC FLOORING... |
The other incident was all the more remarkable because I had tried so hard not to let the pupils see anything modern about my person during role-play but I would always hide my watch on my table so that I could make quick checks on the time during a two-hour session.
I never wore my watch before work either, in case an eagle-eyed child spotted the strap marks on my right wrist (I am left-handed, remember) and so what happened one day, around 12.15pm, totally pigged me off…
I had booked a Roman role-play session in the morning and an Egyptian role-play session after lunch and so I was short of time. I needed to race through the Museum’s art galleries back to what was the office area at the time, off the Great Charles Street staircase. I had got to try to gobble a sandwich, strip off the Roman uniform, don my Egyptian costume and make up my eyes…
So, I strapped on my watch, put away the Roman artefacts, replaced them with the Egyptian ones and hurriedly left my teaching room but as I dashed through one of the art galleries, a chap was approaching from the other direction.
He was middle-aged, he wore wire-rimmed specs and in my mind he should have been carrying a stamp album under one arm and his train-spotting notebook in the other hand. He hailed me and asked in a voice which the Monty Python team would have had great fun imitating:
“Excuse me, where’s the toilet?”
I directed him and then he retorted:
“By the way, Roman soldiers didn’t wear watches…”
I turned on him and virtually nose to nose, I bellowed at his pasty face:
“I KNOW…”
I could have poked him with my pugio…
Totally petrified, he turned tail and fled…
NEXT: TEACHING ABOUT ANCIENT EGYPT…
