The Roman Army

Charge! Was the usual battle cry for the Roman army. This week I learned soooooo much about the roman army and Rome, and we did sooo many activities at homeschool about it. It was really cool!!! The Roman Empire had many enemies like the savage mountain barbarians, the Assyrians, the Egyptians, the Mongols, the Celts, the Arabs and the Persians. A lot of enemies right? I would rather make friends with all of them (except the barbarians). Rome came to have most of it's land because of a cruel dictator named Julius Caesar. One thing I did not know is that the Romans conquered the U.K.!?!? Yeah, that's right the Britons. They all rode over there and attacked the Celts.

This is a Celt.

The Celts went into battle naked! 1. because all of them where big, tall, strong and FIERCE!!!

2. because they thought that the blue paint on their bodies would protect them from swords and arrows. Unfortunately for them they lost and the Romans took over the U.K.

Do you know that the Romans actually named London, the original name was Londonium. The Romans had many ways of winning they used advanced weaponry, quick thinking, and strategic formations that made them brutal opponents. The advanced weaponry was something most of their enemies didn't have artillery!!! The Romans had three types of artillery the most famous of them is probably the Catapult. The catapult (just in case somebody doesn't know) is a wooden mechanism that was commonly used in the Middle Ages it used a clever pulley device that launched rocks at the enemy. They also used Ballistas, Giant Crossbows that shot huge arrows or spears that ripped through shields and armor.

The last of the Roman artillery was the Scorpio!!! The Scorpio was an awesome arrow tip shooting gun that looked kind of like a Ballista but shot arrow tips that caused instant death. The Scorpio was used like a machine gun could shoot up to 5 darts at a time. The Romans had really powerful artillery's but the Roman soldier was pretty good too. The common Roman soldier carried two throwing spears, one sword that he carried on his waist, one tall rectangular shield and a small dagger. They didn't have arrows because let's just say it just wasn't their thing. Sometimes the Romans rode horses into battle too. Romans had many sea battles as well, they were mostly against the Persians. Learning about the Roman army was pretty fun, but let's just say I still wouldn't want to be against them!