The San Antonio Museum of Art invites the Legion and The Roman Way to inaugurate the re-opening of their antiquities wing.

 

The Legion "Romes around" the museum, visiting special craft events for kids and chatting with parents.

 

Centurio Marcus communing with his noble ancestors.

 

The Legion Legate and his Lady with Marcus Aurelius.

 

The Ludi Legionis

At the request of the Museum, the Legion put together a set of three athletic events for children attending the family day. Each event was named for an element of the Roman army during the Republican era.

The first event was hastati. The hastati were the young skirmishers at the front of the army when it was in battle array on the field. The hastati had to be fast, so this event was a foot-race across the Museum grounds. Here are the young legionnaries preparing to go.

 

The second event was principe. The principes were the heavily armored fighters in the main body of the army. When lines of principes came together in a Roman civil war, there was a great deal of pushing and shoving. Therefore, these soldiers proved their ability to hold the shield wall against pressure from the enemy by seeing how many pushups they could do.

 

The final event was the triarius. The triarii were the older veterans at the rear of the army who held long spears, in support of the principes. The Romans had the saying "If it gets to the triarii," which was their equivalent of "if worse comes to worst." In this event, the young soldiers had to don lorica segmentae and keep their balance while dueling another triarius.

 

The triarius event was so much fun, even some parents wanted to try!

>> Click here to see a 4 second video of how it turned out! (1.7 mb MPG)<<

 

And of course, the winners received laurels and a true Roman ovation!

 

At the end of the day, the Legion relaxes in style beneath the "triumphal arch."