Surprise Attack!

It was years ago when I was at University in Newcastle that I first heard of Vindolanda, a Roman fort and community just a mile or so south of Hadrian’s Wall. It was just getting going as a destination and site of archaeological activity in the 1970s. They had even built a small replica of Hadrian’s Wall there. So whenever I’ve been on holiday in the area since I’ve tried to visit the Wall, and this, its 1900th year I really wanted to join in the celebrations.

It’s well-known why Hadrian’s Wall was built – to mark very definitely the boundary of the Roman Empire – the area directly administered by Rome – and in Britannia the Wall was built coast to coast, with milecastles and forts along its route. Apparently Chesters – and other forts – were built as an afterthought and part of the already-built wall had to be torn down for the fort to be built. Meanwhile forts not on the Wall were abandoned – although not Vindolanda which continued to thrive and be redeveloped.

There are many events along the Wall for its 1900th anniversary and I have been making my own special tour. I’ve spent a few days in Carlisle where I’ve never been before. There is not much of the Wall left at that end, but you can stop in a small garden on the banks of the Solway Firth and pause for a while to think about those people so long ago.

Then this summer we made a visit to Vindolanda (more on that separately), and the special Night Attack! event put on by English Heritage at the Chesters Fort (Cilurnum). While we gently mocked ourselves, drinking elderflower wine as children toasted marshmallows, it was fun to then watch a re-enactment of an attack by a (small) raiding party of Picts on a (small) garrison of Roman soldiers – who were of course in the process of building the fort which is why the walls are so low…  The enthusiasm of the re-enactors was compelling and it’s always fun to mine the knowledge they have picked up as they aim to be as authentic as possible.

Roman Soldiers re-enacting a charge at Chesters Fort August 22I’ve been to more polished performances, but none with the passion and authenticity they were bringing to the proceedings. It was, after all, a battle! First they re-enacted a religious ceremony with a soldier-priest making offerings to Mithras, and then the attack happened, and the Roman soldiers attempted their historically accurate battle formations. I learned a lot. I didn’t know, for example, that there were multiple types of Roman armour, and any one soldier on the frontier might have had different types of plate or chain mail and probably natural coloured tunics – not only the solid plate armour and red tunics that we tend to see in classic images. And the centurion had “medals of honour” which basically looked like Celtic torcs – so you can see how those evolved from dangling the real thing off their costumes after despatching a Celtic noble, to the Roman army making medals in the same kind of design.

Then we walked around the Chesters ruins in the dark, flashing our torches into dark corners. It was certainly atmospheric and made it easier to imagine the past. I do love English Heritage’s events. And I definitely recommend the elderflower wine!