The Roman Soldier

Pros & Cons of Being in the Roman Army

The Roman army was a very powerful force in ancient times. It was called theRoman Legion and the soldiers, who were a part of it, were well trained, brutally disciplined, and heavily armed. Their lives were hard, but they were fiercely tough. It was their efforts that made conquering and patrolling the ancient lands possible.

The Roman army had an important role to play during times of peace and times of war. During times of peace, they would often serve in the construction of projects—building walls, forts and other protective structures. They could also be hired to protect traveling merchants. Many poor people chose to become Roman soldiers for the standard of living it offered.

However, some of the bad things about being a soldier is that one could get hurt or die in battle. A soldier also wasn't supposed to get married. Many soldiers were able to have “unofficial wives” though, which they came to view as a good thing. As a reward for being a soldier, citizenship was granted for full terms of service (20-25 years). Often, when a soldier retired they were given land or extra money. If soldiers were good enough, they could even be promoted, which meant leading as many as 80 men.

The Task:

Demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of soldiers in the Legion of Ancient Rome and some of the reasons people would have chosen whether or not to serve in the Roman Legion. In your groups, create a commercial trying to convince your classmates to either join or not join the Roman Legion.

  • If your goal is to convince people to join the Legion, use many terms that show advantages to being a soldier.
  • If your goal is to convince people not to join the Legion, use terms that show disadvantages.

Your group will be presenting the commercial to the class, so be sure to really put forth great effort. You will have one class period for this group activity. By completing this assignment, you will be better prepared for the Ancient Rome assessment.

MUST INCLUDE AT LEAST 10 OF THESE IN COMMERCIAL!

-Hard work
-construction, digging ditches,
-latrine cleaning
-cook house-cleaning, camp cleaning
-Money
-337 ½ silver given 3 times per year
-handsome (generous) rewards
-Taking orders
-No marriage
-Long service
-20-25 years, away from family
-Punic Wars
-Caesar Augustus
-Hannibal
-Scipio
-Skills/Trades
-aqueducts
-Roman roads
-construction
-Roman roads: Lots of walking
-25 miles per day
-hob-nailed sandals
-blisters on top of blisters / -Land
-Citizenship
-Honor
-Reputation
-tough/strong, brazen (bold)
-Travel & Adventure
-Promotion (Senior Centurion)
-High Risk
-burial insurance
-capture, injury, and even death
-Weapons
-sword & daggers- piercing points, spears –cudgels (clubs)
-Roman Legionaries
-Cohort
-Horses/Cavalry
-Battle formations
-Kits (supplies)
-Fancy armor
-head protector, crest, metal jacket, shield
-Siege Weapons
-catapult bolts

Techniques Used in Commercials

  • Celebrity Testimony “Grant Hill drinks Sprite”
  • Slogans “Red Bull gives you wings!”
  • Guilt “Buy our tires! They may be more cash, but isn’t your family worth it?”
  • Image/IconicGolden Arches for McDonalds
  • Gimmicks “Act now, and we'll triple the offer, absolutely free!”

Roman Soldier Commercial

Group Members:

______Period ____

List the Advantagesor Disadvantages of being a soldier- what your group plans on using for the commercial (list them):

______

Technique(s) Used in Commercial: ______

Rubric

# of terms / 9 to 10 / 7 to 8 / 5 to 6 / 3 to 4
Content
Roman Soldier Information / Information on the Roman Soldier is rich and you can tell the student is very knowledgeable about the topic.
The important pros or cons were taught for the unit. / Information on the Roman Soldier is present and you can tell the student is knowledgeable about the topic. / Information on the Roman Soldier is lacking or not enough vocabulary used. / The information is very sparse and hard to follow. Not enough vocabulary used.
Presentation/
Teaching / All group members appear prepared and are engaged with teaching classmates. / All group members appear prepared and are mainly on task in their commercial. / Some of the group members appear prepared and are engaged with teaching classmates. Some might be off task. / Not all group members were participating.
Seems like group wasn’t prepared.

Teacher’s Grade ______

Comments______