Page 27 - SYTYGIB: Ancient Rome

FANCY THAT!
Imagine you had to trundle along bumpy, muddy tracks whenever you were being driven anywhere. You'd spill your chocolate milkshake all over your funny little face. Before the Romans arrived, countries like Britain had no real roads. The Romans built new-fangled straight, flat roads all over the shop. In fact, they created more than 16,000 km (10,000 miles) of them! It was a Roman road-fest!
Do you ever wish . . . you could boss loads of people around?
Well, if you were in charge of the Roman Empire at its height you’d have to boss 70 million people around. That’s some serious bossing right there, chum.
It was one of the largest empires in history, with the Roman army conquering huge areas of other countries, such as France and Britain.
To cover so much ground it had to move quickly – its soldiers could march up to 40 kilometres (25 miles) a day! Not impressed? You try doing that while carrying a sword, spear, shield, armour and other equipment! They didn’t even have scooters or roller blades to help them get around.
The furthest north the Romans got was Britain. Around 2,000 years ago, Britain was ruled by tribes of people called the Celts . . . but they were in for a nasty shock. In AD 43, the mighty Roman army invaded the south of England and conquered most of the country.
They didn’t do so well once they reached Scotland, however. It was still controlled by fierce warrior tribes, who didn’t give in to the invaders. In the end the Romans built huge walls, such as Hadrian’s Wall in the north of England, to keep the scary folk out.
So, if you ever bump into a Roman soldier and you want to give him a fright, just put on a Scottish accent and do the Highland Fling and he’ll run a mile!
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