The British Museum's big new exhibition will introduce you to Rome's war machine through the eyes of the people who knew it best - the soldiers who served in it.
The Roman army was the West's first modern, professional fighting force, and helped spread the empire across more than a million square miles. It also acted as an engine for creating new Roman citizens, by conferring citizenship and the promise of a better life to soldiers who managed to survive its service.
While the rewards of army life could certainly be enticing, the perils were very definitely real, and the exhibition will follow the life of a real Roman soldier, Claudius Terentianus, from his enlistment and military campaigns to his eventual retirement.
What was life like in the Roman army for a normal soldier? What did their families think of life in the fort? And how were they treated by their newly conquered subjects?
Amongst the highlights are the famous Vindolanda tablets, unearthed in a fort near Hadrian's wall, which reveal first-hand what daily life was like for soldiers at the edge of the empire.
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