The Horsemen of Hadrian's Wall Digging for Britain

Scything through the landscape of northern Britain is Hadrian's Wall,

our most famous Roman monument.

It was built nearly 2,000 years ago as a dividing line,

separating Roman lands in the south from the barbarians to the north.

At the heart of the wall's story is a band of forgotten warriors -

they are the Roman cavalry.

For over a century,

historians and archaeologists have been unearthing clues about the Roman cavalry,

helping to build a picture of their forgotten world.

And now, Digging For Britain is going to join this search...

..at archaeological digs...

They're marrying with the people who, generations ago, they actually conquered.

..at overlooked Roman sites...

So these are serious military bases holding hundreds of people.

..and in museums and archives.

We're starting to really build up this lovely picture of who these people are.

This year, an international team of archaeologists,

historians and re-enactors have come together using the latest evidence

to restore the cavalry to their rightful place in the story of the Roman Empire.

As part of this collaboration,

a team of modern riders has been recruited for a unique historical display

which will celebrate the power and splendour of the Roman cavalry.

This is one of the most challenging things that I have done.

This project, combined with new research, will allow us to examine how those

elusive warriors lived and reveal their crucial role in conquering and

controlling Roman Britain.

Each new piece of information comes together to help us tell the forgotten story

of Rome's secret weapon - its cavalry.

When we think of the Romans in Britain,

we tend to focus on the foot soldiers, the legionaries.

But in fact the Roman cavalry was central to their military strategy and success.

But these elite warriors have vanished from the public imagination.

Even in the Roman era, it was the foot soldiers,

the legionaries, who hogged the limelight.

But the Roman cavalry were at the heart of some of Rome's greatest

victories and they were key to running and defending that vast empire.

The cavalry were far fewer in number than the infantry, but vital in

conquering and controlling Rome's sprawling empire.

But everything we know about them has to be pieced together from small

clues found in ancient literature or unearthed at archaeological digs.

In 2017,

ten museums along Hadrian's Wall brought for the first time all of these

fragments of evidence together to create a major exhibition celebrating

the legacy of these ancient warrior horsemen.

The climax of this project -

a live cavalry re-enactment involving 30 modern riders.

They're attempting to stage a Roman cavalry tournament,

a test of skill and bravery which no-one has seen for over 1,600 years.

They're drawing on history,

on painstakingly translated ancient documents as well as the latest

archaeological revelations in order to bring to life one of the most

dazzling spectacles of the Roman world.

And it's providing the academics with a unique opportunity to discover something new.

By putting their theories into practice, they hope to find out

how the cavalry rode,

how their kit was worn and actually worked, and what battle tactics they

might have brought with them to Britain.

This experiment of archaeology takes us out of the realm of guesswork and

moves us into an area where we can start to make

some reasonable estimates as to what's possible.

It doesn't give us the answer, but it's every bit as valid as fieldwork.

As the team prepares for the big show,

I'm going to seek out evidence the cavalry left behind

to help build a picture of their role in Roman Britain.

My journey begins in Northumberland on Hadrian's Wall itself.

When the Emperor Hadrian came to power in 117 AD,

he launched a vast building scheme to consolidate the sprawling frontiers

of the empire he'd inherited.

He built a new line of defences snaking across 3,000 miles of his frontier,

from North Africa to the Black Sea and on through central Europe to Britain.

In northern England, Hadrian's project was realised as an impassable wall

15 feet high, stretching 75 miles from coast to coast.

It was designed to keep out the wild British tribes who lived to the north.

On a day like this, you can imagine being a Roman soldier and being pretty

disgruntled at having been stationed here on Hadrian's Wall on the very

northern boundary of this wonderful empire, looking out at the land of

the barbarians over there.

But I think what's really interesting me today is finding out how our ideas

of the wall have evolved over time, and that's all about new archaeological discoveries.

I want to find out why Hadrian's Wall became the centre of operations

for the Roman cavalry.

To get some answers, I'm meeting one of the leading experts on how

Hadrian's Wall worked, Matt Symonds.

Matt has minutely researched the 80 small forts dotted along the wall

which we now know as milecastles.

This is a building attached to the wall, then, Matt. What is it?

It is. It's a building known as a milecastle, and this particular one

is Milecastle 37.

So, if this is a milecastle, does that mean there were actually small forts

like this every mile along Hadrian's Wall?

Essentially, yes. There is a small amount of leeway allowed, but it is

an incredibly regimented and ordered system, and it is a radical departure

from what the Roman army was doing before.

These milecastles saw the Roman army rip up its traditional approach to

defence, which had been based on temporary wooden forts.

Here in northern England, they built a continuous line of permanent stone forts,

all linked by this defensive wall.

That is an incredibly close surveillance system, and it must almost

certainly be about making sure you had people in the right positions to stop them

from sneaking over the wall unobserved.

-So, if you like, it's an early warning system.

-Yeah.

The number of soldiers based in a milecastle would have been very, very small indeed,

maybe only eight in that small barrack-block over there.

But it looks as though there was a major change of plan during the construction process.

As Hadrian's Wall was being built, the plan evolved.

As well as those small milecastles, the Roman army also began to build

a series of huge, heavily defended forts

into the line of the wall itself.

So these are serious military bases holding hundreds of people,

a far cry from the eight or so, the handful of people you'd find in here.

Perhaps the most famous and dramatic of all of these forts is Housesteads,

and crucially the Romans filled forts like this not just with ordinary

foot soldiers but with cavalrymen.

Perhaps that was a reaction to the ferocity of the native Britons to

the north or just a bureaucratic decision from on high.

Whatever the reason, from this point on,

these forts and their cavalry became key to defending Hadrian's Wall.

When you think about the frontier, we mustn't just think about this line.

It's a crucial part of it, but there's a much wider frontier zone.

And by having concentrated forces and, in particular, by having cavalry,

you have that strikeforce to the north and indeed to the south, should you need it.

So it's about really enhancing that capability.

-It's about controlling a zone rather than just covering this line.

-Exactly. The Romans wanted it all.

They're controlling a line and they're controlling zones to either side.

Just looking at this landscape, you can see why the Romans decided to move

their cavalry on to Hadrian's Wall.

Fast horsemen could move quickly to cut off the first signs of trouble from the native Britons.

Not far from here is another of these huge forts built into Hadrian's Wall.

This one was built at a strategic crossing of the River Tyne at a place

now called Chesters.

In its heyday, it was home to 500 cavalrymen and their horses.

New discoveries here are helping to reveal why the Roman cavalry was

such an effective fighting force.

To discover more, I'm meeting Kevin Booth of English Heritage.

One of the most recognisable parts of the fort

is its living quarters or barracks.

Barrack-blocks are similar right across the Roman Empire

but there was always a mystery at cavalry bases.

There was plenty of accommodation

for the soldiers but where were the stables?

The answer emerged in the late 1990s

when archaeologists in Newcastle made a remarkable discovery.

During excavations of a similar barrack-block,

they found a series of shallow pits and it was realised

that these were rudimentary drains for horses' urine.

So the men and the horses were in fact living in the same buildings.

In each of these spaces, you've got three men and three horses

living side by side.

So, there would have been three men and three horses in just this space?

It does seem quite extraordinary and with the relatively narrow doorway.

In fact, we're stood pretty much on the line of the partition

between the front half with the horses and the men at the back.

It would have been pretty dank and smelly in here, I imagine.

To our sensibilities, no doubt.

-Yeah.

-But, I don't know, I suppose you get used to it, don't you?

It seems like a peculiar set-up.

Why wouldn't they have stables elsewhere?

Why are they forcing the men and the horses in together?

It's intimate, and perhaps that's the point.

You're maintaining the strong bond between the man and his horse

and that is also to do with finance.

The horse essentially is paid for out of the Roman soldier's wages,

he has a financial investment in it.

And I think also if you've got a fort that has 500 horses in it,

hygiene and good maintenance is all.

And then also if you need to get out of the north gate of this fort

at speed, you're ready, you're prepared.

-You're away.

-So you're on-call here

in the barracks ready to jump on your horse and set off at any time.

Absolutely. Permanently.

These men must have had a uniquely close relationship

with their horses, which is hard for us to understand.

They lived side by side

and fought together.

To try to understand how the Roman cavalry

rode and fought on horseback,

I'm meeting the leader of a modern riding troop, Alan Larsen.

-Who's this?

-This is Finbar and Finbar has the distinction

in the show of being the mount of the Emperor Hadrian.

-Really?

-And he's got the most magnificent set

-of recreated 2nd-century saddlery.

-Hello, Finbar.

An amazing saddle, this saddle looks completely different

-from modern saddles.

-Although it's not the most comfortable of saddles,

it does the job brilliantly.

So, how do you know what Roman saddles would have been like?

We owe a great debt to a wonderful man called Dr Peter Connelly,

who reconstructed the Roman saddles from the cover,

the outer leather cover, which was found preserved in a bog...

..during a dig at a Roman cavalry camp.

He had the genius moment of realising

that if you put a frame inside it, it could function perfectly well.

I've noticed that Finbar hasn't got any stirrups.

-No.

-So, is that normal for Roman riding?

Roman cavalry saddles do not have stirrups.

They didn't need them. Essentially.

They were so well wedged into the saddle with these four horns

that they were able to do everything that a modern rider can do.

And what about the horses themselves, Alan,

what would they have been like? Were they very different

-to modern horses?

-Yes, Roman cavalry horses were small.

By our standards. Finbar is 15 hands

and that's as big as Roman cavalry horses got.

So, were they choosing to have small horses or was that just all that was

-available?

-No, that was all that was available.

The majority of them are what we'd call ponies

but the good news about that is that a sure-footed,

sturdy, little pony can carry you for miles and miles, days and days,

up and down hills in country that a bigger,

more finely bred horse would begin to falter.

On these small, rugged horses,

a cavalryman could travel 40 miles in a day.

Selecting the right horses

is also going to be crucial for the 30 modern re-enactors

who are taking on the huge challenge

of staging a Roman cavalry tournament.

A month before the big show,

troop leader Alan Larsen is bringing together six key riders

and their horses for a vital first training session.

In the Roman age, cavalry tournaments

were designed to showcase the horseman's skills in a public arena.

These six riders are taking on the role of the elite who starred

in the highlight of the tournament,

a competition of horsemanship fought between two teams.

It's undoubtedly one of the most challenging of equestrian

and re-enactment disciplines.

And a relatively few number of riders have the skills

and determination to see it through.

Historians have pieced together what they know about Roman cavalry

tournaments from the ancient literature.

But this project will allow them to examine

the cavalry's equipment in action, as well as to better understand

the tactics and manoeuvres they've only ever read about.

At today's session, the team needs to practise

three of these manoeuvres

which they'll eventually be performing at the show.

Before they begin, Nigel, the lead rider, calls the team together

for a briefing to discuss the first task,

the so-called Cantabrian wheel.

OK, everybody.

Everybody happy with their horses?

Right, what we're going to do first while we're in modern clothing and

modern tack is start putting together

the basis of that Cantabrian wheel.

So in that, Magyar and Shadow

will be the target horses and you four will be riding around

pelting our shields with your javelins.

The Cantabrian wheel was a classic Roman battle tactic

which was practised as part of the cavalry tournament.

On the battlefield, it was designed to harass enemy forces

but, in the tournament, the cavalrymen scored points

by hitting their opponents with blunted javelins.

Good hit.

Bad shot.

We're putting the horses and the riders through their paces.

They're concentrating on the business of hurling javelins

at each other in a competition

which will be as much of a spectacle now as it was

in the early 2nd century AD.

Nice.

I didn't actually mean to hit your camera then.

The modern riders are discovering first-hand that Roman cavalry

tournaments were probably also a key part of training soldiers for war.

With one exercise under their belts, they'll now attempt two other

disciplines from the Roman cavalry tournament, the pursuit...

..in which one rider attacks and then flees

defending their back with their shield...

..and the charge, which is like a medieval joust,

where two riders meet in a clash of javelins at speed.

But during the charge, the team gets a taste

of just how tough Roman cavalry riding can be.

Lucy's off.

Lucy's off. You OK?

Lucy is winded by the fall but nothing is broken.

I'm feeling OK. Bruised, but I'll be fine.

-You're going to get back in the saddle?

-I'm going to get back

in the saddle, yep. That's what we do, we fall off,

we get back in the saddle.

The riders are relying heavily on their recreated Roman saddles

and Lucy's accident has highlighted

that they're testing these things to their limits

and they'll need to improve them.

This is the point at which the saddle...

..is attached, the girth, is where we tie the girth on.

And there isn't one on this side.

It is here.

So that's what happened.

That should be there. It's just ripped under the pressure.

So this is going to need a good repair

before we actually get to the event.

The elite riders won't practise again as a group until they meet in

Carlisle for the event, when they'll have to work with 24 other riders

as a complete Roman troop.

There's still a long way to go before they can stage

a successful tournament.

Every piece of equipment you put on makes it more difficult.

The visibility...

..was a bit of a problem at times.

It is tiring.

Very, very tiring.

I'm very, very tired.

From ancient records, we know that there would have been

around 10,000 cavalrymen in Britain at any one time.

But not all of them were stationed on Hadrian's Wall.

There was in fact a network of cavalry forts

located across the north, all designed to help Romans

control the local population.

One of the most important cavalry bases in northern Britain

was built at Ribchester near modern Preston in 70 AD.

And currently archaeologists are uncovering new clues

about who those cavalrymen actually were.

Since 2015, a team from the University of Central Lancashire

have been running this new dig at Ribchester.

Much of the fort now lies under the modern village

so the team has opened a trench in a back garden.

They've revealed a number of the cavalry fort's buildings and are

beginning to understand the fort's layout.

But they're also starting to find small clues that can tell them more

about where the men who lived here came from.

Dig co-director Duncan Sayer

is examining an intriguing piece of pottery the team has found.

Under this bucket, we have a vaulting tube.

This would have been a much larger object that comes around out here

somewhere, has a tube on one end, and it has a socket on the other.

And you can see on this here

it just has slightly more of a curve on this side

than it does on this side, so when you put lots and lots

and lots of those together then it creates an arch.

What's quite nice about this is these things

are seen only in North Africa and at Chesters Roman fort.

And that's really interesting cos the Spanish cavalry came here

first and then they moved on to Chesters.

And so somewhere there would be these gently domed buildings,

which is, I think, quite nice.

It would have looked really quite exotic,

and even out of place in rural Lancashire.

This fort was first manned by a Spanish cavalry regiment

who must have brought this exotic architecture with them.

Cavalrymen were recruited from conquered tribes

across the Roman Empire, from places like France, Spain,

the Netherlands, Eastern Europe,

Syria and North Africa.

But as well as finding clues about who these men were,

the team is also finding incredible personal artefacts

that give us a glimpse into daily life here.

While they take a break, Duncan Sayer is meeting find specialist

Justine Biddle to examine

some of the most recently discovered objects.

-What is this, Justine?

-So this is what's known as

a terret ring that would

be part of a horse's bridle fitting.

OK, so would that fit around the...?

It would go on the cheek.

-There.

-Exactly there.

And you'd have one part of the rein,

one part of the harness would go back towards the head

-and holding the harness in position.

-That's really interesting,

it really gives us that evidence of ridden horses...

-Absolutely.

-..in Ribchester, which is what you'd expect, isn't it?

-Exactly.

-One of the best pieces of dating evidence on a Roman site

is just you expect to find loads of coins, especially in military sites.

It is a silver denarius of the Emperor Vespasian.

There he is.

It's got a dolphin and anchor

on the reverse side of it and that was minted between 79 and 89 AD.

Probably comes over

and is lost from the pocket or the pouch of a Roman cavalry soldier.

-Yeah, almost certainly.

-He would have been a bit annoyed

-about losing that.

-He would have been really cross about losing that.

That's quite a lot of money that's just fallen into the ditch.

But it's not only digs that can reveal new information

about who the cavalrymen were,

and sometimes these clues can be found in the most unexpected places.

This is Hexham Abbey.

The original church here was one of the oldest in Britain,

but I'm after something even more ancient,

and that's one of the most striking traces that we have

of the Roman cavalry.

When the original Saxon church was built here at Hexham,

much of the stone used was robbed from nearby Roman buildings.

During renovation work in the 19th century,

workers discovered a huge flagstone in the floor.

When it was lifted, it turned out to be a Roman cavalry tombstone.

To find out more about it,

I'm meeting Lindsay Allason-Jones of Newcastle University.

Lindsay, this is a magnificent tombstone.

It's absolutely huge.

Who is this we're looking at?

This is a man called Flavinus

who was a standard bearer in the cavalry regiment of Petriana.

And you can see he's holding the standard there.

So he was presumably very well known,

he was high status to have something like this as his grave marker.

This has been an extremely expensive gravestone.

It's got an enormous amount of decoration and detail,

and you can see all the detail of the horse,

you can see the horse's mane,

you can see all the reins and the trappings here.

All those horse trappings that we find archaeologically,

-here they are.

-Yes, there they are.

-Displayed.

-Yes, indeed.

Tombstones like this have been invaluable in revealing

what a cavalryman looked like.

They show us how things like the horse tack and the weapons

were actually worn.

But this tombstone can also reveal more about

this particular man's identity

and how cavalrymen wanted to be remembered.

He's shown in heroic pose,

galloping away,

but the poor old barbarian he's slain is not in a heroic pose,

he's being booted up the backside.

But he's still hanging on to his sword and fighting back to the end.

-But being trampled underfoot.

-Absolutely, yes.

So, what do we know about this man?

Other than that he's obviously in the cavalry.

Well, the inscription at the bottom tells us his name is Flavinus

but he's only got the one name, which suggests he's not a Roman citizen.

It's possible that he came from Gaul or from Spain.

And it's interesting that he's shown trampling a barbarian

but if, as you say, he may have been a Celt, he may have been a Gaul,

then his family would have been barbarians

just a couple of generations back.

Yes, well, one man's barbarian is another man's neighbour.

But this is...this is...

..an artistic trope, this is the way cavalrymen liked to be shown.

Wherever they came from, once these men were part of the Roman army,

they seemed to have embraced their new roles wholeheartedly.

The impression this tombstone gives is that he may have been

from a noble family, and if you were a young man with a heroic bent

who was keen on horses then becoming a cavalryman in the Roman army

was the best way to really live your life in the way you wanted to.

There is an element of if you can't beat them, join them, isn't there?

Oh, yes, yes, I think so. Yes.

And of course he would have been very well paid as well.

Able to afford all this bling.

The cavalrymen were the elite of the Roman army

and this status drew young men from across the Roman Empire,

even from conquered peoples, into their ranks.

And now, having seen cavalry kit depicted on a tombstone

and pieces recovered archaeologically,

I want to see what they looked like on the men and their horses

in the flesh.

And to do that, I'm joining Nigel, who will be leading the elite riders

in the show, and he's also an amateur historian of cavalry.

Nigel, you've got some of the kit ready here.

-Talk me through it.

-Well, let's start with the first piece

of protection, the important thing is the mail.

And like most things Roman, it's not Roman.

So it's been adopted from the Gallic tribes.

Can I see how heavy that is?

-Oh, OK.

-I haven't weighed it but I think it is around 11 or 12 kilos.

It must be at least that.

God, that's a huge weight to be carrying around

before you start to load up with all the weapons themselves.

Absolutely, yeah. But, I mean, once it's on your body,

and the load is spread, you don't notice it as much.

Yeah. OK, so you're wearing 12 kilos' worth of chainmail

and then you're carrying a shield as well, so that looks pretty heavy.

Which equally is quite heavy.

-Have a feel of that.

-Yeah.

So you wear that...

How do you wear that? Put this on?

Well, we are using these two straps, these are not correct.

OK, no evidence for strapping like that but because we're using

modern horses and riding in a modern style, we've got to compromise.

-Yeah.

-Our best guess from all of the evidence is that, actually,

they are holding the shield in a centre grip

with the reins in the same hand.

Part of the problem you're getting as well is that weight means that

you are always unbalanced on the horse,

and what we are starting to find after a couple of days

is that we're all getting a lot of pressure on the right side

of our groin and that's because we're counterbalancing that weight

by putting more pressure on the right side of the horse.

So we're tiring our right leg more than our left leg.

What the elite Roman cavalry were most famous for

was their masked helmets.

Many of these remarkable objects have been discovered across Europe

and these finds have provided templates for Nigel

and his team's modern recreations.

But archaeologists have never been sure if these elaborate helmets

were just for show, or whether they could have been used in combat.

Some of these helmets, like this sports helmet here

-is a perfectly functioning cavalry helmet.

-Yeah.

The only thing that's different is the addition of the facemask.

If that facemask is made to fit the cavalryman's face, absolutely fine.

Better visibility than the later medieval helmet, and the effect

psychologically on an enemy would be tremendous.

There's something quite scary about them -

that expressionless face, I think.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-But the idea that it inhibits you

so much that, you know, they are impractical for use,

we will be demonstrating that's not the case.

-Can I try one?

-Absolutely.

-So do I put one of these on first?

-Yep.

OK, let's try this.

OK. It should go straight on.

Oh, yeah, it's quite a snug fit, actually.

Yeah. Well, it needs to be.

What you can't have is it moving, cos that's when you'll be blind.

-Yeah.

-So it needs to be...

You need to get used to the discomfort

of having it firmly fixed over your face.

I'm not even moving in here, Nigel,

and it's getting a bit hot and sweaty already...

-Yeah.

-..just from my breathing.

I'm going to take that off.

Ugh.

It's amazing to see so much detail, isn't it?

A lot of this is kind of working out what works -

what kind of padding you need,

how it all fits together, how it all works together.

And you can only really do that by trying it out.

Yes. Absolutely.

I'm really looking forward to the turma this afternoon, but

I have already started to learn a lot more

about the Roman cavalry from talking to the archaeologists

and about how important this experimental archaeology is

when suddenly all of their research gets tested, gets put into practice.

How does it feel and how does it work to put on all of that armour,

all of that kit, get on a horse, and ride out into battle?

What made the elite Roman cavalry such feared warriors?

It wasn't just access to the best kit available,

but a gruelling training regime.

But the modern riders who are putting on the cavalry tournament

have to cram their Roman cavalry training

into just one session the day before the performance.

For the first time, all 30 horses and riders are in one place.

They need to gel as a unit and perfect a difficult manoeuvre

that's a key part of the show.

This is one of the most challenging things that I've done.

Technically it's hugely difficult,

bringing together this number of horses and riders

for the first time

to try and do justice to what was

an elite military force.

All riders, please.

ALAN WHISTLES

When we go out next, we're going to go out as we are.

We're going to go out with shields and with spears.

We're going to do some basic drill with the whole turma together.

We're going to make our way down,

we're going to come into the arena...

..in files -

a blue file and a red file.

I'm then going to take us through some basic drill

around the arena which,

as you know, is the basis of the show this afternoon.

My primary concern has always got to be the horses

and keeping them happy and healthy.

You've also got to be aware of how hard you can push men

to achieve the result.

Morale is crucial.

Based on ancient literature, it's thought that a turma,

the Latin for troop, was made up of 30 horsemen.

The key thing to perfect in the rehearsal

is a wield, where the whole turma will ride

around the arena in two ranks at a trot,

and then at a canter.

It's a complex and difficult manoeuvre to choreograph.

Wield!

You learn a lot about how they must have done it in Roman times, because

when you try this stuff yourself you understand a whole set of just

small, practical details, but they add up.

That's something we think about, training the men, the cavalrymen,

but in some ways they are much less important than training the cavalry

horses together.

So you learn all sorts of things,

as well as small details of tack and kit and so on.

And a lot of the skills really must have taken years of

practice to get perfected.

We're playing catch-up.

They had it, they were the masters, and we're playing catch-up.

Both looking forward to it and a bit nervous about it.

I think this is the most nervous I've been about a re-enactment.

I do so many of them each year, but this one

seems to be a higher-stakes

and we have more to prove, or more that can go wrong.

I really feel I'm beginning to build up a picture of who

these Roman cavalrymen were.

I've seen how they rode...

..how they trained...

..and how they dressed.

But I want to discover more about what their own experiences were like

here on the fringes of the Roman Empire.

And to do that, I'm visiting a place where you can almost disappear

back into the Roman past

it's so fresh and visceral.

It's called Vindolanda and it's one of the most important archaeological

sites in Britain.

It was a Roman military fort which was in use for centuries.

In fact, there were nine different forts here,

all built one on top of another.

When digging began here in the 1970s,

it was discovered that the deep levels

were amazingly well preserved

because they were waterlogged and contained very little oxygen.

This lack of oxygen meant that organic objects

which usually decay in the ground had been preserved.

Things like wood, bone and leather

survive in almost perfect condition at Vindolanda.

It seems I picked just about the worst day to visit

this digging season.

Torrential rain has meant that the excavations have been abandoned.

That doesn't matter, because I'm most interested

in seeing some of the small finds

that have emerged from this extraordinary site over the years.

And to see what these finds from Vindolanda can tell us

about the cavalry and their lives on the northern frontier,

I'm on my way to the museum stores

to meet curator Barbara Burley.

Barbara, it's always astonishing to see the preservation of things like

leather at Vindolanda.

What was this leather object?

Well, we know by kind of looking at all the different fragments

-that it's actually part of a horse's chamfron...

-Is it?

..which is a ceremonial head mask

that they wear. And if you start to look at

this piece here, it's the kind of telltale shape of the horse's ear.

And is this possibly the edge of an eyehole here?

Exactly, yeah.

So that would be where the horse's eye would come through

and you would have something like a decorated kind of eye guard.

And so it was highly decorative.

-Yeah.

-Beautiful, beautiful piece.

This find and several others have allowed the team here to reconstruct

a cavalry chamfron.

The incredible preservation at Vindolanda

also led to one of the most important archaeological discoveries

of the 20th century.

During one of the first digging seasons here, in 1973,

the site director, Robin Burley, was working in one of the deep levels

when he discovered small fragments of wood with writing on them.

What he'd found were Roman writing tablets, letters,

accounts and official documents from the fort.

Once out of the ground,

the writing began to disappear almost immediately,

so they were sent to specialists

who photographed them with infrared cameras...

..which revealed the vanished text.

These documents have given us a unique insight

into life on the northern frontier.

But what's often overlooked

is that many of them are written by, or about, the cavalrymen.

In one famous letter, which seems to be an intelligence report for

Vindolanda's cavalrymen, we learn about the enemy they had to face.

After years of research,

Barbara and her team are also starting to discover

personal stories about individual cavalrymen

from the Vindolanda letters.

You've got some reproductions here of a couple of the wonderful

Vindolanda letters. What are these referring to?

Well, the letters and the writing tablets

give us such a good idea of the actual people here.

Both of these are accounts, and they talk about a single

individual - his name was Tagomas -

and he's from the Vardullian cavalry,

and his name is just across here.

-It's difficult to make out, isn't it?

-It is very difficult.

But the interesting thing about this particular letter is it says,

"Tagomas' companion".

Now, if that was a man, you would just put his name.

So the idea is that it was his common-law wife,

because, at this period on the site, they weren't allowed to marry.

This one here again talks about Tagomas,

and he's right here. And he is a

vexillarius, which means that he is

-the standard-bearer for the Vardulli cavalry.

-Yeah.

And here he's purchasing lances -

common cavalry equipment - so it's not hugely surprising.

But his story goes further because

not only do we have him in the tablets

but we also have him on this amphora handle.

So you can just see T-A-G-O-M-A-S.

Tagomas. Whatever was in here -

and we think it was olives stewed in wine -

he didn't trust his fellow officers

because he had to write his name on his precious

-imported food.

-Yeah.

So you start to build up these pictures - that he was married,

that he...

..you know, he has his friends, and what he's ordering,

and what he's doing.

Also that he likes his food.

He's got enough money to import food

that wouldn't normally grow in Northumberland.

So you're starting to really build up this lovely picture of who these

people are.

I've been trying to get a better picture of the Roman cavalry,

and it's here at Vindolanda that I feel that it's finally

coming into focus,

that we have this wonderful evidence -

written evidence - of precisely

which troops were garrisoned here.

But actually we are homing right in and we have the name of this one man

who we know was the standard-bearer for his troop.

For much of the Roman occupation,

the cavalry at places like Vindolanda were here

to suppress our ancient ancestors.

But over the centuries of Roman rule,

that relationship evolved and they began to put down roots.

30 miles south of Hadrian's Wall, at Binchester, County Durham,

archaeologists are working at the site of another cavalry fort.

And they're finding evidence that it wasn't just cavalrymen living here,

but their families, too.

The team is from Durham University and they are excavating the fort's

cemetery, but they're facing an uphill struggle.

The soil conditions mean that little survives in this ground.

Leading the dig is Dr David Petts.

One of the troubles we have been fighting is the soil is really acid.

So normally, when you're looking for a cemetery,

you would find bones that would tell you it's a grave.

Instead, we just have things like this,

six-foot-long pits

which most of the time contain virtually nothing in them.

But by chance, in one corner of the trench,

the team has found a skeleton

that has survived the acid soil conditions.

It might be able to give the team some insights

into the people who lived here.

We can see some of the bone survives - bits of the skull,

bits of the lower jaw you can see.

What we will be able to do is get a lot of information from the teeth.

And we can look at the chemistry of those teeth,

and they tell us quite a lot of information.

They'll tell us about things like their diet - so proportions

of meat and vegetables which these people were eating.

That's quite interesting cos you might expect the soldiers to have

better diets than the civilians.

It has also potential to tell us even broadly where these people came

from. So is it someone who was born and brought up here,

or is it someone who came from another part of Roman Britain,

or elsewhere in the Roman Empire?

So by looking at the teeth, doing stuff back in the lab,

we can draw a remarkable amount of information,

even from quite a poorly preserved skeleton like this.

These results will be another useful piece of the jigsaw puzzle to help

archaeologists understand who was living at this fort

in late Roman Britain.

In another area of the site,

one of the archaeologists has made a discovery

which adds weight to the idea that the fort contained not only the

soldiers, but their families.

It's a child's grave.

So we've now got two beads have come out of this little feature.

But I think, because we're getting this little group of beads,

it suggests it's a child's grave.

Even though no bones have survived here,

this pit is most likely to have been a grave, and these beads would have

accompanied the child's body.

What's clear here is we've got all parts of society.

So it's not just for soldiers, but it's their children,

because we've got children's graves.

It's for, presumably, their wives,

because we've got adult graves with female jewellery.

A fort like this,

it's not just isolated soldiers in the middle of nowhere -

they're the people who make the Empire bigger and protect it

but they are marrying with the people who, generations ago,

they actually conquered.

And it's really lovely to think about how these populations worked.

In Carlisle, the final preparations are being made for the big show.

But having 30 riders all together is

a unique opportunity for the archaeologists,

and so they've decided to ask Alan and his riders to test out some of

their theories about the cavalry

that go beyond the tournament itself.

They want to try to answer a key question

about how the cavalry fought,

and discover if a certain battle formation they've read about

in ancient literature can actually be performed in real life.

I'm joining archaeologist and event organiser Bill Griffiths to see if

Alan and his team can provide some answers.

So what are the main research questions for you, then?

What would you really like to find out today?

No-one has done this before, put 30 riders in full kit in a field.

-Really?

-No, no-one's done it.

-Well, the Romans did.

-Yeah.

-HE LAUGHS

-But not since.

And with the proper authentic kit, with the stirrup-less saddles,

all these kinds of things.

And we just want to see if we can learn some new data about how these

cavalrymen rode, what it was like to ride in the unit,

what it's like to ride in formation.

Bill and the other archaeologists

want to see how the Roman cavalry

might have attacked their British enemies.

There are some literary texts that describe Roman cavalry drill,

but all we've got is the words.

So, at the moment, we've been interpreting the words.

Now, are we interpreting them right?

Actually, once you have the horses with you,

you can start to play about and say, "Well, actually, you can do this,

"you can't do that."

Alan and his riders are going to attempt to create a battle formation

called the wedge.

The archaeologists think this might have been used to attack enemy

formations, sowing panic in their ranks.

-So we're now assembling the cuneo - the wedge.

-Great.

Yeah. And we'll see how that goes.

-Fantastic.

-So is this the battle formation?

It's the battle formation.

I mean, sometimes the cavalry described the cuneus,

which is the wedge.

So it's really just form a triangle

to break into the ranks of your enemy.

The riders carefully form up

in ranks to create a wedge shape.

SHE GASPS

-So this is the wedge formation - this is the cuneo cantering...

-Yeah.

-..and they're holding it together. That's amazing, Bill.

-Yeah.

Just first time out, and they've done it.

-Nailed it.

-That's fantastic.

-So it proves it's possible.

-Yeah.

Ave!

MAN ROARS

It's quite terrifying, actually,

standing here as they're coming towards us.

And we are at the side of it. Imagine that coming straight at you.

-Yeah, wow.

-You know, that would be a terrifying sight

and your first instinct is going to be to run away.

Alan and his team have managed to recreate

something that hasn't been seen for over 1,600 years.

And the academics have been able to prove that it was easily possible

for the Roman cavalry to attack their enemies

using the cuneus, or wedge, formation.

But the cavalry weren't just the most feared soldiers

in the Roman army.

From ancient literature, we also know they were the best paid,

outstripping even the citizen soldiers of the legions.

To see for myself what their huge pay packets were spent on,

I'm back at Chesters Roman fort on Hadrian's Wall.

I'm meeting Frances McIntosh of English Heritage,

who's been re-examining the archaeological collection

at Chesters which was dug up in the Victorian era.

The objects in the museum here really highlight just how wealthy

and powerful the Roman cavalry were in Britain.

So these objects were excavated more than a century ago.

That's right. So, John Clayton inherited the big mansion house

at Chesters in the 1830s.

He had Chesters Roman fort in his front garden.

So he excavated there nearly every year until he died in 1890.

So we've got all of those fantastic objects from those excavations but

you've been taking another look at them, haven't you?

Scholarships change a huge amount in that amount of time.

We've learnt a lot, there's been a lot more finds which give us

different information.

One of the things related to the cavalry that we're able to discover

is that these beads, here, that have always been presumed to be

jewellery, we now know from finds they've been strung on harness.

So you have made new discoveries by revisiting these old finds?

Yes, exactly. So even though I wasn't excavating,

I was excavating the boxes and finding out new things.

It's been really exciting.

And these things look as though they would hang down off horses.

That's right. These are some of the pendants we have.

This one is a really nice example because it has the hook pretty much

complete, and if you see the design, there, there's two dolphins.

Oh, yeah. So that would've been very bright and golden,

hanging down off the harness and jingling.

Yeah, and glittering, catching the sun.

It makes the horseman look very impressive and sound very impressive

-when they're advancing.

-Now this is a beautiful thing, what's that?

This is a decorative element, it's a stud.

You need to see it close up to get the idea of the amount of amazing decoration.

It's absolutely gorgeous.

It would've been mounted on harness.

Imagine the metal is bright and shiny and it's got this millefiore enamel.

-So this is glass?

-That's right. So rods that are twisted together

to make the pattern, then stretched and stretched until it's tiny.

-Then you salami-slice it and set it in.

-Isn't that wonderful?

It's absolutely gorgeous.

The other Romans and other people in Britain would appreciate how

expensive that was and the work that had gone into that.

It's all about the image and projecting the fact that you're a cavalryman,

you're paid more, you can afford to decorate your horse.

-They'd have looked amazing, wouldn't they?

-Yeah.

It is the afternoon of the big show in Carlisle.

All the training and practice the modern riders have put in is going

to be put to the test in front of a paying audience.

And for the archaeologists, it's a unique opportunity to see their

theories and assumptions put to the test.

Events like this are always useful because however much theorising you

do about things, once you actually see what can be done with a horse

and a rider, you have a much better idea of what the ancient texts are saying.

I think that's so much more valuable.

Backstage, the riders are readying the horses and checking

and rechecking their kit.

As the audience begins to stream into the arena,

I'm going behind the scenes to see the final preparations for myself.

How's it going, Nigel?

-Are you nearly ready?

-Yeah.

It's been a really hard road.

I think it surprised us all, you know,

just how tough it was going to be.

Yeah. It hasn't stopped yet, though.

-No.

-So we're minutes away, aren't we?

-Yes, I believe so.

I've lost all track of time, to be honest.

I'm just waiting for the order.

There's an incredible sense of excitement just bubbling

under the surface here.

And the riders are just about to set off into the arena.

I'm going to go in and take my seat.

I cannot wait.

I'm going to be watching the action unfold in the company

of Bill Griffiths, who, along with the other experts here,

has spent years waiting for this moment.

In Roman times, these events were competitions where riders battled it

out for glory and reward in front of the Emperor and the crowd.

And to recreate some of that atmosphere today,

the crowd has been split into two teams, red and blue.

You're on the red side, I'm on the blue side.

And you're wearing a blue top as well, so...

I've got red, yes.

-Red team.

-CROWD:

-Hooray!

That's my team.

-Give your support for the blue team!

-No.

No, definitely not.

That's one for me, I think. We're winning on the cheers.

THEY CHEER

The first part of the show sees the legionaries

of the Ermine Street Guards strutting their stuff.

Then it's time for Alan, Nigel and all 30 riders to take centre stage.

As we turn the pages of time back...

So they're walking the troop round the arena at the moment.

What are they going to be doing?

You're going to see them start to form the Cantabrian circles and then

bring out the best of the troops to demonstrate their prowess and skill at arms

in front of the Emperor, competing for his favour.

Nigel and the other elite riders take their positions for the first

part of the competition.

Three are carrying red shields and three are carrying blue shields.

They'll try to score points for their team by hitting their

opponents' shields with blunted javelins.

We should have... We should put a bet on this.

Are you willing to bet two denarii?

The first test is the Cantabrian wheel.

CHEERING

All the training and hard work has paid off and, even wearing those

restrictive facemasks, the team manages to hit their targets at speed.

Blue team, three points.

Three to me.

Next is the charge, which is like a medieval joust

but with thrown javelins.

Here are the red team. Red point!

CHEERING

Red team, three points.

Oh, it's close.

And, finally, the pursuit.

One rider attacks and then is chased down by the victim.

DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS

-The winner is simply the blue team.

-Victory.

-Well done. It was a fair contest.

-Commiserations.

And as a final sendoff to the crowd,

the full troop of 30 Roman cavalry riders gallops past in unison.

It's an awe-inspiring sight and a reminder that these tournaments were

used to demonstrate Roman power to our ancient ancestors.

So, Bill, what have you learned from this weekend?

Huge amounts. One, actually, just how relatively easy some of the

drill is that we thought wasn't.

How quickly riders can pick up that drill.

How important this training, this spectacle is for the training of the army.

There was a lot of debate. Is it just a show for the Emperor?

You can see by going through it it's really about developing the

horsemanship of the soldiers for battle, for contact with the enemy.

And also, it does give you that real sense, doesn't it,

that Imperial power and might and majesty projecting the power of

Imperial Rome?

So there's a lot of people sticking around after the show itself and

learning more about the Roman era.

And what a fantastic way to engage a wide audience with this period in

our history, and the archaeologists themselves have learned a lot from

this experience.

For me, I found it impressive but I also found it quite intimidating.

There was that power of the Roman army brought to life, but

it's a symbol of oppression, as well.

It's a really interesting double-edged sword, I think.

For the re-enactors, archaeologists and audience alike,

this has been a unique opportunity to relive something that no-one has

seen for over 1,600 years.

This restaging of a Roman tournament has been a magnificent

spectacle, but actually it's about more than that.

It's about research, as well, because it's allowed the

archaeologists to test out some of their ideas.

And informing everything that's been achieved by this project has been

the tireless work of historians and archaeologists at digs,

museums and in the archives.

Each new clue they've unearthed has helped bring the Roman cavalry back

to life and return them to their rightful place at the centre

of the story of Roman Britain.

But it's a process that's not over yet.

Across Hadrian's Wall and beyond, new discoveries will continue to

build our knowledge of these forgotten horsemen.