Romans and Barbarians

Romans and Barbarians is a historical reconstruction: an encampment, equipment, drill and demonstrations built around the meeting of the Roman world with the peoples living beyond its frontier.

Lands north of the Danube — including those that later became Silesia — sat outside the empire but traded with it constantly, and Roman coins and goods turn up in excavations here. A reconstruction of this kind is a way of showing that contact in a form that can be watched rather than read.

Groups working on this period reconstruct equipment from archaeological finds, so what the audience sees is an argument about evidence as much as a spectacle. The demonstrations run through the day and can be joined at any point.

The event is open-air and free. The day, the hours and the site are listed in the programme section.