Heimatmuseum Beuel

In the museum the main attraction of Roman times is certainly the life-size figure of a legionary. His clothes and equipment have been faithfully copied. The equipment and the clothes of a soldier ready to do battle (miles expeditus) consisted of:

1. The woolen tunic (tunica).
   The tunic was a short loose coat with a neck.
2. Military sandals (caligae)
   They were made out of three layers of leather with 90 iron hobnails.
3. The chain armour (lorica hamata)
   It consisted of iron rings with leather lining.
4. The helmet (cassis)
   The helmet had a lining, flexible cheek protectors and a crest out of horsehair
5. The belt, sword and dagger (cingulum, gladius, pugio)
   The sword, about 55 cm long and rather wide, was just right for blows; it was carried on the right hand side. The dagger was carried on the left in a scabbard hanging from the belt.
6. The shield (scutum)
   It consisted of 3 planks glued together, covered inside and outside with cowhide and linen. The decoration on the shield varied from legion to legion.
7. The spear (pilum) was a heavy spear with a long thin iron top forged like a pyramid.

The complete equipment weighed 29 kg, the shield only weighed 10 kg, the chain armour 9 kg. By the way, these are the clothes and arms of one of the 8 men marching 540 km from Verona to Augsburg over the Brenner Pass in 1985 in remembrance of the Roman expedition over the Alps led by General Drusus and the future Emperor Tiberius. In those times the Roman fortress in Bonn was built.The reconstruction of the equipment was difficult and expensive. It was bought by two benefactors from Beuel and donated to the museum. In addition to the legionary you can find a scale armour and a plate armour and a reconstruceted ballista (an old weapon for siege warfare).

Besides there are more showcases with Roman things, such as tiles with the stamp of the legion I Minerva on it (terra sigillata) or a bowl put together from pieces, 2 golden coins (copies from a gold treasure found in Schwarzrheindorf in the last century), 2 denars and one Nemausus-coin found in Beuel from the time of Octavian, the future Emperor Augustus.