Roman Chester

It is difficult to imagine, wandering around Chester in the 21st Century, that some 1,800 years ago and more, you would have been in the midst of one of the Roman Empire's great legionary fortresses.

Where now you might queue to use a cash-machine, buy coffee and doughnuts, or stand to allow a vehicle to pass, you would have stepped back from the cobbled road and watched as a troop of cavalry thundered through the East Gate, or a cohort marched by on manouvres, armour, weapons and shields clanging and clattering as they tramped out. In a shop where now you browse and buy womens high-fashion, all those centuries ago you would have been in the legionary commander's palace, a man who would have been well-known to many in Rome itself, even to the emperor.

Before the times of Alfred the Great, the Vikings and the Norman Conquest and all the years since, there was a great fortress on the banks of the Dee, the most westerly outpost of one of Rome's elite imperial legions, supported by an empire that encompassed much of mainland Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

Episode 4 visits Roman Chester, but in this week's cgi webpages we give you a mere introduction to the work that Take 27 has been doing for several years, a visual study of
the Roman fortress which will unfold on our forthcoming Roman Chester website this summer.

If you have access to The History Channel, then in late June 2007 you will be able to see 'Britain's Lost Mega-Fortress', a special on Roman Chester by the same team that brings you 'Lost Treasures'!