People say a fort is a fort, no matter where you go, and size, position and people make no difference to that. However, I disagree. Up here on the north of Hadrian’s Wall, it becomes incredibly cold incredibly quickly, and the weather and climate change as often as the guard duty.

Speaking of guard duty, being high up on the top of the walls gets extremely cold and often becomes very windy. Not only this, but guard duty rapidly becomes extremely tedious, and I get very bored very easily. Unfortunately, there’s no way to escape this, I do it for my emperor, and I am more than happy to give 25 years of my life in service for the country.

Once my 25 years are up, I will finally get to retire, something I look forward to greatly, and I will finally be able to legally raise a family – while it is illegal to have a wife, many soldiers do so nonetheless, although I have stayed loyal to my country and focused on the conquest of the Romans- and take up a more relaxed job, possibly as a farmer. The pay as a farmer will be far superior to how it is for me at the moment, solely because I have to pay for all my armour and meals, without any choice of our own. It seems extremely unfair that we have to suffer when it’s us who is serving our country, but I have no choice in the matter.

We also occasionally have to assist in the building of new walls, buildings and forts, which for someone such as myself is extremely tiring and hard labour. When we did make the wall, we painted it white, which made it stand out more. The magnitude of it was extremely impressive, and showed me just what the Roman army can do in that short a space of time.

The Britons here are so pathetic and far behind us technologically, they seem so pathetic to me. They live in wooden huts, the silly little Britons; you would have thought they would have learned how to build something slightly more advanced than that by now! Thankfully, their housing is not the only thing which is basic; they also wielded extremely unadvanced weapons, which meant it was far easier for people like me to fight them without too much trouble. In fact, many of the leaders, or chieftains, gave up without any fight whatsoever.

I felt lucky to be involved of some of this, since many of my comrades were killed in battle, especially from death by that awful Boudicea, all those deaths from the towns which were burnt down, so horrible… However, we got revenge eventually, and I hope everyone else who thought of rebelling has learnt their lesson. They deserved everything they ever ended up with, stupid little Britons. However, I have to hand it to them, they are quite scary, especially the Celts, the fear they instilled on me, charging full pelt at the wall, covered in paint and naked as the day they were born, it was a feeling I wish I never had to experience.

When I get bored and have nothing to do, there are plenty of activities around the fort to entertain myself, such as gambling. I enjoy this because I can win plenty of money, which is always useful, and obviously I enjoy the winning, especially when I trick the foolish Britons with loaded dice, which has greatly increased the money I make recently… I can also write home or to other friends or family if I wish, although while it does let me keep in touch, it’s hard to get them sent cheaply unless you’re in a position of authority in our army. We can also spend time with our different religious sects, I spend my time worshipping various gods, depending on what is happening in my life. For example, if we were preparing for battle, I might worship the god of war, Mars. I make sure to try to keep any God I worship happy, so that I do not anger them and suffer the consequences.

The equipment of a soldier is complicated and varied, but it must always be kept in best condition, should a battle arise. The new armour we wear is called ‘segmentaria’, which is far lighter than our old armour, and also more flexible, to allow greater movement in battle. Our armour must be kept in excellent condition, we have to keep it oiled all the time and to make sure it doesn’t rust. Our sword is very well balanced, which makes me feel secure as it is very easy to use in battle. Our spears are also very advanced; the handles snap off when they hit the enemy, or they sometimes bend slightly, which means they cannot be reused. All of our modern technology truly shows me what an incredibly advanced nation we are, especially in comparison with the Brittunculi.

The rooms we stay in are extremely crowded, and hold 8 people, although I believe even four people would be uncomfortable in rooms these small. Obviously our comfort in sleeping isn’t too much of a factor for our ruler… The food we have to eat isn’t particularly good, it’s extremely mass produced, and I far prefer my family’s personal cooking. However, if we do want specialty food, we can go to the market outside the fort, where we can buy many items from the Britons if we need anything we couldn’t get inside the fort. I spend much of my time there trying to see if there’s anything useful I could afford. I can buy things like specialty food, weapons, and local specialties such as beer, a drink I particularly enjoy. You can also find prostitutes around the fort, something for if you get lonely, since our camp is all male.

There are also baths outside the camp, somewhere nice to go and relax, and also to take care of my personal hygiene, and to socialise with friends. Our toilets are also kept sanitary and clean by the running water, and kept downwind of the fort so we cannot smell them.

It is always interesting to see how different the Britons are from us, they are far less civilised, their machinery is basic and they have no slaves or different levels of class, they all seem to be peasants. However, as long as we keep them under our rule, it doesn’t matter to me.