When I was young, I always dreamed of being one of the soldiers in Rome’s legion. I was obsessed with the idea of Rome in general, and I would play games where I would control the Roman legions and fight other empires. Reliving past Roman battles and encounters seemed to be one of my favorite hobbies for a while. My friends and I would pretend we were soldiers, and fight each other with plastic swords.
The book really reminded me of how tough it is to be successful in anything. In order to be a good legionnaire, and to insure your survival, you must train vigorously every day. You have to go through grueling training regiment, and force yourself to continue. I remember in grade 8 when I was training for central regions for swimming. My coach would give us almost impossible to make pace times for our sets, and pushed us to the limit. We would hate him for the next 3 weeks, but in time, we would learn to thank him for pushing us hard. Because of the grueling training we went through, we swam fast and got high placements in the race.
Reading Legionary made me understand all the more about the life of a Roman legionnaire, such as what kind of equipment he has, what type of training he goes through, and what enemies he has. The book made it seem like it was preparing me to become part of the legion, which I appreciate very much as that was one of my dreams when I was growing up. I really enjoyed the way the author made a lot of jokes about the life of a legionnaire, as it also added to the effect of him being just like any normal recruiter; cracking jokes and making the life seem fun.
The book was never a moment too dull. It explained things quick and clear, and got right to the point. Like I said above, it added a certain humorous twist to most things, such as when he talked about how much legionnaires hated the pilum, which made it all the more entertaining to read. It wasn’t overboard on the humor either, as that would have ruined the book. It had a nice balance between humor and seriousness, which I really liked. The book even included color pictures to illustrate various things such as armor, legion formations, and other things. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and I couldn’t really find a problem.
The most important thing I learned from this book is that we should appreciate the hard work we came by in order to achieve great things. We shouldn’t squander it. For example, since our teachers put in all the hard work for us to learn, we should work hard too, and not squander our chance. When my coach spends hours a day making up a set for me to swim, I should try hard, and not waste his time. We must appreciate each chance we have to change something.
