Chester Pageant 1937

In 1936 a constitutional crisis in the British Empire arose when King-Emperor Edward VIII proposed to marry Wallis Simpson, an American socialite who was divorced from her first husband and was pursuing the divorce of her second.

1937:
For those living in the Basque town of Guernica WW2 began on 26 April 1937, when Nazi Germany bombed the town on behalf of Franco and the Nationalist Government during the Spanish Civil War. The raid, led by the Nazi Luftwaffe, targeted civilians and killed many. The estimated figures are disputed, but it’s believed that between 200 and 250 people were killed and many hundreds wounded. In Britain The coronation of King George VI took place on 12 May, after he had ascended to the throne at the end of the previous year.

Episode I. Scene Outside the Roman Amphitheatre at Deva, AD 109
The scene is set outside the Roman amphitheatre in Chester (Deva) where the Roman Governor, Titus Pomponius Mammilianus, has organised games to entertain the local public. A centurion called Aufidius Lentulus appears, leading some British captives including a young chieftain named Galgacus. Mammilianus offers to spare him ('for noble thou art') if he will return to the side of the Romans, against whom his tribe has rebelled, but the chieftain refuses. Reluctantly, the governor orders that Galgacus die at the hands of the gladiators; on hearing this order, the daughter of the governor, Cornelia, declares her love for the chieftain and begs that he is spared. Valeria, the Governor's wife is outraged by this declaration and openly calls for the death of Galgacus. A wounded messenger comes on the scene. The messenger delivers the news that the ninth legion 'has been slain to a man in wild Caledonia' and that the 'Brigantes of the north' have joined the victors and all are making their way south. General panic results which Mammilianus calms, after which he rallies the troops and pleads with Galgacus to return to the Roman side and help defend all of them from a common foe. Galgacus agrees as the troops march off and all exit the arena.

Chester's Amphitheatre was only discovered in

T. (or P.) Pomponius Mammilianus was governor c103-9

Aufidius

According to Tacitus, Calgacus (sometimes Calgacos or Galgacus) was a chieftain of the Caledonian Confederacy who fought against the Roman army of Gnaeus Julius Agricola at the Battle of Mons Graupius in northern Scotland in AD 83 or 84. His name can be interpreted as Celtic *calg-ac-os, "possessing a blade"

A rising of the Brigantes has often been posited as the explanation for the disappearance of the Ninth Legion, stationed at York. It is possible that one of the purposes of Hadrian's Wall (begun in 122) was to keep the Brigantes from making discourse with the tribes in what is now the lowlands of Scotland on the other side.

Related Pages
Chester Pageant: the original pageant in 1910;

Online

 * The 1937 Pageant;