It was about 8pm one Friday Evening and I was alone and about to lock the CLINIC when a Man walked in dressed as a Roman Soldier ! He was limping and there was blood on his arms & legs and he looked distressed ! He spoke in LATIN ! Fortunately I studied Latin in School and I am fairly fluent in Italian so i understood what he was saying and answered Him in my GCSE Latin which he seemed to understand ! I told him to get undressed (behind a screen) an gave him a pair of boxer shorts to wear ! He appeared not to understand English so we continued to converse - Him in Latin & me in a mixture of Latin & Itallian. His wounds were superficial but consistent with *Horse Trampling* which I had seen at Gymkhanas.
I washed him all over with a mild antiseptic - dried him and proceeded to give Him a full body massage with a mixture of almond oil & pine oil - which He appreciated ! We have had Clowns - Drag Artists - Disney Characters etc in the Hospital so I presumed he was part of a Roman Re-enactment Group which we do get in Essex from time to time and they do converse in Latin for effect. My essential oil massages always restore mobility so he was smiling & moving His Arms & Legs much more freely than when he arrived ! He dressed himself and picked up his Sword & Shield and was about to leave. I asked him to fill in the treatment form. He seemed unable to write so I filled in the Form for Him. OCTAVIUS MAXIMUS aged 27 and no address and no NHS number. He thanked me and left. The door was glass and I watched Him go and He seemed to just disappear ! I realised he had left his Leather Pouch I ran outside but there was no sign of HIM. I looked in his Pouch - and there was no Mobile Phone or Wallet etc but a leather bag with draw strings containing Roman Coins. On the Saturday Morning I travelled to the Roman Town of Colchester (Cadelonium) visited th Museum in Colchester Castle and showed the Pouch & The Coins to the Curator. He gasped when He saw them and said these are AUTHENTIC and worth many hundreds of pounds. He went white when I explained how I had obtained them and described what the man was wearing. That wasn*t an Actor you met he gasped - THAT WAS A REAL ROMAN FOOT SOLDIER FORM THE FIRST CENTURY !