Visitors flock to Roman war machines at SC State Museum

When John Thomas “J.T.” Parrish had a chance to visit Disney World, he turned it down. The 16 year old from Lexington had other plans – plans that landed him at the S.C. State Museum the day after Christmas.

Though Parrish visited the museum for a school assignment on the Civil War, it was an exhibition on Julius Caesar and the military might of Rome that caught his eye. Parrish has a keen interest in history and visited Rome with family in 2014. After canceling the trip to Disney World, he and his mother made their way past busts, suits of armor and rows of re-created siege weapons Saturday morning.

“It’s more of the ruins and things in Rome – buildings and talking about how cultural life is,” he said. “This is definitely a military exhibition, which is something I hadn’t ever seen before.”

The Parrishes weren’t the only family spending the holiday weekend with Caesar and his war machines.

Northan Golden, 51, and his wife bought a season pass to the museum for their sons nine months ago, but this was the first they had time to use it. Golden brought the boys – Robert, 11, and Matthew, 8 – while their mother stayed home in Orangeburg.

“They have been out of school for a little over a week now, and they’ve been cooped up in the house playing video games,” Golden said. “I decided I’m going to get them out of the house. My wife did not come. We were going to come as a family, but she worked really hard for Christmas, so we said, ‘We’re going to give mommy a break.’ ”

Golden said he didn’t tell the boys where they were going at first, just that they were going to Columbia.

“I thought they would kind of be rebellious because they wanted to stay home and play video games,” he said. “But, actually, when I told them we were going to the museum, they were pretty excited about it.”

The exhibition features real artifacts and reconstructions of Roman technology. It includes more than 32 devices, including war machines, pottery wheels, sundials and more.

For some visitors, the museum was more than something fun to do after Christmas – it was the main draw to Columbia.

Walt Kubilius, 59, and his wife Kathleen Wallis, 66, came from Aiken after hearing about the Caesar exhibition a couple weeks ago. They stayed with friends near Lexington over the holiday.

“I’m just amazed at the Romans, how organized and ambitious they were,” Kubilius said. “They were cruel people, but they really knew what they were doing.”

This story was originally published December 26, 2015 at 3:38 PM with the headline "Visitors flock to Roman war machines at SC State Museum."