Visitors to Cirencester's Roman amphitheatre had quite a surprise on Sunday when they were greeted by dozens of Roman soldiers.

For the first time in 10 years members of the Ermine Street Guard returned to the historic site to give a jaw-dropping reenactment of how life in Cirencester might have been over 2000 years ago.

In the second century Cirencester was known as Corinium Dobunnorum and was the second largest town in the county, a stunning Roman amphitheatre still remains.

Over the course of the day spectators watched superbly armoured legionaries, auxiliaries and their officers performing battle tactics, training and shooting three Roman artillery weapons.

The display was courtesy of The Ermine Street Guard which has been providing living history displays and reenactments for 46 years.

As a charitable society the organisation is committed is to studying the Roman Army in order to reconstruct accurate copies on Roman armour and equipment .

Over the years the group has become renowned for the accuracy of its reconstructions and members travel all over the world to entertain and educate people.

Chris Haines MBE, chairman of The Ermine Street Guard, said: "We were actually considering cancelling the event due to the forecast."

"But we're so glad we didn't - it went really well, in spite of the weather!

"By the time it got to lunchtime there was not a cloud in the sky and considerable crowds had joined us to watch the display.

"It had been over 10 years since we had done a display of this size in the town, and we thoroughly enjoyed it - you don't get much more Roman than Cirencester now do you!"

The day was jointly organised by The Ermine Street Guard, English Heritage, the Corinium Museum ,Cirencester Town Council and the Friends of Cirencester Amphitheatre.

View the full photo gallery of stunning pictures taken by Simon Pizzey at the top of the page.