Join the Legions, they said, see the world, they said…
The most timeless weapon in all of warfare is the shovel.
Also the most effective. We’ll be digging ditches on Mars someday, probably.
The Roman Legions had a lot of advantages, but one of the biggest was that they were treated as an empire-sized construction crew! Good way to keep those rowdy soldiers too busy to get into trouble, too…
I somehow doubt the romans usually dug ditches in full armor
Usually, almost certainly not. However,
Roman legionaries stationed in the modern Middle East had a reputation for going without their armor due to the heat, but the Romans took the issue seriously enough that men could, theoretically, be executed for not being fully equipped while on duty. In addition, there are accounts of Roman commanders in hostile territory giving general orders to stay in armor essentially at all times - though none to my knowledge explicitly address labor details in armor. There are depictions (though such stylized propaganda must be taken as not necessarily literal) on the Column of Trajan of armored soldiers in extremely hostile Dacia doing labor details in full kit. (see here, about the middle of the photo)
Be a farmboy
Work hard every day
Someone promises you better pay and benefits
You’re still basically a farmboy, with the occasional deadly fight every now and then
But you get to do it in exotic locations now.
Fun part is how organized the Roman Legions were about foraging, and how equipped they were for it - sickles were amongst the tools a legionary unit-of-eight had to carry. You could be a farmboy and end up literally cutting wheat in a field to keep the army supplied after you joined the Legions. I imagine some pretty thick cursing was involved in those occasions!
