Hi
Well, is there something you want to focus on for the paper? That would probably be your first task to nail down. You could do a very brief history, you could do a summary of the structure and ranks of the Legions; you could do a survey of all of the Legions that existed in a particular period of time, where they were HQ'd, were they moved to and why. You could do a comparison of the dispersal of Legions under say, Augustus, compared to how they were dispersed during Trajan...
There are dozens of topics.
You also mentioned a presentation (dramatic tone) - But, you could have some fun with it - Look at
www.larp.com/legioxx and think about doing something like making a really basic soldier's kit (or civilian?) - Make a simple tunic, a waist sash, and a simple belt. If you're really strapped for cash for metal parts, how about making the 'metal' out of thick silver foil or something like that. Or that thick silver shiny paper that has one side that is sticky - you could 'punch' designs into that, cut them out, and 'rivet' them to your belt.
also check out on Leg XX's site:
http://www.larp.com/legioxx/stage.html
Showing up to your presentation "in kit" would certainly knock some socks off!
You could also have making gear as part of your paper - what you discovered / learned about making gear, was it easy, was it a pain, was it really interesting? et cetera.
Good luck!!
And remember, try to find local Roman groups and see if you can have them come to your school....Yes, I admit, that's a little bit of shameless promotion on my part...
