HIS IMPERIAL Majesty the Emperor Hadrian has arrived in York ahead of schedule.

The Roman Emperor was accompanied by units from the Ninth Legion, which founded the city, and other Legions.

Following police advice, he ordered his soldiers to march into York an hour earlier than planned and changed their route to avoid local opposition to a high profile VIP visit.

The music for the parades was provided by a Roman cornum or horn, but there is no record of what Roman military horn calls sounded like.

As the legionaries marched through a shower during today’s parade, the cornum played “Singing in the Rain” and “Bring me Sunshine”.

The second parade tomorrow is expected to go ahead as planned from 12.30pm on the original full route.

The protest march by a hundred or so local people that changed the Roman plans was against the US President Donald Trump’s visit

Crowds of families, local residents and tourists, made the Emperor very welcome at the Roman Encampment in Museum Gardens, as they did his legionaries and other Roman visitors.

The Emperor and the other re-enactors were taking part in the three-day Eboracum Roman Festival organised by York Museums Trust, which started on Friday.

In the encampment behind St Mary’s Abbey they talked to their visitors about Roman life and the Roman military.

They also explained the history of the Ninth Legion, which founded York, then called Eboracum, and which inspired the Rosemary Sutcliffe book “The Eagle of the Ninth” and gave military displays.

The protest march was organised by Stand Up to Racism and started in St Helen’s Square at 12.30pm, the time the Roman march should have begun.

It included “Socialist Workers” banners and the marchers chanted anti-racist slogans.