EVENT
Remember how much fun the
Bethlehem
Market Place is every other Christmas? Well, here's an even
bigger
show: "A Walk Through Bethlehem", held at the headquarters of the
Seventh
Day Adventist Church in Silver Spring. This is just north of
White
Oak, at the intersection of Colesville Rd./Columbia Pike (Rt. 29) and
Randolph
Rd./Cherry Hill Rd. The show runs for 6 nights, Dec. 1-2, 4-5,
and
7-8, from 6 PM to about 9:15 each night. Public admission is $1
plus
a non-perishable food item. Dick Stenbakken, the contact for
this,
says that 2000 people come through each night! Presumably we'll
be
doing much the same sort of things that we have done at St. Luke's, and
an added bonus is that the floor is carpeted--no slipping on
hobnails!
No pila or packs will be needed, unless you want to sling your
satchel.
If you can only come out one or two nights or all six, just let me
know,
but call me soon, please!
SATURNALIA
The Twentieth Legion Saturnalia party will be held
at the home of Roger and JJ Moskey on December 11, from 4 PM until
everyone
goes home. All Members and Associates are invited, but no
children
or pets may attend. Bring something edible to share, and feel
free
but not compelled to wear Classical attire. Roger has a selection
of libational liquids, and you may bring your own favorite amphora if
you
like. Please contact the hosts at 703---
to let them know what you are bringing, or if you need
suggestions.
The party place is at 304 Terrie Drive, Sterling, VA, 20165.
Directions:
From the I-495 Beltway, take exit
12B VA-267 Toll West to Dulles Airport. After paying toll
($0.50),
take the first exit, Exit 16 Leesburg Pike Route 7 West for
approximately
11 miles. Take a right at Palisades Parkway, then take an
immediate
left onto Triple 7 (777), past Calvary Temple on right. Take the
next right onto Regina Drive, follow it to the end and take a right
onto
Markwood Drive. At stop sign take a left onto Terrie Drive
(culdesac).
The Moskey house is in the middle, #304.
ALBION UPDATE
Most of you have already heard
that Albion Armorers has started to receive their Roman helmets from
their
suppliers. So far just brass ones have come in: Coolus C and E,
Italic
C, and 2 varieties of Gallic I (Mainz and Aquincum). Basically,
they
are great! The first pictures we had seen back in July showed a
number
of mistakes, but happily most of those have already been
eliminated.
There are other little details which are not exactly accurate, but
Albion
will be working with the manufacturers (and with myself and Dan
Peterson)
to "fine tune" them. Also, they just got their Greek Corinthian
and
Attic helmets, like those shown in Dan Peterson's book (pages 8 and
12),
and they are pretty nice, too. The first steel helmets, Gallic G
and H and Italic D, should arrive in a couple weeks. Albion is
working
on getting pictures of all these on their website
(www.albionarmorers.com/home.htm).
Over the next several months,
more equipment will become available, including weapons, armor, belt
parts,
mess pans, shields--eventually, almost everything a Roman soldier
needs,
vastly cheaper and quicker than commissioning pieces "one-off" from our
usual armorers. For those worried that most of this stuff is made
in India, fear not! Albion wants it to be authentic just as much
as we do, and the Indians have always had the technical skill necessary
to make good reproductions. The problem was that Museum Replicas
and other importers didn't know or care enough to give their
manufacturers
better guidance, so they flooded the market with junk. What we're
getting now might never be perfect (heck, nothing is!), but it's
certainly
as accurate as most armorers have done so far, and better than
many.
Even the best craftsmen make mistakes! The Coolus, Gallic I, and
Italic C helmets have the "Legio XX Stamp of Approval", and I can give
you more details about them if you need. I expect that the next
ones
to arrive will also be "approved", but I'll give a full report when I
see
them.
TIDBITS
Roger Moskey discovered a place
to get leather and leather supplies, called Tricks of the Trade:
Village
Centre, PO Box 342, Great Falls, VA 22066, 703---. It's
a small place with a decent but limited supply of leather, but it also
carries dyes, which eliminates the need to pay outrageous "hazardous
materials
fees" if ordering dyes by mail.
John Dittamo has been book
shopping,
and recommends Oxbow Books and Heritage Books in the UK, and says that
Bookfinders.com is a lot of help, too. Oxbow's American
counterpart
is the David Brown Book Co. in Connecticut, 800-791-9354.
I recently made contact with
William
Marshall-Hall of New Brunswick, Canada, who is planning to open an
archeologically
correct Celtic fort museum in 2001. Its purpose is to be not only
educational but also a venue for Celtic-style feasts, though of course
it may need to be stormed ocassionally by some good Romans. For
more
details contact him.
The registration materials for
Military Through the Ages (MTA) just arrived. I'm not going, but
if someone else wants to lead the Legion into the cold mud I'll give
you
the paperwork. The deadline for registration is January 7, so if
no one volunteers by Christmas I'll tell Jamestown we're not
participating.
Yes, this used to be one of our most important events, but now with
three
events at Marietta and two at Fort Washington each year, I for one can
do without the hassle of MTA.
I finished my Greek hoplon,
greaves,
and scabbard, and have started on my linen cuirass. You're gonna
be jealous!
FINDS
Ed Safford passed this along to
me:
"CAMINREAL, Spain (AP) -- Archaeologists sifting through ruins that
yielded a Roman catapult 15 years ago have seen their patience rewarded
again, this time unearthing the wheels of a chariot. A team from
the Provincial Museum in the Teruel region of northeast Spain made the
find last month at the site of a first century B.C. Roman settlement
where
they have been digging every summer since 1984. The iron wheels,
a pair of them, are heavily corroded but intact enough for researchers
to cart them off for restoration and exhibition, Pilar Punter, a member
of the team, said Tuesday. The wheels are about 3 feet in
diameter
and have four spokes each. Punter said she believed the chariot
was
a two-wheel model but it was not clear if it was used for military or
transport
purposes. ``We have to keep looking for other remains to see if they
give
us clues,'' Punter said. Back in 1984 the same team found the
base
structure of a special kind of catapult known as a ``scorpion,'' Punter
said. Rather than lob rocks, it fired off giant darts."
Like many momentous archeological
finds, this one raises more questions than it answers. There is
no
evidence that I know of for the Romans using chariots for anything
other
than races or parades, so the first question is whether these wheels
are
from some other sort of vehicle. If they are indeed made
completely
of iron, that definitely suggests something special, but this is a
pretty
vague description. If anyone else comes up with more info on
this,
do pass it along to us!
ONE MORE THING
A fellow named Steve Hick is
attempting
to arrange an appearance somewhere in the DC area by Keith Ducklin,
Senior
Interpreter of the Royal Armouries Museum, England. It may
be in early March, or later in the year. The program will include
demonstration and maybe instruction in various ancient and medieval
fighting
techniques and would probably cost about $20 to $30 per
participant.
For more info, contact Steve.
CALENDAR
Dec. 1-8 --Walk Through Bethlehem, Seventh Day Adventist
Headquarters,
Silver Spring. See above for details.
Dec. 11 --Saturnalia Party at Roger Moskey's house, starting
4 PM. See above.
April 15-16 --Marching Through Time, Marietta Mansion, MD.
April 29-30 --"Universal Soldier" encampment, Fort Washington,
MD.
June --Roman Days, Marietta Mansion, MD.
---------------------------
ADLOCVTIO is the official newsletter of the Twentieth Legion, published
approximately on the Ides of each month. The Editor, also the
Commander
of the Legion, is Matthew Amt.
The Legion website is at http://legioxx.webjump.com. Astronomical
note: Leonid Meteor Shower, November 18 (and maybe 17?), low in
the
east, peaking at 9 PM. Valete!