Vol. XI, no. viii, August 2001
EVENTS
The Legion is back at Marietta
Mansion on September 15-16 for our annual Fall Encampment. This
is
a much smaller and more casual event than Roman Days, just us on the
lawn
chucking the occasional pilum. Public hours are from 10 AM to 4
PM,
but there is no set schedule beyond that. Anyone who is not an
Active
member of Legio XX and wants to participate should contact me (Quintus)
and Susan Wolfe, the site manager at Marietta (301---). There
are no plans for merchants, food vendors, etc., though I'll try to
remember
to bring the cardboard shields for the Kiddy Cohort.
Directions: From I-95/495, the Capital Beltway, take Exit 20 onto Rt.
450 East, go 4 miles, turn left on Rt. 193, then left onto Bell Station
Rd. and left again into Marietta.
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The fall Universal Soldier
encampment
at Fort Washington, Maryland, will be September 29-30. If you've
been there before, you've probably already gotten the application form
in the mail, so don't forget to send that back to them. If you
haven't
been there before, a ranger will come around with a registration form
for
you to fill out at some point. Public hours will be from 10 AM to
5 PM on Saturday, and 10 AM to 3 PM on Sunday. As usual, aim to
get
there about an hour before opening, if you can. There is an
admission
fee for the public (not much). As usual, there is no schedule of
activities, but there is plenty of space for drill and pilum
practice.
Take a stroll through the fort, too, it's worth it.
Directions: From I-95/495 the
Capital Beltway, take Rt. 210 Indian Head Highway South; go about 4
miles
and turn right at the light onto Fort Washington Road, which ends about
3.5 miles later at the park entrance.
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On October 20-21 the Legion has
been invited to participate in a parade and festival activities being
held
by the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, MD. We need to be there
and ready to roll about 9 AM, as the parade (called the ArtMarch)
starts
at 10. It's about 6 blocks long, and will be followed by an
opening ceremony which should end no later than 11:30. For the
rest
of the day we'll be stationed in Mt. Vernon park (not to be confused
with
George Washington's domus in Virginia!) in the midst of the
festival.
Activities will include " musical and other entertainment, cultural
food
and beverage stations, beer and wine gardens and interactive arts
activities
(Asian fish printing, calligraphy and illumination, painting, and
more)."
We can break camp at about 7 PM, if not sooner. On Sunday there
is
no parade but the rest will be pretty much the same, running from 12
noon
until about 6:30 PM.
Space is apparently pretty limited,
and I have not yet found out if there will be room for the tent or a
pilum
range. I will also find out about directions, parking, passes to
the Museum, overnight security, etc. I expect that we will NOT be
camping out, but packing up all our gear overnight.
---------------
Shane Evans of Nova Roma is planning
a "Roman Days event" in Columbus, Ohio on the October 13th, and is
inviting
Legio XX to attend. He mentions a full day of activities plus a
feast
in the evening. I myself will not be going since I'll be doing
the
Battle of Hastings that weekend, but if a few members are interested
I'll
be happy to put it on the calendar and send along the tent and
signum.
Let me know! Any other groups or lonely Romans out there who want
more info can contact Shane directly.
SOURCES
Two new suppliers have asked me
to mention their names. JB Pickerel makes a very nice lorica
segmentata
and is experimenting with a number of other things. See his site,
Whyt-Hawk Armoury, at http://www.whythawkarmoury.homestead.com/
(click the "Historical" and "Brasswork" buttons).
Scott Jenquin has come up with
a method for stamping out lorica lobed hinge blanks. They are
perfectly
shaped and ready to be folded and notched. He says he can do
brass
or red brass in nearly any thickness (I'd recommend .020" or so), and
is
asking $20 for a set of 16 blanks (for 8 hinges).
LORICA LORE
MC Bishop has made plans and
animated
pictures of his new preliminary reconstruction of the second-century AD
Newstead lorica segmentata. This is a bit of a composite,
including
details from several different sites, but still more reliable than the
old design. Changes might be made as more pieces of the Carlisle
finds are uncovered and published. Bishop's plans are online as
part
of the Journal of Roman Military Equipment Studies site, at http://www.armatura.connectfree.co.uk/jrmes/j1001.htm.
There are very exciting little bits like the girdle plates getting
progressively
wider as they go down--top one 2" wide, second one 2-1/4", etc.
I've
already started drawing my own patterns…
Recently I've been going
through
the Corbridge Report again, to refresh my memory on a number of
points.
The basic information is on the website on the Lorica Segmentata page (htttp://www.larp.com/legioxx/lorica.html).
But for those not steeped in lorica lore, the Corbridge style of armor
includes types A, B, and C; type A having buckles to connect the
(upper)
collar sections to the (lower) girdle sections, while types B and C use
hooks and eyes. The find included six collar sections, numbered
as
cuirasses 1 through 6. The first four were type A, while cuirass
5 was type B and cuirass 6 was type C. There were also six girdle
sections, labeled as cuirasses i through vi, again with the last two
being
type B or C. A number of the assemblies were missing one or more
plates. There were the proper number of right and left halves to
assemble three more or less complete loricae, but this is probably by
chance
since it is clear that no two of the shoulder sections matched.
This time my interest was tweaked
by the shoulder guards. We knew right from the start that cuirass
1, a type A collar unit, had a type B upper shoulder guard retrofitted
to it, presumably as a repair. The pieces obviously were not made
for each other because the shapes of the hinges and bosses were very
different,
and those on the upper shoulder guard matched cuirasses 5 and 6 very
nicely.
This upper shoulder guard and the one on cuirass 5 also had pentagonal
center plates, whereas those on the other three type A collar units had
rectangular center plates. As a further curiosity, cuirass 6 was
just the collar plates, the shoulder guards being completely missing,
so
the Report speculated that the shoulder guards from cuirass 1 might
have
been scavenged from cuirass 6.
The outer or lesser shoulder
guards
were even stranger than I had remembered. Both cuirass 1 and 5,
with
their type B upper shoulder guards, had four outer shoulder guards, two
long and two short. That's how virtually every modern
reconstruction
is built, by the way. On cuirass 3, however, all four plates are
short, and there doesn't seem to be any suggestion that two of these
were
simply longer plates with the ends broken off. Cuirass 4 has only
three short plates, and cuirass 2 has only two short ones (though
rather
wide at 2-3/8"), but it is very difficult to say if this was how they
were
made or if plates have been lost due to damage.
The upshot? Well, if you
really want your lorica to stand out in the crowd, you can make it with
two, three, or four short outer shoulder guards. The other
alternative,
already shown on the Legio XX patterns, is making each of four plates
shorter
than the one before, to make an evenly tapered effect, as is shown on
Trajan's
Column and at least a couple other reliefs. Things like this
remind
us to keep an open mind when looking at new armor finds, whether they
are
of the Corbridge types, or the earlier Kalkriese style, or the later
Newstead--their
details might not match the popular reconstructions.
STUFF
Along those same lines, Legio
VI Ferrata in South Carolina posted a few photos of the new Deepeeka
lorica
on their site, and unfortunately it's not good. The shoulder
guards
hang down to the elbows, the hinges are an incorrect single layer, the
buckles are not properly constructed, the backplates seem to be
permanently
fixed to the girdle plates by rivetd leathers, and the whole thing
weighs
a massive TWENTY-FOUR POUNDS! More minor problems are that the
upper
shoulder guards are the wrong shape, there are no brass bosses, the
leather
is chrome-tanned, only single rivets connect the girdle plates to their
leathers (rather than two at each joint), and the strap hinges are
backwards
(the fancy part should be riveted to the plate, with the rectangular
end
fixed to the strap). I'm wondering if it might be stainless steel, as
well.
Sorry, folks, looks like they
blew this one. We'll keep watch, see if it improves, but in the
meantime
Albion's lorica is still good.
MOVIE
I got a couple phone calls last
week from Michael Huye, who is planning to make the most historically
accurate
Roman movie ever, a laudable goal. He is currently studying the
costs
of mass-producing things like mailshirts, leather tents, and the like,
and even a charter flight for getting reenactors to the filming site
(not
decided, but Arkansas and I think the Ukraine were both
mentioned).
It sounds like he's very serious and has access to funding.
Anyone
who might like to produce equipment (including several catapultae) or
help
in any other way should contact him, 225---.
BOOK
From David Mason: "Just
thought you and your fellow legionaries would want to know that a new
and
comprehensive account of Castra Deva, authored by yours truly, has just
been published in UK by Tempus Publishing Ltd. Roman Chester:
City
of the Eagles ($29.99) is obtainable in US from: Arcadia
Publishing
Inc..., www.arcadiapublishing.com
Regards,
David Mason"
EUROPEAN TOUR
Robert Garbisch of Legio X
Fretensis
still needs a dozen more people to reserve spaces in his Tour of
Ancient
Roman sights in July and August 2002. If you would like to go,
contact
him.
CALENDAR
September 1 -- Monthly workshop/muster at Roger Moskey's,
10 to 5
September 8-9 --Legio XXIV at "March Thru Time" Event,
Memory Town, Mount Pocono, PA. Contact George Metz for info,
610---. (Not a Legio XX event, but members are encouraged to
attend if they like.)
September 15-16 --Legio XX Fall Encampment at Marietta
Mansion
September 15 -- Masterpiece Motorcade, Leg. III Gallica,
New Orleans Museum of Art. Contact Darren Nunez, (not
a Leg.XX event)
September 29-30 --Leg.XX at Universal Soldier encampment,
Fort Washington
October 6 -- Monthly workshop/muster
October 4-6, 2001--ROMEC XIII at Vindonissa,
Switzerland.
For more info, see http://www.unibas.ch/arch/ROMEC/index.html
October 13 --Nova Roma event in Columbus, Ohio
October 20-21 -- Leg. XX at Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore
for ArtMarch parade and festival.
November 3 --Monthly workshop/muster
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Directions to the monthly workshops/musters at Roger Moskey's house:
From I-495 Capital Beltway, take Exit 12 B Route 267 Toll Road
West towards Dulles Airport. After paying toll (50 cents), take
the
first exit--Exit 16 Route 7 Leesburg Pike West for about 11
miles.
Go past Cascades Parkway, and at the next light take a right onto
PALISADES
Parkway, then an immediate left onto "Triple 7" (Route 777). Pass
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). #304 is just to
the
right of the middle.
--------------------
ADLOCVTIO is the Official Newsletter of the Twentieth Legion, published
on the Ides of each month.
The Legio XX website is http://www.larp.com/legioxx/