SECOND TRUMPET--FALL ENCAMPMENT
Our annual fall encampment with
La Belle Compagnie will be on September 25-26 at (no surprise) Marietta
Mansion, in Glenn Dale, MD. It will be open from 11 AM to 4 PM,
and
admission for the public is $1. I'm thinking of this as sort of a
training weekend, especially for our newer members. If you don't
have any gear, there may be some to borrow, but come out and "get your
feet wet" in any case. Contact Quintus with your plans and needs,
as usual.
AND SECOND TRUMPET--FORT WASHINGTON
The Legion's second event at Fort
Washington is a time-line encampment called "Preserving Our Military
Heritage".
The date is October 2-3, in celebration of the 175th anniversary of the
completion of the fort. I just got a thick pack of rules and
registration
paperwork, so if you plan to go be sure to get a form and all the rules
from me. We all have to be registered in advance, it seems.
Public hours are from 10 to 5 on Saturday, 10 to 3 on Sunday, and there
is an admission charge for non-participants.
HIGGINS ARMORY MUSEUM
On July 20 as part
of my travels to the northern wastes I visited the Higgins Armory
Museum
in Worcestor, Massachusetts. It's a neat place, built around the
collection of some late old rich guy named Higgins (all right, John
Woodman
Higgins, 1874-1961). The ancient collection is small, not
surprisingly,
and unfortunately the only thing from our general period is a gladiator
helmet. That's an interesting piece in itself, one of only three
in the U.S., as the museum proudly points out. There is a photo
of
it online on the Higgins website, www.higgins.org,
in the virtual tour section. There are eight Greek Corinthian
helmets,
VERY fascinating, but I won't go into details here--let me know if you
need to know more about them.
From Italy there was
a Montefortino helmet, 4th to 3rd century BC. The description
said
"Bronze and iron", which I though was odd since it should have been all
bronze, but next to where the crest knob should have been there was
only
a shapeless lump which looked like it included rusted iron. I
wouldn't
go so far as to suggest that it originally had an iron crest
knob--perhaps
the top is simply damaged and something else has gotten corroded to
it.
The brim was clearly rolled under and then "cabled", not simply left
thick
as some drawings imply. The cheekpieces were still present,
smallish
and almost as wide as they were tall. Another case contained a
Negau-type
helmet and a short muscled cuirass that was somewhat squashed flat,
also
4th to 3rd century BC. The muscling was fairly simple and the
nipples
appeared to be applied. The rim of the helmet seemed to be done
in
the same way as the one on page 98 of Connolly's Greece and Rome at
War,
with a flat ring added inside that is pierced with holes for stitching
in the lining. On the front of the bowl, however, were two large
round embossed shapes like teardrops, with the points nearly touching.
On loan from
Yale University is a group of finds from Dura Europas, dating to about
250 AD. Dominating the case is the complete horse armor of iron
scales,
with its linen backing still in good shape. There are fragments
of
brass scale and lamellar armor, some very tiny. There are two
spun
brass shield bosses, one of which is nearly intact, with the edge of
the
flange cut into a fine saw-tooth pattern! The other is scalloped
into 8 points, though the dome itself is missing.
There is no compelling
reason for those interested in the Roman Empire to drive many hours to
visit the Higgins Museum, but if you are in the general area and have a
little time to spare, it is worth a visit.
ROMAN FESTIVAL IN BRITAIN--by Emilie Amt
In July I visited Richborough
Roman Fort in southeastern England, where there happened to be a Roman
Festival going on that weekend. Taking the opportunity to compare a
British
Roman event with our very own Roman Days, I took lots of pictures and a
few notes. My report:
Vexillatio Legionis Geminae
provided
the military element, with a demonstration of "1st century Imperial
drill
and battle tactics." They had BLUE tunics and shields! Yes,
well, hmmm... They had about the same size of contingent as the
one
at Roman Days, but since they were all from one unit their drills were
a bit snazzier; an especially impressive maneuver was the one with two
lines that alternated making short charges, the rear line charging
through
the front line each time, all the way down the field. According
to
the printed schedule, there was also a "display of combat and hunting
techniques
by Milites Litoris Saxonici and End of the Roman Age Society," but I
didn't
see that. I did see the artillery demonstration by one archer and
two ballistae--pretty cool.
The military camp was remarkably
similar to the one at Roman Days, with one leather tent and one brown
cloth
one, and various military stuff scattered around. The leather
tent
had higher sides than the Twentieth Legion's, but I'll leave Quintus to
comment on that. I didn't think that part of the camp was any
better
than the Roman Days camp--maybe not quite as good.
On the civilian side, though,
it was a different story. While there was nothing like Hortensia
the herb seller's booth (i.e., a detailed authentic recreation on a
single
theme), there were a lot of attractive civilian and educational
displays.
Of course these were made possible by the large number of Roman and
Celtic
re-enactors participating. Many were fairly simple, such as a
blanket
on the ground with herbs and spices. But there were also half a
dozen
small white open-fronted tent booths, each with at least one costumed
Roman
to explain the displays within. There were reproduction items for
the public to handle and posters explaining various aspects of Roman
life.
There was also an elaborate ongoing demonstration of Roman cooking,
very
similar to that provided by the Celtic ladies at Roman days. Most
impressive of all was the re-enactment of a sacrifice, with a wonderful
reproduction altar, stuff (crackers, wine, incense) burning on top of
it,
and lots of prayers in Latin. At the other end of the spectrum,
for
me, was the rather large Celtic encampment, though it wasn't
offensively
bad.
Another thing this event did very
well was activities for children to participate in. Some required
staff, such as the pottery-making activity (for some unfathomable
reason,
a blue-painted Pict with blond dreadlocks seemed to be in charge of the
Roman pottery-making). Others were just there for kids to do on
their
own, such as the paint-your-name-in-Roman-letters scroll and the
mosaic-making
trays. And there were several performances by "Britunculus the
puppeteer,"
who apparently (I didn't actually see this either) portrayed the story
of Boudicca. Interestingly, the whole event, though larger
and better-attended than Roman Days, had much the same tone--casual,
friendly,
small-scale.
The festival didn't feature any
merchants actually selling things, but Richborough is an English
Heritage
site with a wonderful little shop selling nifty Roman- and
Celtic-themed
items. I picked up a number of things here that will enhance the
educational displays at next year's Roman Days (which in a wild moment
I seem to have volunteered to be in charge of). Not least of
these
is a CD by Synaulia, a group claiming to be "archaeologists" of Roman
music--Roman
Days will never be the same again.
DESTREHAN, NEW ORLEANS by Darren Nunez
Legio III Gallica in conjunction
with Destrehan Plantation will be hosting a multi-period living history
encampment at Destrehan Plantation the weekend of October 23rd and
24th.
The event entitled "Time Passages" is the first multi-period event in
the
New Orleans area. This was originally scheduled for September but
has been moved to October. III Gallica invites any stray Romans
in
the New Orleans area at that time to attend. Also attending will
be groups from the 1812 era, American Civil War era, WWII era and
others.
Please visit the Destrehan
Plantation
website for directions and information about the site, http://www.destrehanplantation.org/
Also visit the LEGIO III GALLICA
homepage
at http://members.aol.com/legiiigal/
. Details will be posted on III GALLICA's homepage in the
upcoming
weeks. If anyone knows of reenactors portraying other time
periods
interested in joining us in October, please have them contact me at the
above e-mail address or the folks at Destrehan Plantation.
WEBSITE
In case any of you missed the
word, the Legio XX website has moved, to http://legioxx.webjump.com
. It is still under construction, conspicuously lacking
illustrations,
so bear with us. There is already more text than the old site,
including
extra construction hints for some items and other useful tidbits.
A kind and well-educated soul already pointed out that the plural of
"nomen"
is "nomina", not "nomines", so we'll fix that as soon as
possible.
If you see any other glaring mistakes or have any problems with the
site,
let us know. Great thanks to Marshall Wise for doing the
construction,
and to Mark Graef for arranging the space. Please update your
bookmarks!
LIBER
Recently an ad arrived for what
sounds like a fascinating book: Ad Arma!: Romisches Militar des
1.Jahrhunderts
n. Chr. in Augusta Raurica (Ad Arma!: The Roman Army of the First
Century
AD in Augusta Raurica), by Eckhard Deschler-Erb. This is Vol. 28
of a series called Forschungen in Augst, ISBN 3-7151-0028-1. "45
plates...reproduce almost all of the 872 military finds which have been
discovered during over 100 years of scientific excavation in the Roman
Town of Augusta Raurica," modern Augst. "With an exhaustive
summary
in German, French and English as well!" You can order it from BSB
Buch Service Basel, Postfach/PO Box, CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland.
The price is CHF 80.- (Uh, Swiss francs?) Or maybe try
Amazon.com!
I also have some order cards here for ordering 10 or more copies for a
20 percent discount, so you can take care of all your Christmas
shopping.
CALENDAR
Aug. 14 --Legio XX workshop at
Matthew Amt's house, 10 AM to 5 PM.
Aug. 21 --Historical Armed Combat
Association Medieval Longsword Workshop and Gathering, Seneca Valley
High
School, Germantown, MD. Hosted by Albion Armorers
Sept. 25-26 --Legio XX encampment
at Marietta with La Belle Compagnie (14th century), open to public 11
to
4.
Sept. 24-26 --Roman Military
Equipment
Conference, South Shields, Eng. See the ROMEC website for
details,
http://pobox.com/~jrmes/romec.htm
Fall, 1999? --Possible display
at Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA, as part of a classics
fair. Still in the planning stages.
Oct. 2-3 --"Preserving our
Military
Heritage" at Fort Washington, MD, another timeline event.
Oct. 23-24 --Legio III Gallica
encampment, New Orleans, Louisiana. Contact Darren Nunez for more
information
Oct. 30-31 --Dionysia of
Massilia.
Games and rites in honor of the god Dionysos, Australia. Contact
Mark Kelly
---------------------
Well, I have to apologize to everyone for the drought, but there just
haven't been any events since June. If you can hang on another
month,
the Rain Gods of the Twentieth will be back on the field in
September.
And yes, you can pay us NOT to bring rain to your chosen vacation
site!
Call today!
Adlocvtio is the official newsletter of the Twentieth Legion, published
approximately on the Ides of each month by Matthew "Quintus" Amt.
Any inquiries concerning the Legion or the newsletter should be
directed
to him.
Valete!