vilakins | Play (Roman Games)

Blame astrogirl2 who was interested in what I did in the weekend.

I'm a card-carrying nerd. Or at least a standard-bearing one. I'm a re-enactor in a Roman legion.

Yeah, that's right, I possess full Roman armour, sword, helmet and all, and am vexillarius for the Legio II Augusta. We do public displays and mock battles (once a firm's Christmas party!) and for our own private fun, hold feasts and slave auctions.

Second Legion Augusta

Here are some of us at the 'Past-times Fare' (sic) we were at on Saturday. That's me (Claudia Metella) second from the left holding the standard (that wooden thing with the hand on top) and the guy in the 'bronze' breastplate and anachronistic but necessary glasses is our general, Consul Drusus Germanicus--otherwise known as Rob the Roman which Vila would regard as sound advice. We did formation marching (the tortoise, the wedge, the forceps) and allowed ourselves to be shot at with foam-tipped arrows fired from our extremely cool new ballista. It was a fun day, if very cold and windy, but you get very tired running around in 10kg (22lb) of armour. Other people at the fair were mainly medieval re-enactors from the SCA and various sword and shield clubs; they looked spectacular too and put up some good demos of fighting with swords, rapiers, and staffs. One thing I love about this is that women get to fight as much as the men--and are as good too.

So there you are. Now you know.

After freezing in the cold winds on Saturday, Sunday was summer again after more than a month of rain, gales, and unseasonably nippy weather. I went to a barbecue at a friend's place; all the guests were SF fans and it was a lot of fun in the hot sun by the sea. We didn't talk much about Blake's 7 though. Although two of them had been to the B7 cons held here in the 80s, it's too old a fandom to hold much interest for them any more. I fell for it in 2001 and I'm really looking forward to meeting others who love it as much as I do at Star One next month.

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Ooh, very cool! Thanks for posting the pic!

Looks like great fun. Roman is my favourite period of history. We spent a whole year visiting Roman sites a few years back! I always fancied trying out this sort of thing.

When you come over for Star One you should visit Caerleon, this village is Castle of the Legions in English and is built on one of the biggest roman settlements in South Wales. They also have a resident re-enactment society a full ( I think) Roman legion.

There's extensive bits of the Roman remains still above ground including a small amphitheatre. This was called King Arthur's Round Table and Caerleon was said to be the birth place of Merlin.

And Caerleon is just outside Newport. A Transporter Bridge and an area rich in history myth and legend how can you resist.

I always loved Roman history too and have visited heaps of sites in Italy, Sicily, Israel, Britain, and of course Rome. Nerda romana sum. :-)

I may not be able to! I did visit a wonderful Roman fort in the north years ago.

Is the transporter bridge a working one? I want a ride.

For once I got one taken with me in it; usually I take them of everyone else.

The best bit in the amphitheatre is the little lobby with stone benches where the gladiators used to wait to go on... Creepy.

Duly marked down on our itinerary!

I often see re-enactors who do that sort of thing in my part of the world. I'm impressed to hear you do it! Know any Latin?

BTW, they found a Roman camp kitchen at Prestwick Carr behind my parents house and they live on the road which ran to the crossing point of the River Pont so now doubt I wandered about in Roman footsteps when I was a kid. The Museum of Antiquities in Newcastle even has a Temple of Mithras.

Michael Keating will know Roman stuff of course, well having stayed with his cousin at Corbridge its just below the Roman Wall. Its just the right side of the wall, within Roman land. I am not a pict as was born in Hexham!

We should all go and visit when Vilakins is around :-)

Yes our Transporter Bridge is fully functional, the last time I checked it cost 50p a car and 25p for foot passengers. However if you don't like hights you might find the crossing an uncomfortable experience the gondola is suspended at quite a height above the river.

I'm coming to play with you! Your games look fun.

My sister and I walked on Hadrian's wall when we were there. It's amazing how much stuff is still around.

Et sic; quomodo vales?

[bounce]

Sounds good to me. I don't fancy the Millennium Wheel, but I'll go for that!

No explosions though. Greek fire was much later.

S'okay. Big shiny things, sharp bits of metal, and stuff flying through the air, right?

Some of our stuff is so lethal (e.g. the spears) we're not allowed to use them in combat. We mainly use swords and so far haven't had anything worse than cuts and bruises, or badly cut hands when one guy forgot to wear his leather gloves once. The ballista fired arrows with large foam tips or sticks with tennis balls on them, so that was pretty safe too. But yes--big shiny things, sharp bits of metal, and stuff flying through the air!

I have heard of overseas re-enactors being killed by doing really stupid things like being fired from a trebuchet though.

Wow, that is so cool.

I've never associated the word "nerdy" with reanactors, though. I thought "nerdy" was associated with pursuits that were, um, less physically demanding...

I did consider joining the SCA in my youth as a feckless Uni student, but there seemed to be two choices; do it badly and be unhappy, or do it properly and let it take over my life. So I decided not to do it at all. (Hmmmm, I realize that was the same reason I gave up piano, too...)

I think you're right about the SCA. I have friends in it who love it and basically live it. They meet at weekends to make costumes--by hand because a sewing machine isn't authentic--and candles and pottery etc. I enjoy their feasts and seeing them at fairs like the one last weekend, but I'm not willing to give up that amount of time.

We Romans meet once a month on average, and sometimes appear at schools and events like the showing of the original silent Ben Hur at a 20s cinema, the opening of an exhibition on archaeology done at Pompeii etc. It's a level of commitment I'm happy with.

And I thought nerdy was associated with anything the average person would find odd. But then, I don't know why people are interested in rugby, cars, home renovation, violent crime, reality TV, and fishing, just to name the most common topics of conversation in the offices I've worked in.

My definition of nerdy is an intense interest in anything I can't empathise with and I agree with almost all of your list. Being Welsh rugby is in my blood, like music. I hopeless at both but they are intensly interesting to me, but I can understand someone else not being interested so I'm not a complete nerd in that respect.

This is wonderful! I have always wanted to join a re-enactor group but I didn´t find any nearby. I would probably join medieval archers or so...or swordsmen...I love swords...so I am excited only to see other people being THERE.Thank you very much for sharing, and I am a cat lover too:-)

I keep my sword (a replica of a Roman centurion's one, and too dangerous to use in mock battles, as are spears) by the front door. :-) We use wooden swords, but we do have a ballista that fires arrows with tennis balls on the tips so they won't hurt anyone. :-D

There are a lot more medieval groups (here anyway) that I'm sure would welcome archers. Perhaps you can find something through the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism). I found the Romans through them.

Absolutely exciting!!!
Well, the problem is that I live really quite in a "periphery" and I really can´t spend time travelling for my pleasure and neglecting my dutÿ at home. So it will be "a lonely archer" :-)

Play (Roman Games)

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Wow!

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