Some of you might know that I had done a smattering of Roman re-enactment back in the day (you may have read my bit on a trip to Winchester Museum where I recreated a pose many years on). I have been keen to get back into re-enactment and the chance came to get back into kit with Legio II Augusta during Chichester Roman week.
I should give a shoutout to Novium Museum in Chichester who attended and ran some fab workshops during the week (we were only there Thursday). Also the very talented Tobias Key who took the black and white photo of yours truly.
Legio II Augusta – at arms!
I was a standard legionary and got the chance to wear lorica hamata (or mail). I usually wear lorica segementata for my school visits so this was a nice change. In a way I prefer it, it’s more comfortable though perhaps that’s just because I haven’t worn it is such a long time. I definitely need to get some.
Legio II Augusta had a range of objects and setups on show. Below is what a legionary would have slept in (along with several others) when on the march.
Along with this was an artillery piece, a catapulta. I was informed that this had loosed a bolt some 400 metres (approx 1300 feet). I helped dismantle it later and trust me – it’s as heavy as it looks.
Here’s a video with what I feel is appropriate music…
Meeting people and chatting with them is something I always enjoy – there were lots of questions and photo opportunities. If you were there and we got chatting I hope you found it useful.
Legio II Augusta and gladiators.
Possibly the highlight of the day was the gladiator display. I hadn’t seen this before and those involved were fantastic. I got the role of being a guard for the editor of the games. In case you are interested here’s a bit I did about mythbusting gladiators and something about a recent discovery linked to gladiators (but probably not one) – there’s also a podcast episode I did about the rise of the gladiator. A friend captured one of the fights and as you can see it was very entertaining – huge respect for the two combatants!
I’m hoping to do some more re-enactment with them later this year and I’ll be sure to blog about it if it happens.