CommentariiAncient Warfare magazine blogTag >> Reenactment
For some reason I forgot to post the blog below in early July. So mentally backdate and have a laugh at the photos...The tv-show (in Dutch and quite a bit outdated in its historical research) has been broadcast by now as well (last item of the show).
I wasn't able to attend much of the preparations on Friday. We had someone come over at home to install bathroom cupboards and the like. When I arrived on the festival terrain, it was raining. Hard. Pluvius kept this up pretty much until Saturday morning at 10, just before the Festival was to open. From then on we had pretty much unbroken nice and actually sunny weather. I actually managed to get me a red neck!
As I'm part of the (volunteer) organization, I thought I'd put this up here too. A promo video for Nijmegen Roman Festival of next week. Building of the wall starts Monday, when the city archaeologist who excavated it, will indicate where the post holes will have to go. Rebuilding on the spot! Thanks to Marc Sanders for the video.
Until yesterday, my experience with Ancient reenactors had been pretty much limited to Early and Late Imperial Romans (luckily Republican Rome seems to slowly gain in interest). Granted, there were two or three Celts or Germans at the Xanten events I visited, but at least they belong in the era. 'Greeks' are still fairly rare on the ground and at present I only know of one group who do anything Hellenistic, the German group Hetairoi (please prove me wrong if there are more out there!). When I saw on their website they were having a practice weekend in sort-of-nearby Cologne, I contacted them to ask if I could come over and have a look. The Hetairoi were kind enough to answer positively and provided us with a map to a quiet field in between two halves of an enormous cemetary. Having made it over there, the assembled Hetairoi were kind enough to don their kit despite the blazing sun (this 'northener' came home with a proper red neck, of course) and pose for us. Say what you want about reenactors, but I can't think of anything better 
As you may or may not know, getting good quality illustrations for our articles is a constant concern for me. Simply put, I can illustrate Roman imperial stuff forever and a day, but when it comes to Roman Republican soldiers, Alexander's troops or, dear me, those wonderfully interesting Successor armies, it's another story. |
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