New Mel Gibson Christ movie

[Matthew Amt]

Avete!<br>
As I understand it, Greek is even more likely than Latin, in Judea. By this point, nearly half of all legionaries appear to be non-Italian, and there is some suggestion that most of the Italians ended up in the Western legions. So far fewer would be in the east. Most eastern legionaries were Syrians and other locals, and the common language out there was Greek. Since Roman upper class officers all spoke Greek as a matter of course, no problem. Some Latin is still being used, of course--anyone who needed it would pick up the essentials quickly enough, same as Greek.<br>
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But as Dave points out, the soldiers in Judea were all auxiliaries. I'm not sure if anyone has documented which units were there, but the nearest legions were in Syria and Pilate didn't command any. But that's okay, the different ethnic groups all got along very badly, so the soldiers would be all too likely to heap gratuitous abuse on Jews.<br>
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It hadn't occurred to me until recently that we reenactors might actually draw fire for this movie. I'm actually looking forward to it! "Yeah, so what? We've got plenty of nails left!" Being a staunch Lutheran doesn't keep me from having a warped sense of humor, and I probably won't be able to resist "playing the part" right to the hilt--or to the nail head...<br>
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Anyone for a group trip to the movie in full kit?<br>
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Valete,<br>
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Matthew/Quintus <p></p><i></i>