US LEGIONS TRAVEL TO BULGARIA IN JUNE

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Dear friends and fellow reenactors,

I am the president of the Legion Six Historical Foundation, from Los Angeles. This is an open letter, intended to quash any rumors that have begun to circulate, and to identify the true victims of recent events.

In March of 2008, Legio VI Victrix and Legio XX Valeria Victrix of the USA were contacted by a gentleman named Andrea Cologni, who claimed to represent Legio I Italica of Italy, and invited to attend an event called the First European Roman Festival in Svishtov, Bulgaria, on June 26-29. He indicated all our travel expenses would be covered and that we would be part of an international cast numbering in the hundreds. As this seemed like a dream come true for an American reenactment group, we accepted the invitation and have spent the last two and a half months in preparation for our first European expedition.

In early May, one of our members, Bruce Willis, on his own initiative established a Yahoo email list called Novae, intended to facilitate communication for all those invited to attend the Svishtov event. At the time, Bruce was widely praised for this and the list became a convenient forum for communications for many of those planning to attend.

Fifteen of our people reserved vacation time or took unpaid time off of work in order to commit to attending this event. Several of us paid heavy additional fees to expedite our passports. Special containers and materials were purchased to facilitate shipping of our equipment. We have invested time, money, and energy in wholeheartedly committing to it. However, as time went on, it became more and more evident to us that no travel arrangements had been made for the U.S. contingent, despite Andrea Cologni’s absolute assurances to the contrary.

During the final two weeks before our departure date, repeated attempts were made to contact Mr. Cologni to finalize our travel details. At first, these requests were met by assurances that everything would be handled in a timely matter. An airline itinerary was provided on June
18 (six days before departure) that listed flight numbers and dates, but no confirmation numbers were given, nor was any evidence provided that reservations had been made or tickets issued. After the early morning of Friday, June 20, all communications from Andrea Cologni abruptly ceased, and repeated attempts to contact him by email and telephone were met with silence. It should also be stressed that our requests to Mr. Cologni were always made in a courteous and respectful fashion.

Over the same period, contact was established to Stoyan Prodanov, the Bulgarian travel agent whose name was provided by Mr. Cologni as being in charge of our travel arrangements once we reached Sofia. In a series of increasingly distressed emails, he indicated the travel arrangements for many of the international cast had been badly mishandled by Mr.
Cologni, and that the event was in danger of failure because of this.
In an email dated Saturday, June 21, he also indicated that Mr. Cologni had gone missing in the critical days prior to the event and that he suspected evidence of fraudulent behavior. He said he would be contacting the police and other authorities as soon as possible regarding this affair.

As of now, while we do not know precise details of why the travel plans for this event have collapsed into disarray, it is clear that the event’s organizers promised much more than they could deliver, and the responsibility for this fiasco rests entirely on their shoulders.

On the morning of Saturday, June 21, well after it had become clear that the U.S. contingent had been left stranded, Bruce Willis made an inappropriate and thoughtless post to the Novae Yahoo group concerning the apparent collapse of the Bulgaria expedition. He was immediately chastised by several of our members, and he reacted rashly by shutting down the Novae group entirely. This only compounded the problem by cutting off communication for the Novae contingent, which was still trying to determine what had gone wrong, and contributed to the overall sense of chaos surrounding this event.

I would like to formally apologize on behalf of Legion Six for Bruce’s careless and insensitive remarks, and his action of shutting down the Yahoo group. His actions in no way reflect the opinions of Legion Six, nor were they authorized or endorsed by us. Bruce has subsequently been severely sanctioned by our board of directors and his active membership has been suspended until further review. Bruce, who says he had intended the post as a private message and only inadvertently sent it to the Novae group, has profusely apologized for his actions and drafted a letter to all affected parties expressing his contrition.

However, it should be noted that his remarks were prompted by the severe frustration he felt, as did virtually all of us, over the gross mishandling of our travel arrangements for the event in Svishtov.
To the best of our knowledge, no travel arrangements had been made for any American, despite the repeated reassurances that everything would be handled in a timely manner. Neither Mr. Cologni nor any else has so far provided any explanations. Today was the day that our group and others were supposed to leave for Europe. I am deeply saddened on behalf of our members, and those of Legio XX VV, that this has not occurred. I also feel a sense of outrage. The tremendous hospitality that was promised to us by Mr. Cologni was never delivered. We have lost money, time, energy, and believe we have been duped. All of us in the U.S. who planned to go to Europe to extend our hands in peace and joy to our European brethren - as fellow Romans and historical enthusiasts – have been gravely insulted and harmed.

It has recently emerged that an attempt may be made by the event’s organizers to blame Bruce’s comments for the fact that we will not be attending the event. If this does happen, it must be seen for what it
is: A deliberate and transparent distortion of the facts in order to conveniently shift attention away from the errors of those planning the event and handling our travel arrangements. Mr. Willis’s actions in no way brought about the current state of disarray in which the travel arrangements for any Americans and other international attendees now rests. His comments were made after the fact and, in actuality, were an anguished response to the dreadful mishandling of these and other details.

While Legio VI fully disavows the thoughtless remarks of our suspended member, this in no way sanctions or justifies the gross misconduct by those involved in the mishandling of the travel arrangements of the international attendees. As such, I demand an explanation. I also request restitution and contrition for our tremendous inconvenience.

We are the victims. We are the aggrieved parties – all of us who were invited to attend this event and spent several weeks in preparation, only to find ourselves stranded. We had all looked forward with great anticipation and enthusiasm to meeting and communing with our European brethren, and are deeply saddened that it will not happen at the Svishtov event. We remain hopeful that we can all participate in a future Svishtov festival or a similar event somewhere in Europe-- as long as travel arrangements are more competently handled!

At this point, I wish to put this whole affair behind us and proceed with the other major events and activities we have planned, including the Old Fort MacArthur Days and the establishment of a museum of Roman military history. If you have any comments or questions, I ask you to direct them to me personally ( [email protected] ) or to contact our Vice President, David Michaels ( [email protected] ), who has been handling the recent attempts at correspondence with Mr. Cologni and others. I ask you not to contribute further to the “rumor mill."

Respectfully,
L. Arik Greenberg, Ph.D.
President, Legion Six Historical Foundation, Inc.

Hello, Mr. Greenberg. That comprehensive explanation shows me the complete picture. I am probably one of the very few people in Svishtov who know what happens. Majority still thinks there is going to be something huge and ever since it's been said that 100'000 people are expected everybody looks forward to the event. Now I feel so unhappy about all that and I think it may impact to you and all lagions who won't come and will hear about the mishandling of the organisators in a way they would never want to come to Svishtov. Excuse me if i sound arrogant, but i wish they hadn't invited you, instead of ridiculing you like this. Best regards from Svishtov and I wish you soon coming to Europe. Success!!