All you ever needed to know about re-enactment

[Celer]

Just go onto this site, click on 'site map' and then on 'glossary of reenactor's terms'.

www.historicgames.com

Vale,

[brennivs - tony drake]

Thanks for that Celer it is quite a jolly read :lol: :lol:
Regards Brennivs

[maius]

Thanks Celer, i enjoyed reading those visitor's comments. After 20 years of reenacting many different eras, i can relate to the dumb things people often ask.

As i'm just getting started in Roman reenacting, i would be interested in reading about some of the types of questions you guys get asked at Roman events.

Maius/Bill

[Matthew Amt]

Thank you for the link, I think I laughed myself sick!

I generally try to dissuade folks from being too hard on visitors for their stupid questions. Quite often, though they certainly sound like stupid fools, they are only suffering from culture shock. They've never seen reenactors before and simply don't understand what is going on. So their brains fry, and their attempt to form an intelligent question comes out as "Is that a real fire?" (Well, we more usually "Is that a real sword?") So I prefer to give them the benefit of the doubt and give a brief explanation, such as "Well, everything we have here is a modern copy, though we try to make them as close to the real thing as possible. So yes, the weapons and armor are 'real' and fully functional, just not antique." And go from there. Sure, many of them have the attention spans of fleas, and are thoroughly products of the modern world. Don't worry about them. Just try not to scare off the few who are genuinely interested.

That said, there ARE some howlers out there! Some are just annoying teen-agers who are too cool to be interested in anything, so they have to laugh at you to save their own twisted sense of self-respect. Others are utterly convinced about some bizarre pet historical theory or tidbit and will refuse to listen to well-documented reason to the contrary. We had one guy who wanted to join up and base his gear (a tribune's impression) entirely on his recurring dreams that he was a reincarnated tribune from the Tenth Legion, and he was a bit put off when we gently insisted on more mainstream documentation...

Recently, a couple of us attended a small time-line gig at a private boys' school, and in EVERY group of students the first question was "Are you from '300'?" Gads... Um, HELLLOOOOO, do these LOOK like ROUND shields?

I heard the nail story as "And I suppose Jesus was Velcro'd to the cross?"

Valete,

Matthew

[M. Demetrius]

Say, did you ask him what was the color of his tunic in his dream? That could solve some arguments, you know? After all, if he was a tribune, he should know!

[Celer]

Salve,

Well, we've all got stories. My favourite one has to be when we were at Colchester this year, and the bear tent was being guarded by the parachute regiment (a case of getting the wolves to guard the sheep). The two 'guards' got drunk, stole the beer lorry and crashed it into a tree. One of the Roman re-enactors - Dan Shadrake - chased them and got into the cab to switch the engine off, and was promptly surrounded by a hoard of beer-withdrawn re-enactors with blood in their eyes and pick-axe handles in their fists. Dan managed to talk his way out of it, but I would have loved to have seen his face! :lol:

Celer.

[Robert Vermaat]

Well, we've all got stories. My favourite one has to be when we were at Colchester this year, and the bear tent was being guarded by the parachute regiment (a case of getting the wolves to guard the sheep). The two 'guards' got drunk, stole the beer lorry and crashed it into a tree. One of the Roman re-enactors - Dan Shadrake - chased them and got into the cab to switch the engine off, and was promptly surrounded by a hoard of beer-withdrawn re-enactors with blood in their eyes and pick-axe handles in their fists. Dan managed to talk his way out of it, but I would have loved to have seen his face! :lol:

It seems you recall the wrong man! Here's what Dan remembered about that affair:

No not me... it was one of my lads, young 'Anakin' he was quite brave, but quite stupid, he could have been given a right royal kicking.

He was questioned and released then praised for his bravery when they realised who the real culprits were. When the Military Police came to get me to bail him out, they were astonished at my reaction... ...howls of laughter, I could hardly stand!

It was a combination of 2 drunk squaddies nicking a beer truck, driving literally 20 yards and hitting a tree, chased by Anakin (dressed as a pirate after leaving a fancy dress party 5 minutes earlier) then getting surrounded by MPs & outraged stall holders ...before explaining in a panicky voice that he was actually trying to help... that made me roar... the MPs were saying in the tone that my parents used to use - "It's no laughing matter!"
Of course that made me laugh more!

[Hibernicus]

A question we got some time back: "Is that real food and are you going to eat it?"

Also lists like this:

Signs that you're a re-enactor
- You see the riot police on TV and start critiquing their shield wall.
- People greet you on Monday morning with "So did you kill anyone this weekend?".
- You can't use your dining table because it's covered in half finished mail.
- You have a table specifically for making mail so it doesn't take up your dining table.
- You suffer from post-battle depression.
- You know every line in Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail by heart.
- Bad fighting and/or costuming has ruined an otherwise decent movie for you.
- You're a burly guy who looks like a Hell's Angel, but you do embroidery in public.
- At a formal dinner party, you politely grab your sleeve to keep it from dropping in the food, only to realise you're wearing a suit.
- You can eat equally well with a dagger or a fork.
- You've decorated a cake in Celtic knotwork.
- You return to work after a weekend event, only to find you left all your money in your belt pouch.
- You sometimes wear your jackets closed only by the top button and without putting your arms through the sleeves.
- After a party you ask yourself "Hm. Now where are my clothes?" and you're stone sober and fully dressed.
- You're watching what's been billed as the most romantic scene in any movie ever, and all you can think is: What kind of armour is he wearing?
- You can and do curse in Gaelic, but you aren't Scottish
- You have more kit than clothes and the kit is in better condition.
- You visit a period castle, notice the draperies and bedspreads, andthink of what lovely clothing they would make.
- You visit a period castle, museum, historical site, etc. and you can
spot the mistakes in the tour guide's lecture.
- You're male and your girlfriend, not you, is the bored one being dragged from fabric/clothing store to fabric/clothing store.
- The lady at the fabric store asks your girlfriend if she needs help and she points at you saying, "He's the one looking for material".
- You get a Christmas card in the mail and you look at the shepherds and background figures with a magnifying glass to see the costuming details.
- Your kid gets a cardboard punch out castle and you take it away from him and put it together yourself, point out the flaws in the architecture, and based on your assessment of the flaws in the architecture, figure out how you could, hypothetically capture it if it was a real castle.
- Your kid gets a bunch of plastic knights you swipe them to outline your tactical ideas for the next war/fighter practice with your friends.
- You hide the really awful costume references in the stacks at the library, so future costumers won't be led astray. Or, you write criticisms in the margins of said awful costume references.
- You watch Henry V (or the Zefferelli Romeo and Juliet) over, and over, and over, again - for the costumes/fighting scenes.
- Your immediate family consists of only two rather small, thin people, but you justify your purchase of a full-sized van/pickup truck saying"We'll need the extra space for events!"
- You're annoyed because the armour and/or the costumes at the museumaren't displayed so that you can get a good photograph of the back/insides.
- Your reference section on your field of interest is better than the equivalent section in the local library.
- Your idea of a pack lunch is mince-meat pie, cold mulled cider andwafers left over from the feast the week-end before.
- Your hobby takes more of your time than your job.
- You name your pets after obscure historical figures.
- You name your children after obscure historical figures.
- You name your truck, your car, your catapult.. after obscure historical figures.
- People assume that you're an exchange student/recent immigrant because they hear people calling you by the most outlandish names... of some obscure historical figure!

[Celer]

Ah, so it was Anakin. Everyone the morning after seemed to think it was Dan. Thanks Vorti.

Vale,

[P. Clodius Secundus]

This past weekend we marched in the Columbus Day Parades in Providence Rhode Island and New York (Novum Eboracum?) City. The The questions and comments we recieved demonstrate how badly the general public needs our help to make up for the classical education they were denied. Most were the usual "I'm Spartacus!", "Hail Caesar", "Look Gladiators!", but one new one was "Hooray for the Characters from Night at the Museum!". That last one was from a little kid. At least He got it right even if he doesn't have the vocabulary yet. That's infinitely better than the reporter from a major News Organization who described us a "Knights in Shining Armor", managing to be both unoriginal and horribly wrong at the same time. Do they teach that skill in Jurnalizm Skool, or are most of them just naturally gifted (as in the German meaning of the word :lol: ). One funny moment was when our Tesserarius turned a corner and almost walked into a punker kid with a spiked red mohawk. Their crests were nearly identical. Another was watching our Centurio dress down the driver of the entry behind us when he pulled out , around us, and jumped between us and the colonial band we were supposed to follow. The sight of a Centurion waving his vitis at "The Blues Brothers" in their Bluesmobile was memorable. Our Centurio wore his new feathered crest which immedaitely made him an Aztec to many in the crowd. Of course, the most over-worked question is "What do you wear under your tunic?" My answer in genteel company is "Sandals." otherwise it's "Your wife's lipstick!". Wearing a sharp sword and armor does give a guy a degree of lingusitic liscense.

[Caius Fabius]

I was giving a costumed lecture at a fundamentalist religious high school. I had discussed the role of Romans in the Crucification of Jesus, the first Gentile believer (a Roman centurion), and the citizenship of Saul/Paul. I had shown examples of Hamata, and segmentata, different helmets and weapons, writing equipment and medical tools. I left 10 minutes for Q&A at the end of the lecture. The school superintendent, principal, teachers and the church pastors were also all attending.
I opened the floor to questions from the students.

First question was:
Did the Romans have contraception?" (asked by a teenage girl.)

I thought the staff was going to have heart attacks.
I smiled, answered "yes......, next question?"

:lol:

[AuxArcher]

This is from when I did American Civil War. During a break in the event, a Confederate (I was Army of the Potomac, i.e. Federal, i.e. Yankee) buddy and I were hanging out by the outdoor swimming pool (okay, the event was at one of those aweful RV campgrounds), and two guys and I argued for 20 minutes about the Confederate States of America winning the war. No, they didn't, says I...yes, they did, says they....no, the US won and the Confederacy lost, says I....nope, nope, nope, they rebs won the war, says they. They were positive, gods knows why, and probably my age, in their early 20s at that time. I am guessing they still believe that, wherever they are.

And if the general public can screw up events as recently as a century and a half ago, the Classical world is a far more strange and challenging thing to teach.

[Aetius Helvius Merula]

With respect to those with Southern sympathies, did they say why they won with Appomatox Court House and all that? Just curious. This stuff's good to know in preparation for when we start events.

[Materfamillias]

Hibernicus- Have you been to my house? :lol: so many of your statements are true, and funny!
I suppose we're lucky that all four in the house are re-enactors, so at least I don't nag Paterfamillias when the dining table is full of chainmail and he doesn't nag me about the shreds of leather hanging about. Our children also bear the brunt- we have a Draco, Maximus and an Aries (Draco and Aries being middle names) they'll either love us or hate us as teenagers- best to get your retalliation in first!

It makes me laugh when my 7 year old spots the innacuracies in films or in Historical houses, and him and his little brother practice testudos together in the garden.

When my (then) 2 year old was at nursery I was spoken to by the staff, the boys were all playing soldiers my little Maximus was shouting "Sin Dex" and nobody knew what he was on about- I had to explain he was speaking Latin and they were gobsmacked!

Ahh the joys

Kind thoughts
Materfamillias

[Iagoba]

Last page only!
www.romanarmy.com
Or directly to:
www.cohorsprimagallica.com/galeria_008.php

Funny kids! :twisted: