Fellow Romans,
Today, I was talking to a fellow history major about reenactment. He is an American Civil War reenactor, and he informed me that there are nearly 50,000 reenactors in the United States. Unfortunately, I could not give him the same information about our beloved hobby. Therefore, I ask: how many Roman reenactors (gladiators and barbarians included) are there in the United States and Europe? While I am certain that it is nowhere near 50,000 (we can dream though, right?) I would still like to know.
Regards,
Tyler
In Sydney Australia (or at least the state of NSW) there are about 20 that I am aware off. Victoria is meant to have a few but I've not come across their group. Funnily enough we are being outdone by the New Zealanders who had 20+ for a country with one fifth of our population.
Hard to say. In America and the US? The best estimates are saying about 100-150 active guys across the US and Canada. 250 if you count inactives and the "once a year" types.
About 10 per Legion is the Average, although Legio VI Ferrata has about 30 if you count our other Three Cohorts across the US (Cohort 1 in SC/NC and Cohort 2 in Oregon/Washington State being the largest).
Legio XI in GA has about 10 across GA and AL. We partner with them, but Edge is in Kuwait right now so they haven't been doing anything.
Legio IX in Virginia has about 10, Legio XX in Maryland has about 20 (although they have a tendency not to go more than about 20 miles to an event, so half of their members are also members of IX so they can go do things at a range).
Legio II Augusta in Canada have about 10 I think. I'm pretty sure Jay is up there with Matt L.
Legio VI Victrix in Cali, maybe 20 active guys.
However, the new Legio XIIII at the Citadel has 55 guys signed up to do it, and 4 of them came down to Castra (out of 20) so we might see about 10-20 guys based out of there.
The Cornuti Seniores in TX have about 3 guys, but they're partnered with a larger unit (maybe X Fretenses? They have about 10-20).
Don't remember who owns Lafe, but I think he's got about 10 guys
Oh, and I have one guy besides me in the Valentiniani (We're part of Legion 6)
I have a good question, why is everyone in re-enactment named Matt or Paul? Literally we have like 5 Pauls and 5 Matts here on the East Coast.
Oh and we can definitely lay claim to the Tallest Legionnaire here in Legion 6. He's 6' 8" or 6' 9" (Over 2 meters).
Quote:Oh and we can definitely lay claim to the Tallest Legionnaire here in Legion 6. He's 6' 8" or 6' 9" (Over 2 meters).
Get that man to the Ludus! He'd make an impressive gladiator-especially if he's got any size to him.
He does that. I've seen him as a Secutor, perhaps he does other roles.
**
As for the count, just like in the real Roman army, paper strength and field strength are very different. I know of one group that has over 30 on the main list, plus another 25 or so on the second-level contact list, but when a typical event rolls around, only two or three show up, and two of those are also active members of other groups. I helped do a "census" about 7-8 years ago, when people had more disposable income than today, and we came up with around 200 in the US and Canada combined. We tried to weed out the double-listed people. Probably those numbers have declined in the last 4 or 5 years.
The Cornuti Seniores mentioned below, probably two semi-active members, are a subset of Cohort Five in Central Texas. You think it's hard to get a group of Principate Romans together in Texas? Try Late Roman for an experience in frustration. All the members of the CS are active members of at least one other group, also. The overlapping membership is hard to sort out.
The numbers we came up with then for "Celts" totaled around 100, with the largest group being Gaesetae in CA. The thinking was that these cultures simply are not North American history, and people mostly don't see the relevance. Probably the largest group of reenactors in the US are American Civil War, second is Revolutionary War and what we call the French and Indian War. Some of those folks are also in the American Fur Trade era as well...
I wonder how many celts are around now. After like 5 years of nonexistence three of them came back thanks to our Legion recruiting from the SCA, and that was only 2 weeks ago.
Legio VI Cohort II in Washington State has about 3 guys doing 4th century Germanic, and a couple of Celts too.
What's the number for Greeks? I'd imagine about 20. I know there's some guys who do Republican Roman too. We thought about putting a couple of basic Greek kits together so we can do Greek Festivals too.
Late Roman is hard to get together, there's about 3 guys in GA who are gonna do 5th century Britain, they thought about joining me and have been doing Fur Trade for ages. I've got one guy about my age committed over in Greenville, he's gonna start buying equipment soon.
Leg VI in SoCal, we can generally field around 15-20 soldiers for an event, plus around 10 civilians, and around 4-5 Romano British Celts. But again we have more on paper... I'll never understand why someone would take the time to join a group, put together a kit, and then not show up for anything... It's like all dressed up and no where to go.
But the good news is that we re growing, not sure if other units are seeing growth as well, but we have around 5 new members in the last few months that we haven't added to our roster yet... So hopefully we will see things start to turn around.
Quote:I wonder how many celts are around now. After like 5 years of nonexistence three of them came back thanks to our Legion recruiting from the SCA, and that was only 2 weeks ago. .
On Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada there is Project Germani where the romans are out numbers by Germanic tribesmen. The group is slowing growing I think theres around 10-15 people only 3-4 being romans but i'm not exactly sure. My numbers may be off since I haven't actually met all of the members, only estimating from event photos and from talking to their leader. The group seems to be mostly fielded by students from University of Victoria. I know their fb group has 42 members but some are people from some roman groups in Washington state and the mainland Canada.
Good to know.
We've had an increase in Civvies with the SCA partnership that we've developed.
Last I spoke to the Project Germani chieftan he told me that germanic/celtic tribesmen has been popular over roman in his area due to the equipment is simpler and cheaper which is better for a student.
Yeah, there were 4 Pauls in our group .... Me being number .... 3?
Does a larger number mean something important?
Yeah, sure, it would be fantastic to have an event where we in the U.S. have a full 5,000 some odd manned Imperial Legion. That would be just wonderful. But, the period is just not that popular in the States. On one hand, I'm OK with that. Quality over Quantity.
On the other hand, it's down to economics and not enough free weekends. So many of us have a lot of different periods and have lots of other obligations and restrictions like work (or lack of), family, etc. That certainly seems to be the major factor across the reenacting board recently anyway.
On a side note, I went to the BGA Gettysburg 150th. That was more reenactors in one place I've seen in my entire life and time doing this reenacting thing (only about 10 years). I'm told that event had pretty low numbers, but it was some 8-10,000 more people than I've ever seen. But, once we get to 2015, what then? It's a "graying" hobby and period, a lot of reenactors [will be] retiring or getting out of the hobby, and not a lot of younger people doing it, never mind able to finance major events.
oddly enough, though, it is "easier" to "play" with firing blanks and [blackpowder] at people at a distance. It's difficult to show close-quarters sword and spear combat to the audience, as well as for reenactors to get a sense of it but still be fairly safe. If bayonet charges are totally forbidden in 'modern age' reenacting, then I don't see how pila and slingshot and arrows are going to be allowed, as there's no real way to make those "safe" enough. I personally like my teeth and don't feel like eating a sword blade or an edge of a shield. ;D But I'm veering off-topic here.
You raise some excellent points, we had the same discussion on FAR. The issue is the cost and the fact that we have only a handful of young people in it. I'm the youngest member of my group, at 18, and everyone else is over 40 or 50, Josh being the second youngest in his 20 and 30s.
If groups are getting one new 20-ish year old every ten years, they won't survive.
Quote:Therefore, I ask: how many Roman reenactors (gladiators and barbarians included) are there in the United States and Europe?
Are you talking about armed men? Or civilians included? Roman groups in The Netherland would number an estimated 50-70. This may be similar in the Scandinavian countries, but far less that Britain, France, Germany, Spain and of course Italy.
In Europe alone I would estimate 10.000, or something like that.
I was looking for total numbers. I was rather suprised that reenacting seems to be "graying", as Andy said above. I, myself, will be 21 in a couple weeks. I intend to start reenacting as soon as possible. However, as Andy said again, I have other obligations (and geography) that, for the sake of time and finances, prevent me from doing regular events. While I do love talking and learning from everyone, I can't wait to actually get my hands dirty.