The Legions of Rome

[Arbeia]

Dont know if any of you guys have seen this but its one of my favourite roman documentries.
1/5
[url:1skox453]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO6EncF7Ve4[/url]
2/5
[url:1skox453]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctYVOkULD5E[/url]
3/5
[url:1skox453]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tisYI0eYs-Q[/url]
4/5
[url:1skox453]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aXGcpbxCL0[/url]
5/5
[url:1skox453]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN8ogakTgOI[/url]

[M. Eversberg II]

It was pretty cool, but it stuck closely with a particular cohort in Britain.

M.

[Magnus]

Maybe it wasn't in their budget to travel around as much as the actual romans did lol.

Great series, I hadn't seen it before...a laudes from me!

[Titus Juventius Tertius]

Is it just me or is there a significant amount of mixed armor, shields, weapons, etc in the reenactment scenes? This being set almost 100AD, I think I saw Republican shields in there, or am I mistaken? I suppose since there was so much leeway with equipment that it would be reasonable to have some mixed gear.

I also found a couple things silly. The working Romans always were fully armored. With a built compound with high walls and guards, you'd think it would be ok to down your gear and work. Of course it is a tv show reenactment. Can't be too critical I suppose.

I did think it was odd how much these archeologists man handled everything they found. These are priceless artifacts that are hundreds and almost thousands of years old. They seem very rough with them. If I found something I wouldn't want to touch it myself. Haha.

Nice bit of information though... I liked it. Glad to see it before YouTube shuts it down (they always do).

[Arbeia]

Is it just me or is there a significant amount of mixed armor, shields, weapons, etc in the reenactment scenes? This being set almost 100AD, I think I saw Republican shields in there, or am I mistaken? I suppose since there was so much leeway with equipment that it would be reasonable to have some mixed gear.

I also found a couple things silly. The working Romans always were fully armored. With a built compound with high walls and guards, you'd think it would be ok to down your gear and work. Of course it is a tv show reenactment. Can't be too critical I suppose.

I did think it was odd how much these archeologists man handled everything they found. These are priceless artifacts that are hundreds and almost thousands of years old. They seem very rough with them. If I found something I wouldn't want to touch it myself. Haha.

Nice bit of information though... I liked it. Glad to see it before YouTube shuts it down (they always do).

Just refering to your part on romans working in full armour.
Just to remind you that on trajans column roman legionaries are wearing full armour whilst building.
And i also read in the complete roman army book that they would not relax or take armour off until all defences were built incase of sudden attack.

[Titus Juventius Tertius]

Well the scene I'm talking about is where they're putting up the tent (2/5 or 3/5 video). It looks to me like the entire fortress is up (walls with sentries). You'd think it would be ok at that point. The work in the woods, I can see being different. Even then, you'd think you could punch scouts out a hundred feet or so and have time to don the gear before the threat got there.

A few of my books have images of "guards" overseeing other Legionaries while they worked with just tunics on. I'm not sure how accurate those images are but I certainly was in the same situation when I was in the military and rarely kept my gear on when I worked (even oversees in Iraq).

[ParthianBow]

The Romans were unbelievably strict about remaining fully armed while building a camp. There is a historical record of a senior officer who had a legionary executed for laying aside his sword while digging a trench. On that basis, it's reasonable to assume that they remained fully armed until the entire camp had been finished, tents and all.

[Magnus]

Is it just me or is there a significant amount of mixed armor, shields, weapons, etc in the reenactment scenes? This being set almost 100AD, I think I saw Republican shields in there, or am I mistaken? I suppose since there was so much leeway with equipment that it would be reasonable to have some mixed gear.

It is more likely that the particular reenactment group they were using is closer to early-mid 1st century, vs the start of the 2nd. A look at the gear is indicative of this...

I also found a couple things silly. The working Romans always were fully armored. With a built compound with high walls and guards, you'd think it would be ok to down your gear and work. Of course it is a tv show reenactment. Can't be too critical I suppose.

Yep, check out Trajan's column...

I did think it was odd how much these archeologists man handled everything they found. These are priceless artifacts that are hundreds and almost thousands of years old. They seem very rough with them. If I found something I wouldn't want to touch it myself. Haha.

I think those were "set-ups", where the crew would place an item in the ground and all of a sudden "look what I found!". Chances are in terms of worth and value they probably weren't as high on the scale as one might imagine...

[Arbeia]

Is it just me or is there a significant amount of mixed armor, shields, weapons, etc in the reenactment scenes? This being set almost 100AD, I think I saw Republican shields in there, or am I mistaken? I suppose since there was so much leeway with equipment that it would be reasonable to have some mixed gear.

It is more likely that the particular reenactment group they were using is closer to early-mid 1st century, vs the start of the 2nd. A look at the gear is indicative of this...

I also found a couple things silly. The working Romans always were fully armored. With a built compound with high walls and guards, you'd think it would be ok to down your gear and work. Of course it is a tv show reenactment. Can't be too critical I suppose.

Yep, check out Trajan's column...

I did think it was odd how much these archeologists man handled everything they found. These are priceless artifacts that are hundreds and almost thousands of years old. They seem very rough with them. If I found something I wouldn't want to touch it myself. Haha.

I think those were "set-ups", where the crew would place an item in the ground and all of a sudden "look what I found!". Chances are in terms of worth and value they probably weren't as high on the scale as one might imagine...

I doubt they were set ups as i live fairley close to vindolanda and they are pulling out fines daily.
Where i live near arbeia roman fort there are houses now built ontop of old buriel grounds etc and if you look or dig in the cellars, pottery and all kinds of stuff are easily found.
They even had a rubbish tip where a park stands today near the fort and as kids we would go there and dig for fun and we`d find all kinds of glass and pottery and stones that had been worn down by tools.
Arbeia stands on the opposite side of the river tyne to where the wall started and still to this day dredgers that dredge the river still pull up finds. One of the most famous finds they dredged up was a shield boss which was preserved in the silt.

Roman Britain, early 2nd century AD
Found near the mouth of the River Tyne.
This is the bronze centre panel from a wooden legionary shield of curved rectangular shape. It has been decorated with punched and incised designs that are enhanced by the application of a tinned surface to the background. The effect would have been of golden-coloured figures on a silver-coloured background.

The motifs include the four seasons (one in each corner); an eagle clutching an olive branch (on the central circular boss), with military standards at each side; Mars, god of war, above the boss; and a bull below. The bull was the emblem of the 8th legion Augusta. A detachment of that legion served in Britain under the emperor Hadrian (reigned AD 117-38). The inscription above the standards, LEG VIII AVG, shows that the shield belonged to a soldier in that legion. In fact, we know his name because he marked it on the left edge of the panel with a pointed tool: IVL MAGNI IVNI DVBITATI, which translates as 'the property of Junius Dubitatus, of Julius Magnus' century'.

[Magnus]

Ok...but TV shows tend to do that...and they looked like "set ups". I can't see them paying a camera crew to stand around for potentially hours on end (costing the production company huge $) to wait for a piece to be discovered...

[Titus Juventius Tertius]

I especially liked when the older gentleman after a shovel full of dirt was thrown into a wheelbarrow... that he just started breaking it apart. This was me... hock: It just blew me away. Even if I had found a million coins in a dig, I'd be just as excited to find another coin that might hold the next key to something we don't yet know.

[Robert Vermaat]

I also found a couple things silly.

Especially silly was the information in part 5 about 'what happened next'.
Everything said about the system 'breaking down' soon after the fort was built due to 'overextension' and all the other reasons mentioned were extremely silly and not according to what we know about the Later Roman empire or Britain. As if the Hadrian's Wall system did not continue past the mid-third century! :evil:
Booh! :x

[PhilusEstilius]

I have to say like many I did enjoy these documentries about Vindolanda however I also have to agree with Robert Vermaat with regard to part 5. There may have been a bit of bribery at the advent of Carracala around 211 AD but I can't agree that the Romans hid behind a Wall and payed the Picts to leave them alone. This is just foolish when we consider the later Roman history of Britain where the VI Victrics was still in garrison along with other troops around 430 AD and not 410 as archaeology would have us believe. Where we know that the VIIII Cohort of Batavians left Trimontium in 98 AD and moved south to Vindolanda like many other regiments that withdrew from Scotland at that time, there were still many movements to and fro into Scotland by several Emperors in so many campaigns for centuries after that time. The soldiers can not of felt home sick for this land was their home they were not Dutch, French, German, or even Syrian anymore for they were a very cosmapolitan race that had undergone intergration over many years.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Also, having just spent a great weekend at Corbridge, I have re-assessed my view of the 'poor Legionaries' posted to the wall....lucky ba$£ards!!! Definately a 'This is our domain, and you have to pass our barrier to enter' sort of place! :lol:

[PhilusEstilius]

I have to say that I do like the Dubitatus shield boss for this was one of the first pieces of Roman gear that I made many years ago. I was still in Military life then very local here in Northumberland working on search and rescue Helicopters, when I finished the shield boss I put it onto a scutum and it went to the Roman Army Museum on Hadrians' Wall which is part of the Vindolanda Trust.
That was when I first met Robin Birley and he wanted so much more so I went on to create around 60 % of his Roman Army Museum, I also had the great pleasure of being commissioned to recreate the famous Vindolanda Horse Chamfron which is still there today at the Vindolanda Museum.
It was some time after that when I had yet again the pleasure to be commissioned to also recreate the Trimontium Horse Chamfron for the Trimontium Trust just shortly after I had reproduced their Cavalry Sports Helmet. Indeed both C. van Driel - Murray and I do consider that the two Chamfrons may have been made by the same Roman craftsman, I even think that both may well have been made at Vindolanda and the first one was left at Trimontium when the VIIII Cohort of Batavians left Scotland and moved down to Vindolanda around 98 AD
It is so wonderfull to think that after 2000 years I have done exactly what a Roman craftsman did right there at Vindolanda so there we are this particular place does hold somthing for me. I had a great time last week when Itook another young Batavian with me to Vindolanda just before he took part at the great event at Roman Corbridge ( our very own Jurjenivs ) and I enjoyed it very much.