VEMBRACES

[Sean Manning]

Tell you guys what...hide beyond your text books and "sources" all you want, but that is simply the beginning of reenactment. Come on out to Lafe, which seems to be one of the few events that is immersion based and making a concerted effort to experiment in an archaeological context, and then we'll continue this discussion.

Far too many of you base so much of your opinions on the theoretical without implementing any of it and testing it out. Makes your opinions a bit hollow.

Still, with the number of bad reenactments out there, people have a reason to be skeptical. A few people here are using their own experience to insist against the evidence that the Romans must have used arm protection... but unless they were using the right weapons in the right way their experience may not apply. And its hard to judge that from talking on the Internet!

I'm busy getting the martial arts training that one needs to judge an interpretation, and if I ever look seriously into Roman combat mechanics I may try to get out to Lafe, but those take time and money that not everyone has.