Why do 1st Century Roman groups avoid combat

[John Conyard]

I think the answer maybe be part historical. While many historical re-enactment groups were set up with mock combat in mind, Roman re-enactment has a long history of reconstructing artefacts including sharp weapons. Indeed hitting people with blunt swords is often perceived as silly compared to reconstructing military artefacts, which has a higher purpose. This in turn attracts a different type of re-enactor, perhaps a little older than some with different ways of presenting to the public. And I suspect many people enjoy collecting items of Roman dress and equipment with absolutely no intention of using it except to dress up in and pose for photos.

However Comitatus has always taken a slightly different approach, but one that does not involve mock combat with casualties and staged deaths. The display is a scripted show designed to be educational, exciting and sometimes humorous. Sharp missile weapons are used, and sharp swords are carried. But there is also a training combat section using wooden swords plus capped javelins and spears. I think most late Roman groups would now do something similar. You can use such a session to educate the public, for example to explain how the shield is used to parry not the sword, the correct fighting distances for various weapons, the importance of footwork and the heft of the weapon. At the same time sharp versions of the training weapons can be demonstrated to the crowd using a series of cutting exercises. The public can begin to identify and associate with individual soldiers who they can support and follow for the rest of the display.

I have not seen an Ermine Street guard display for many years but am pretty sure a section of their display would also involve such “armature” using training weapons.

The use of sharp weapons and training combats make displays very competitive and enjoyable for the members taking part. Some of us spend time practicing with various weapons to become more accomplished in their use, both on foot and on horseback. Compared to 25 years ago when I started, we can now source good quality sharp and blunt weapons and there are fighting systems to demonstrate most weapons. Roman re-enactors are lucky in that we can carry out such entertaining training combats as part of a display while still showing the public something worthwhile.