Castra Aestivia 2009 (Tillsonburg, Ontario) Great success

[Titus Quartinius Saturnal]

We had nearly 30 participants at the event with representation from II Augusta & Legio XXX plus one member from Legio XXIV. The weather was perfect. The fort itself now has a fully functioning gate and this allowed for some interesting interaction between a not so friendly auxiliary and the legion. The pay shipment went missing and this provide an opportunity for some interesting shenanigans . Drills and competitions, however were the focus of the weekend with archery, stone throwing, pilum and sling events. Several things that stand out including the food preparation by Terry Greer , black smithing by Michael Currie and leadership by Sean Hurst and David Blaine. Although our flaming arrow failed to work, we manage to melt brass and reproduce a brass roman coin. This is event turned out to be the largest roman event in Canada. TQS

[The_Mariner]

duplicate posting,

[The_Mariner]

duplicate posting, original was on... original posting for this event.

(I apologize for miss-spellings now)...
To see the fort slowly rising out of the earth and the walls getting longer and enclosing more of the fort is
great to see each year, coming in through the gate you first see a great fire pit which
will become the center for nightly discussions of all manner of subjects, behind that we
have the open expanse of parade square and the Prencipia behind that. To the left we
see the cook tent with the fire pit and the large kitchen set up and dish washing area.
There is also a huge awning for everyone to recline under and keep out of the sun, merchants
selling sewing supplies, fibule, pottery jugs and goblets, lamps of many types, gourds for
drinking vessels and canteens, belts, stone slings, spoons and small tools all need some inspection.
Next to this moving toward the back wall is the blacksmith and then the tents for the
artisans and cook crew. We then look to the right, we see a great multitude of tents
including the II Augustin tent which is now painted and oh so nice. There are members
from the 2nd the 24th and the 30th legions (all using Capricorn as a symbol, strange no?).
We also have a large contingent of auxillia and some Barbarians. The fort starts to feel
a little smaller now. Behind the fort about 100meters away is the archery range and pila range.

Since it was pay month there was a large coin presence in the fort. The Barbarians made a raid
and stole the money and a banner from the XXX legion, the hunt was on.....

Patrols soon found the location of the highly mobile Barbarians, a few battles were fought
and some surprises happened on each side, much valor and skill being displayed by all.
The legion also went through much drilling and maneuvering in front of the fort on the grand plaza
getting everyone to work as one seemed at times like a challenge but we continued to improve and
soon were working together quite well.

While the legions were out on one of their patrols the barbarians managed to overpower the
cook and blacksmith and the few wounded soldiers in the fort (but they took some losses in the
process) The combined legions upon hearing of this double timed it back and perfectly executed
a lightning strike under the new Centurion from a unexpected flank position easily disposing of
the Barbarians except for two captives who after some questioning (and much good acting) finally
reveled the location of the banner and coinage. A fine roast of meat was had by all that night
and with much new provisions of god given nectar's the night was passed in celebration the archery
practice, pila practice and stone slinging and throwing activities all having been put to bed with
new skills learned and old ones improved. We had a member of the 30th show us how to make
new coins by sand molding, the blacksmith show us how to make pila heads and many other
skills we will all take with us, very interesting, thank-you to everyone.

A final patrol and then the sad packing and saying good buy for our old friends and new friends
and shield mates. Looking forward to seeing them all again. We cannot say enough about how well
we were fed by our cook, our bellies have never been empty, and we all know we want more of
that bacon, roast and sausages....

I am leaving out great quantities of happenings and goings on but it was a great weekend
with nothing but sunshine for the days and stars at night, temperatures 25+C for day and
about 12-15C for the nights, a great weekend.

I really want to thank our host for allowing us to play in his sand box for this weekend,
you do not know how nice this event is and how much it means to us, thank-you.

PS: is was the largest event in Canada that I know of, sort of the Canadian version of LAFE.....

PSS: I even won a nice pair of Roman underwear this weekend!