DEVA 2012

[M. Demetrius]

Donkey walloping? New sport? :?:

[Vindex]

Donkey walloping? New sport? :?:

UK colloquilism for riding horses.

Comes from cavalry types being rude about mounted artillerymen...(or that's what I've always been told!)

[ParthianBow]

Looking forward to seeing lots of RATers, as well as 300 to 400 Roman soldiers. Yes, you heard correctly. That is what the organisers are hoping for!

I'll be there with Anthony Riches (Empire series), Ruth Downie (Medicus series) and Douglas Jackson (Rome series).

[Graham Sumner]

Me too as well Ben! Will look forward to meeting you, Ruth and Antony again.

Best wishes.

Graham.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

I look forward to seeing the lot of you, and meeting you Claire and Vindex!
Hopefully you will take those measurements Claire?

[Ghostmojo]

Let's hope the weather holds. It has been so nice recently - they should have held it last weekend - almost Mediterranean weather at times. I hope to pop along and see at least some of the festivities on either Saturday or Sunday. It's been a busy week in Chester what with the Olympic Flame having visited there yesterday evening.

[Vindex]

I AM going to be playing with horses this weekend, but fortunately the clinic is not too far away so I look forward to finally meeting some of the RATers and old friends Tillerman Beads and Cunicula.

[Cheyenne]

I'll be with the Batavians for the saturday with a small display of textiles, garments and doing some spinning with my lovely rare breed fleeces

I'll be in the tent with the weaving loom... you can't miss it

[Quinthalas]

See you guys there ! I shall be there with the cavalry

[daryush]

See you all tomorrow. If you see a Persian flag around, come and say hi :mrgreen:

[Nurglitch]

I got very mixed impressions.

The march itself is great, really gets the blood pumping. The "feel" of it is awesome. And then there's the God Emperor, Domitian, who can fill the square with his insane rant without any mike and speakers. I love this insane rant, I love how it makes me want to hurl pilum into British faces. As the Emperor he is totally awesome.

But... the standards of kit are mediocre and not getting better. I have noticed a grand total of 0 improvement since Chester 2011 and at times it does resemble a set of Hollywood movie, not a reenactment event.

- bracers, bracers everywhere! The leather Hollywood bracers on milites, on optiones, on officers. People who command and who should be setting the kit standards have those bloody Russel Crowe bracers.
- medieval chainmail hauberks worn as hamata. 8 or 10mm rings, clenched and not riveted, clearly in shape of medieval chain shirts. And this (again) even on the officers! Something between 50 and 75% of chain mails looked like this.
- chainmail (even the accurate one) worn as decoration, as a prop and not an armour. Worn directly on tunics so that it simply stops making any sense whatsoever. Maybe there were some people who actually wore chain on proper padding (and I don't mean paper-thin cow hide), but I haven't seen any.
- subarmalis out of wild dreams of a Hollywood set artist. Some absolutely Xena-fantasy pteruges (including officers with thin pitiful half-circles cut out of cowhide) on them. Cowhide everywhere, patterned after American movies. Decorations without any source or reference, just made up after a consultation with a goat and a camel. After the march and around the camp those would be worn without armour to strut out the fantasy stuff.
- a guy with modern running white socks in his caligae!
- Brits with medieval bags, XVIIc dirks, XXc faux wineskins. A Brit in a tank-top!
- Medieval and larp bags dangling of the balteus militaris, they were everywhere you looked. Those and female purse-sized bags.
- scale armours made with scales the size of surfing boards. Where is this coming from? Some of them looked like dragon slayers.


Add to this the general level of disregard for the kit. The segs were tied in such a sloppy way that you could insert a shovel into the gaps on the backs and fronts. The shoulder-blade plates routinely caught under the trunk plates, there wrong overlaps all over the place. It was raining yet the gear was not oiled and no one used the sagum. This is what it's for! It , along with olive oil, protects your bloody armour when it rains so then you don't have to spend 3h with sandpaper. I assume people are helped into their gear by their friends, yet those friends will not tie and check the back segments properly? The group leaders do not give a damn how their soldiers look for the parade? Please, do get your act together.

[Vindex]

Golly - reading that I'm not quite so embarassed about getting the wrong weekend! (I thought it was first weekend of July :roll: )

I've heard that it is cold and wet, but surely there was SOME good kit?? The Legio II Aug boys were going to be there...

[M. Caecilius]

I've heard that it is cold and wet, but surely there was SOME good kit?? The Legio II Aug boys were going to be there...

Wouldn't be the first battle against the British forces Legio II Augusta missed! :mrgreen:

That impression sounds rather bad, tough. I was at a Celtic festival last weekend. The Roman groups was fine (the Tungrian Cohort), though the Celts were a mix of everything from La Tène to touches of Edward's Scottish Wars. Yet I can't complain, since it was not set up or advertised as a historically accurate meeting, but a festival organised by the local Scouts which has become a fun weekend out: so some elements of fantasy are allowed there. I assume that DEVA is different, though. Are there any rules/controls for such events?

[Nurglitch]

Some - yes. I think Augusta kit was the best. I'd say around 50% of the kit was of decent level. Almost no good chain mails though and out of those good ones almost none worn properly. The bad level of gear on the officers (there was even one evil-black helmet!) was a particular disappointment.

[Vindex]

Wouldn't be the first battle against the British forces Legio II Augusta missed! :mrgreen:

Tut, tut! :wink:

As you say, one would have hoped that an event such as Deva would try and get it right. But, sadly, perhaps the people in their Hollywood-esque garb may think they are right?

And as for the weather, it seems to be UK wide. The Queen's Coronation was held on a cold an wet day from what I'm told (too young to have been there :mrgreen: )