DEVA 2012

[Crispvs]

I'm sorry not to have been there! I was fully expecting to be but unfortunately my car went and failed its MOT on Friday afternoon (rather too late to arrange a lift from anyone) and the relevant work on it could not be carried out until the following weekend!

Not having been there I cannot really comment on much of Piotr's list. But some things are a constant headache in Roman re-enactment. Leather wristbands / bracers are one of those things every new group seems to think are necessary and have to be trained out of. Unfortunately most people will consciously or unconsciously ignore research in favour of either what they see others doing already or what films and illustrations in books have shown them.
A case in point of this which is a constant annoyance to me is the use of a pair of leather straps to attach pugios to belts. People only do this because they have seen other people doing it but most then seem to become deaf to any suggestion that the sculptural evidence is utterly devoid of these straps, even though many people complain of their pugios jumping out of their sheaths when they run (due to the sheaths swinging about on the erroneous straps). Another, related, thing which really gets my blood boiling is the use of the lower suspension rings on pugio sheaths. 100% of the available evidence says that the lower rings were consistently unused by the Romans, yet numerous people have made appeals to spurious ideas of practicality and convenience when I have mentioned this to them. Some have tried the legitimate argument that 100% of the army wouldn't have done everything the same 100% of the time, but until the evidence turns up for even a single Roman pugio sheath having lower suspension rings which did anything other than sit there and look pretty any such argument falls on its face. I have to say that I get sick and tired of hearing people with virtually no historical knowledge telling me airily that "soldiers in every age have done (insert modern practice here) so the Romans probably did too." I am almost on the point of taking persistent offenders aside and cutting the straps with a razor and throwing the remains in a river!
Trousers being worn by first century AD legionary re-enactors are another thing which annoys me. People start to feel cold so they say to themselves: 'the Romans must have got cold in cold weather just like me. They would have seen the trousers being worn by Germans and Gauls and thought: those seem like a good idea - I'll get myself a pair'. Yet I would like to see some evidence before people start using or recommending trousers or either type. We certainly know they were in use fifty to sixty years after the period most of us depict, but that does not necessary mean they were in use by legionaries as early as the mid first century AD, especially when they had so many other options for keeping themselves warm already which did not come from the 'barbarian' realms. People tend to forget that the Romans were not like us and did not think like us.

I feel I should address the matter of subarmali. It is true that many Roman re-enactors do not wear these, but then again, when I first came to Roman re-enactment fifteen years ago form a mediaeval re-enactment background, I noted at the time that virtually no Roman re-enactors wore padding under their armour, when at the time I put down to the fact that most Roman re-enactors are not combat re-enactors and have little idea of combat considerations. I would have to say now though that from what I have observed myself, half or more Roman re-enactors are now wearing some sort of padding under their armour and this appears to be improving all the time in terms of both numbers and commitment to accuracy. If anyone doubts that, hunt out the 'Padded Armour' thread from a few years back.

Anyway, that is probably enough of a rant from one who was not at the event being talked about. Sorry to have missed you all. I was very much looking forward to seeing quite a number of you again. Next year I must take the car in for its check a week or two before the car tax is due. :roll:

Thanks for the photos Graham!

Crispvs