A Roman Walk In The Park

[MarcusNorwood]

I am planning to take a 15 mile hike in the near future and thought it would be prudent to test myself on a shorter trip first. Today I covered 6.1 miles in 1 hour 45 minutes. I knew the scutum was going to be trouble so I lashed it on my shoulder. I still found it cumbersome and had to hold it in place. There has to be a better way than how I was carrying it. The rest of the kit didn't bother me. The actual amount of time I was hiking was longer but I was stopped five times by people along the trail for a photo opp and a brief explanation of what I was doing. Several people yelled out "This is Sparta" another called me a gladiator and another asked me if I was going to a joust. One guy asked me if my hike had anything to do with the end of the world. Over the last 400 yards I jogged to finish strong. I had to great time doing it despite the difficulty with the scutum and I think several people got a kick out of seeing me and learned something to boot.

If anyone can post a diagram of how best to sling a scutum I would grateful.

Salve,
Marcus

[Caballo]

Hi,

Heres a couple of links that may help - a couple of old RAT threads and the excellent Florentius site
http://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat/20-roma...strap.html
http://www.florentius.com/scutumcarriage.htm
http://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat/20-roma...rness.html

-

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

I am assuming you were fully kitted out, with pila and sword pugio etc?
No one freaked out and called the police?
Are you here in the UK or in the US?
I want to do this myself, but with the attitudes of people, I fear being thrown in jail or at worst ,having to fight off a mob of local neds....

Did you make any prearrangement with the police?

[M. Demetrius]

Good job on the hike. You were moving along briskly to cover that distance so quickly! Sorry I can't make the Dec 29 hike. But please do take a camera, and take lots of photos. Hope you can get a couple of trail companions to make the walking more enjoyable.

[Flavivs Aetivs]

Yeah good luck.

Have you tried carrying your scutum on your back like a backpack? That always seemed plausible to me.

[MarcusNorwood]

I am assuming you were fully kitted out, with pila and sword pugio etc?
No one freaked out and called the police?
Are you here in the UK or in the US?
I want to do this myself, but with the attitudes of people, I fear being thrown in jail or at worst ,having to fight off a mob of local neds....

Did you make any prearrangement with the police?

I live in the Republic of Texas. I could have had a concealed handgun if I wanted to. You are expected to collect weapons in Texas.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

:lol:

Yeah, I wait to see what will happen when I decide to test my kit.
I've had to wait for other peoples agendas too often and gotten nowhere.

[Neuraleanus]

I knew the scutum was going to be trouble so I lashed it on my shoulder. I still found it cumbersome and had to hold it in place. There has to be a better way than how I was carrying it.

If anyone can post a diagram of how best to sling a scutum I would grateful.

Salve,
Marcus

You need a harness. Here is a picture of the Junkelmann harness that I made:


[quote]I fear being thrown in jail [/quote
Here in the USA no one cares (yet) about edged weapons, it's just guns that people freak over.

[Musivarius]

Surely you just need one strap? It goes around the handle then over your left shoulder. You keep your hand around the handle but your shoulder takes the weight. Then if the shield was needed quickly you just grip the handle and you can lift it into position. If need be it can be looped over the right should to move it behind you.
The above one just looks like there's more bits to break.

[Neuraleanus]

Surely you just need one strap? It goes around the handle then over your left shoulder. You keep your hand around the handle but your shoulder takes the weight. Then if the shield was needed quickly you just grip the handle and you can lift it into position. If need be it can be looped over the right should to move it behind you.
The above one just looks like there's more bits to break.

The problem with a single strap is that your legs tend to hit the shield. With two straps, one strap goes around the right shoulder moving the shield to across the your back. You can then balance your kit hanging from the furca pole across it and the combination becomes very comfortable.

[MarcusNorwood]

Surely you just need one strap? It goes around the handle then over your left shoulder. You keep your hand around the handle but your shoulder takes the weight. Then if the shield was needed quickly you just grip the handle and you can lift it into position. If need be it can be looped over the right should to move it behind you.
The above one just looks like there's more bits to break.

I carried it as you describe. That method works well for the first 3 miles and then my shoulder started getting tired. Also you use a good bit of energy keeping the scutum from hitting you legs also. Its far more efficient to carry it like a back pack.