5th century naval tent

[Caballo]

Ages ago I found this pic of a fine Victorian, Percy Gordon, camping in Goring, Oxfordshire. One fellow Roman pointed out quite rightly that it was very "Three Men in a Boat."

[img] http://henrytaunt.co.uk/images/camping-i...s-wood.jpg[/img]

I was thinking that using oars would be a great way of making a tent if you are travelling by boat- and actually at that stage thinking more about early Saxon travellers.

I was reading tonight a poem called "The Return/ De Reditu" written by Rutilius Claudius Namatianus written in 416 AD describing a sea voyage from Gaul (where "long wars have ruined the fields of my native land") to Rome (from the Penguin "The Last Poets of Imperial Rome", bought second hand for £1.50).

He goes by sea as "Tuscany and the Aurelian highway have already fallen to the Goths. It is best to trust the seas because the rivers are not bridged and the land has become wild again".

He camps near the shore - "we pitched our tent on oars that we used for tent poles".

So, we have a new style of tent design for Late Romans, and with contemporary and dated Late Roman evidence...

Cheers

Paul

[Nathan Ross]

Interesting picture! But surely Namatianus is going the other way, returning from Rome to Gaul?

The whole text of the poem, and a useful introduction, is online at Lacus Curtius. The poet mentions that his group is travelling in 'little boats' (cymbae) rather than ships, which is presumably how they can use the oars to make tents - I would guess that oars for a larger vessel like a trireme or liburnian would be too long to use in this way?

[Semisalis Abruna]

In the 19th century, the Royal Navy and the US navy used masts and sails to make shoreside tents for their men. Smal boat oars would be fine for little tents but you could get a fair few crew under sail sized tents held up by bireme oars.

Nice find, Paul - I have been thinking of such a tent since we started doing late Roman navy but to have some evidence is great mile:

[Caballo]

Thanks- I did think of your Classis Sabrinae whenI spotted this!

The Latin mentions a contos (barge pole ?) as a transverse pole as well btw.

"parvula subiectis facimus tentoria remis:
transversus subito culmine contus erat."

The translation in Lascius Curtis is "we raise our little tents with oars as props; a pole set crosswise helped firm a hastily fashioned roof."

My wife , who is a writer also pointed out that the same tents were used in Swallows and Amazons!