Show here your Roman soldier impression

[Virilis]

Very nice, Ignatius!

[Crispvs]

I agree - very nice!

Just one thing which I hope will be helpful.

Your baldric arrangement, whilst very nice, would be very old fashioned in comparison with the rest of the kit. Such a baldric would be typical of the late second to mid third centuries AD. We cannot say for certain when they went out of use but I think it is generally agreed that they had gone out of use well before the mid to late fourth century period the rest of your kit seems to indicate. A narrow sword belt or baldric would be far more typical for that period.
For the rest of your kit, well done indeed!

I hope that this helps.

Crispvs

[IGNATIUS LARRASUS PROFUTURUS]

I appreciate your words.

Crispus, I am fully aware of the case Baldric and I have another more appropriate to the fourth and fifth century but I decided to use this Baldric for photos because I have to use in a project about Saint George. The saint died in 303 or 304 and thus developed his military career in the late third century. The sword that I carry is of the third century also. In any case I appreciate your advice.
I know the sword is a questionable deepeeka but with time I hope to improve this and other things.

[attachment=3449]EnGuardia.jpg[/attachment]


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[IGNATIUS LARRASUS PROFUTURUS]

The greaves are also the third century and probably shields digmata not exist until mid-fourth century. I know the approximate dating of the equipment but I need the photos for different purposes.

[Titvs Statilivs Castvs]

Here is a picture of me and one of the (unfortunately not that many) soldiers who were present, taken this weekend, on the (private) 'warm-up'-event of our Legio XI CPF. We went marching on the countryside, but without fully loaden furca (however our centurion did). It was a good trip to start the season with. :-)


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[kranger3]

Nice pictures Titus! Can you tell me where the second guy from the right (white tunic and dark legwraps) got his lorica hamata? Did he make it himself or buy it? I really like how the shoulder doublings are perfectly vertical.

[Titvs Statilivs Castvs]

Hi Danny,

I'm sorry, I don't know. I do think it has got to do with the subarmalis he is wearing underneath, raising the shoulders. It might be one sold by armae.com.

[Marcus Mummius]

It's one made by DSC. Indeed sold by Armae and Armamentaria,...

It was a nice patrol.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Great looking impression Marcus!
Are your feet a little wet?

[Crispvs]

Nice pictures. Good idea to have a march in kit as a warm up event for the year. It would certainly make a change from the two weekends of drilling we do prior to the beginning of the re-enactment season each year.

I feel I should make a point about shield carriage. I notice that most of the men in the pictures appear to be carrying their shields on their backs by a harness featuring two shoulder straps. I have no doubt that this works well, but it is at odds with what little evidence we do have about shield carriage on the march. These are one of the Mainz column bases, Soldiers shown on Trajan's arch at Puteoli, Trajan's Column, and probably the stele of P. Flavoleius Cordus. All of these show shields carried around the left shoulder and Cordus' stele and the Puteli figures show what appears to be a single vertical strap over the left shoulder. Experimentation has shown that when combined with a horizontal strap across the chest (which may or may not be shown on the Mainz image) this vertical strap is sufficient to do the job fairly comfortably.

Here is mine, although the segmentata shoulders hide the vertical strap. The shield naturally hangs slightly further forward and I was holding it back somewhat when the photo was taken in order to better show the supporting strap (the photo was taken about five years ago to illustrate a point on a different thread).


http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b73/Cr...imbase.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b73/Cr...zzouli.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b73/Cr...cordus.jpg

One more thing. Can we PLEASE start a serious movement to get rid of the short straps people keep on using to attach their pugios to their belts. It is based on precisely NO evidence.

Crispvs

[Titvs Statilivs Castvs]

I don't see why you count all these soldiers as being on the march, or why this would exclude our "system".
The Cordus stele seems to me a soldier having (temporarily) swung his shield on his back (holding the straps used to hang it on his back, regardless of what 'system'), rather than really having it like that to go marching a few kilometres/miles. The soldier on the Mainz base could also be holding his shield with his hand (judging from your image, maybe it's more clear on other ones).
None of the soldiers is wearing a loaden furca (neither were we of course, but you'd say that it's possible that if they had a system for long marches, it could have been used for shorter patrols as well).

Of course it's all speculation. mile: But it is a really easy and comfortable way (as if you would be wearing a heavy backpack): just two straps going through the handhole, around the grip. The weight is evenly distributed on your shoulders and it is stable as well (it doesn't go swinging around, or turning around the handgrip).

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

I like the way the shield sits, but how easy is it to extricate your arms from the straps?

[Marcus Mummius]

Very easy in fact. These are just two buckled belts. If you put the tongue of the belt in the right position it takes a few seconds to unbuckle the belts and your shield is free.

@Crispus: we use 3 different carriage systems at the moment in my group. For this patrol I tried out the two strap system my brother normaly uses. I had not tried it out before on a longer march. It is in fact very easy to use, also with a fully laden furca, additional shovel,...

Here are some more pictures of a march we did a few years back. http://www.legioxi.be/fotoslentemars2009.htm

But there are alas no closeups of the different carriage systems in that album.

I once did some marching once using a carriage system with a strap that went over my left upper arm. I think it was the Junkelmann system. This was a horrible experience. It almost completely immobilised my left arm and hurt like hell after half an hour :-)

[Graff]

Here is a pic of my group at the Tampa Bay Renn Fest 2012....

[Marcus Mummius]

Two years ago a there was a professional photographer amongst the public at one of the events my group attended.

I only saw the pictures last week, some are quite cool I think.

Some examples: