Show here your Roman soldier impression

[Folkert van Wijk]

That looks pretty cool Cheyenne!

Am I right that I spot some Skythian, Sarmatian influence here?

b.t.w. next time I would like to see you wear your stuff.

[Aemilianus]

[img][/img]

Hello,

Here is a picture from LEGIO I ANTIQUA depicting us in republican legionaries from the 2nd century BC.

Yes this looks good, looking foreward to see some details of your equipment here...

Thank you for your comment, I have posted some more detailled pictures there:

http://www.romanarmy.com/rat/viewtopic. ... 4&start=20

[Folkert van Wijk]

Thanks, Jean where did the design of your shield come from?

[Cheyenne]

Hi Adrian,

I did cheat a bit .. I have a good supply of tapestry material of impressions taken from the tomb of the Etruscan warrior in Rome... it is a frieze effect that can be cut down into the orbiculi and clavii relatively easily - I got it from a fabric shop that had loads of it for a rediculously cheap price.. It's the perfect fabric for it to be honest... I make these for others in our group too... I tried to handstitch the fabric to the main tunic using the stitching methods I saw at the Bolton museum Coptic textiles collection..

Folkert,

To be honest, it seems to hang better on him than on me... he is about the same height as me... 5ft 3inches - a good Roman height! - Yes, there is some Scythian influence - I painted my bow case to incorporated a mix of the earlier scythian and later Roman styles and the phrygian cap speaks for itself I suppose... I like the idea of mixing styles - such an approach came from my studies into the importance of regionality in the study of later Roman identity..

Thanks for the compliments... I am thinking of doing a full cataphractarii impression (depending on funds) for next season with a Sarmatian touch

[Aemilianus]

I got the plans from Peter Connolly. He had made a Study of the the Fayoun Shield with Florian Himmler of the Regensburg University. He send me a detailled drawing with all the measurements and the correct place for the inside rings used to transport the shield found on the original.

Erik König from Aurificina Treverica made the wood in Birtch, then I glued two pieces of whool. The whool was ten impregnated with a mixture of bone and fish glue.

Design is based on the arch of Orange, the colors are made with pigments and caseine. The colors are taken from 3 fragments of paintings from Pompeï showing republican shields that Erik had in pictures in one of his huge library. All al them had that strange blue color inside.

Ira König helped me with the painting technique, using a fresco technique, that does look not too precise when you are close, but a relief impression when you back up a meter or two.

A few details are still missing thus, but I plan to finish them by the end of august when I come back from vacation.

I hope that this answer your question.

[Aemilianus]

Here you can see a bit of the inside shield



Click to enlarge :wink:

[Folkert van Wijk]

I actualy meant the drawing on the front, but the other info was also welcome :wink:

[Ceasar Augustus]

What have I missed?

[Octavianvs]

the shild and the work you have done is impressive ! Well Done ! Laudes to you!

[Octavianvs]

Aemilianus - let me know when you complete it! x ? .

Ceasar Augustus you have just made it here to see Aemilianus who is also rather new to the forum showing off his shild .

[Aemilianus]

Ok I will post infos when it is completelly finished. It is indeed a lot of hardwork, as usual everytime you embark yourself on a new project you estimate roughly how many hours it will take... and when you finish it you discover that you have spend 3 to 4 times that amount of time!!! But you look at it and you wander why it took so long. Part of the answer is that you buid something for the first time, if you have many to make, you dicover new ways more efficient and sometimes faster. Also, no matter how good you are, we buid these objects in limited quantities, and you can never hope to be as good as a master craftmen in antiquity that spend years on working over and over on the same thing.

Many times I told myself never again! but with time, you sometimes discover new archeological evidences that will make you want to change or improve what you have done, and sure again you go back to it... I think that I am never completelly satisfied with what I do; It has good sides and bad sides to it. But I least I do not hesitate to put myself in question over and over! This keep me on moving on.

The Republic make me think differrently about all my equipment, I had to restart from zero and redo everything from the tunica to the shoes.

My equipment is not complete yet, among other things the shoes are a big problem. Peter Connolly wrote me that I could use Caligae, but the evidences I found pointed more for perones. I still need to have these more researched and made. I will go for both actually and I am still looking for evidences. So if anybody can help me you will be more than welcome.

Thank you for your interest on this subject and period of history.

[Aemilianus]

When I said I had to retink and redo everything, here is what I used to wear when I was dressed as an imperial signifer. Here the photo comes from Augst in Switzerland in 2007. The Swiss Legio XI CPF, a very fine group invited me as a guest Signifer.



Click to enlarge

You can see that not a single piece of equipment is the same... well exept for the marsupium, but this can do for any period.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Great impressions!

what shoes did you use for the republican impression? Caligae?

[Aemilianus]

Salve,

For the Republican I use my old Augustean officers boot that were made back in 2000, and have seen quite a bit of service... I do also wear my caligae in other occasions.

But both these shoes are not really correct for the period, as my caligae is a late first century model!

I hope to have new ones by the end of the year. For the perones normally two or three months.

Vale

[Aemilianus]

Click to enlarge
Here are some overal pictures of Marle last month that show the whole roman legionary century... It was indeed quite impressive!!!