Cast
your mind's eye back through time to ancient Roman Britannia.
The year is approximately AD 43, and the Great Roman
Empire has virtually conquered the world, by force and by skill-at-arms. The
Romans have built a formidable military machine, based on well-equipped,
strictly disciplined forces, commanded by some of the greatest military minds
in the history of mankind.
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LEGIONXIIII,
posted in the South East of Britannia...is but
a mornings march from the ancient Roman city of Verulamium...and can be seen
giving performances to the general public in Verulamium Museum. (Which stands
on the ancient Roman site of this once flourishing city).
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MARCVS CASSIUS, pictured below as a Roman Centurion of LEGION XIIII.
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Based in rural Eastern Hertfordshire, within a morning's march from
the Roman Verulamium settlement and Hypocaust, we are...
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The Roman
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THE
ORIGINAL LEGION XIIII
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Roman
Gladiator handle Penknife
This handy Roman 1st Century penknife
is not unlike types that we still use today.
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LEGION
XIIII AUXILIARY CAVALRY
THE AUXILIARY
CAVALRY CAN PROVIDE AN AMAZING DISPLAY OF HORSE CONTROL, WHETHER THROWING
SPEARS FROM THE GALLOP OR RIDING THEIR PONIES IN ONE OF 5 GAITS, UTILISING
THE INHERENT EQUINE CAPABILITIES WHICH ARE UNIQUE TO THIS BREED. THESE HORSES
ARE FULLY EQUIPPED WITH ROMAN FOUR HORNED SADDLES WHICH GIVES THE RIDER AN
EXCELLENT PURCHASE! BASED ON AN ORIGINAL SADDLE RECONSTRUCTION OBTAINED FROM
PETER CONNOLLY... WHICH HAS BEEN MODIFIED TO ACCOMODATE MORE RECENT PRACTICAL
RIDING EXPERIENCE BY THESE GERMANIC RIDERS WITH THEIR AMAZING PONIES.
A WEEK IN THE WELSH
MOUNTAINS FOR BBC2
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Marcvs
training soldiers in the Black Mountains ... during a cold wet week in late November
2000!
Some shots they did not show you...
the water did not feel cold because our body heat had lowered during the week.
But almost every night the whole valley froze up. By 1000
hrs each morning the temperature rose just above freezing making the ground
a wet cold mess. I laid straw around the encampment to at least give our feet
a break from ankle deep wet fluid cold mud.
The Romans unlike the BBC new better than to campaign in the
winter!
Filmed by BBC and shown many times on Discovery & History
Channel.
Keeping the fire
going was a difficult task during the worst recorded rainfall in Welsh history.
Every piece of wood was water logged. All wood had to be dried before we could
burn it.
The mountains had become waterfalls and the tracks rivers.
Unfortunately this was not shown by the BBC as it was not a programme about
weather... so they said! :-[
Those lovely frozen tents in the morning...
the crispy white grass... the frozen sandals... the ice cutting wind! After
just one night it was to much for one of the recruits... one blanket against
a frosty night and he had had enough. Even the camera crew were safely back
in a nice warm farm house a few miles away... before it was dark. The weather
was our real enemy... not the discipline or even the food. We fried no eggs...
or bacon... or sausages... we seemed to be living on basic vegatables. Yet the
romans would have eaten such as these foods!
LET US DEMONSTRATE THE USE AND POWER OF THIS
DEVASTATING EARLY WEAPON, FIRST MENTIONED IN ANCIENT WRITINGS BY PHILON IN
200 BC. LIKE THE SCORPION, THE ROMAN ONAGER IS ALSO A TORSION POWERED SEIGE
WEAPON.
BY THE FOURTH CENTURY IT WAS IN COMMON USE BY THE ROMAN ARMY, USED TO SMASH
DOWN ENEMY FORTIFICATIONS BY HURLING A GIANT 80 KILO ROCK. THE ONAGER EARNED
ITS NAME,WILD ASS, BECAUSE OF THE POWERFUL KICK GENERATED BY THE RECOIL AS
THE SEIGE MACHINE UNLEASHED IT'S HEAVY PAYLOAD!
