Corbridge Roman Festival

Yesterday, my middle child andI went tot he Corbridge Roman Festival. My dh and other two asked to be excused on grounds that it didn't really interest them. So, my middle child shuffled with embarassement as I asked questions of members of the Roman Miltary Research Society. They were fetchingly dressed in blue tunics. The colour of tunics was decided twenty years ago and they pointed out -- no one knows for certain what the actaul colour of the tunics were.
Personally I doubt they were blue (or as blue as they havethem) blue was a difficult colour to dye. Also the Romans didn't particularly like bright colours on their men. The current research shows that the ordinary footsoldier probably wore white while the officers (including centurions) wore scarlet.
However, it did look attractive.
I was able to lift the chain mail coat. This is what an officer would have worn over his tunic during the period I am writing about. The segmented armour did not come into being until about the end of the Augustan period.
Also they explained when the different swords came into use. The shorter gladius with its parrell side and sharp point was in use during the late Republic.

Unfortunately the games tent had blown over and I was unable to actaully play any ofthe Roman board games. The men I was speaking to assured me that the soldiers often painted game boards on the reverse of their shields and played at latrunculi or tali during rest stops.

We also watched the Romano-British cavalry thundering up and down the field.

I had a good converstation about rituals and the nature of the Roman religion.he was upset that due to the wind his demonstration of Roman ritual was cancelled. Luckily he had already cooked the entrails.

After I returned home, I spent a very tense early evening listening to the cricket. Unable to stand watching it (and also because my dh was flicking back and forth between Geordie gloom (Man U v Newcastle) and the match) I listened via my computer and tried to work on my wip.

The wip is coming on. I think it is getting stronger andI at last feel like I am on the home stretch.