Cambridge Autumn festival - Sun 23 April
The annual Cambridge Autumn Festival was held on a glorious sunny Sol Invictus day. The Imperial Romans, led by Centurion Petronius, were invited to pacify the local barbarians, and marched about town looking to lay out their new Roman fort. Many people were intrigued by the unusual groma, the four-armed surveying device used by Roman engineers, with one lady school teacher even tracking our centurion down a day later to inquire exactly what it was because she couldn't sleep for thinking about it. She said that she knew it didn't look like a typical Roman weapon. Petronius explained its use, and how the Romans often won wars with spades, hard work and planning, just as much as with swords. Legionary Pilosus looked intimidating as usual, and has now officially scared more children even than our signifer's wolf head - quite an achievement!
The town square became the arena for gladiator fights between our retiarius, Petronius the Pict, fighting with net and trident, versus Glaucus the Grey fighting as a Thraex, with curved sica-sword, and Decebalus the Dacian, fighting as a Hoplomachus with spear and hoplon shield. The baying mob voted thumbs up and down for life or death. This was meant to be just some light-hearted sparring as demonstration-only for the crowd's entertainment, but the two rival brothers soon found themselves locked in a death match before turning on the referee! Damn gladiators, so hard to control.
