Grey Lynn Festival - Sat XXVI November
Imperium-Romana had great fun at the annual Grey Lynn Festival attended by over 50,000 people. Our Civitas Romana living history camp provided a display of Roman equipment including our real leather tent, Jovial altar and ballista. We chatted with the curious public answering their questions on many different Roman topics, put on displays of combat training and demonstrated various weapons. Our Vicus kids' activities allowed children to try on a real Roman helmet, write on a beeswax tablet, and shoot a crossbow manuballista at the barbarian balloon-head dummy to save Rome. Many kids were able to pop the balloon, whereas many boastful adults tried and the dart just bounce off old balloon-head - some barbarians are tougher than others! Thanks to Vic's boys Daniel and William for manning the activities area - great job!
For the Roman show we signed up a brand new recruit for the Roman Army and dressed him in all the essential gear while demonstrating its purpose. When asked "What does a Roman wear under his tunic?" the crowd made same interesting replies, before being informed that "he wears his caligae - the Roman hobnail army sandals." We taught our new recruit the army marching song "Da mihi gladium..." and explained its Latin meaning, then drilled him in military formations until he was good enough to join a howling charge at the crowd with drawn swords, followed by some good old hand to hand combat and shield clashes, before finishing with an advancing vallum formation against live arrow fire! Our recruit passed his training with flying colours, so we told his Mom we were off to conquer the barbarians, but don't worry, we'll have him back home in 30 years time.
The gladiator show involved a lot of audience participation - first choosing our new Roman emperor, his lictor carrying the fasces symbol of his imperial power (hence Fascism), the imaginer holding the image of Jupiter so the gods could see what was going on, the Priestesses of Fortuna with their victory palms to bless the gladiators and the crowd, the weapons-inspector to certify that the swords were real steel and not Hollywood plastic, and the musicians to clash the cymbals with the action.
The first fights were the wild beast shows where two volunteer gladiators fought some wild tigers, and then the main event - Decebalus the Dacian fighting as a hoplomachus against Lucius the Damned fighting as a Murmillo. The giant Murmillo, evil villain that he was, soon overpowered the Dacian, the last surviving prisoner from the Dacian Wars. The rudis referee halting the action, much to Lucius' anger, to give the old Dacian his traditional weapon - the Dacian falx - for his last ever battle. He was soon battered down, and raised his finger in missio for mercy. The baying mob howled for DEATH voting thumbs down, but some hard hearts had a spark of sympathy for the old Dacian, because even louder they voted LIFE thumbs-up. It looked like the old Dacian might live, but fortunately the emperor had the final say, and was persuaded to vote DEATH - Lucius slashed a dagger across his throat and the children gasped as the blood spilled - and so die all who dare defy the might of Rome!
Charon the ferryman in his death-mask stabbed the corpse to make sure he was really dead, while the Priestesses of Fortuna awarded Lucius his victory palm. But lucky we had Greek Doctor Galen in the house, who was able to apply his healing hands and bring our dead gladiator back to life - but I told the crowd not to worry, we will kill him again next week! Then the emperor rewarded his arena volunteers with gifts from the Roman war god in the form of tasty Mars bars. Hail Caesar!
The first fights were the wild beast shows where two volunteer gladiators fought some wild tigers, and then the main event - Decebalus the Dacian fighting as a hoplomachus against Lucius the Damned fighting as a Murmillo. The giant Murmillo, evil villain that he was, soon overpowered the Dacian, the last surviving prisoner from the Dacian Wars. The rudis referee halting the action, much to Lucius' anger, to give the old Dacian his traditional weapon - the Dacian falx - for his last ever battle. He was soon battered down, and raised his finger in missio for mercy. The baying mob howled for DEATH voting thumbs down, but some hard hearts had a spark of sympathy for the old Dacian, because even louder they voted LIFE thumbs-up. It looked like the old Dacian might live, but fortunately the emperor had the final say, and was persuaded to vote DEATH - Lucius slashed a dagger across his throat and the children gasped as the blood spilled - and so die all who dare defy the might of Rome!
Charon the ferryman in his death-mask stabbed the corpse to make sure he was really dead, while the Priestesses of Fortuna awarded Lucius his victory palm. But lucky we had Greek Doctor Galen in the house, who was able to apply his healing hands and bring our dead gladiator back to life - but I told the crowd not to worry, we will kill him again next week! Then the emperor rewarded his arena volunteers with gifts from the Roman war god in the form of tasty Mars bars. Hail Caesar!
