Howick Summer Festival - 26 Feb, Lloyd Elsmore Park
At the Howick Lions Summer Festival our Roman living history camp gave demonstrations of Roman equipment, answered questions, and provided children's activities: "Join the Roman Army! Sign the wax-tablet, wear a Roman helmet, and shoot the manuballista at barbarian balloon-head to save Rome!"
Our Roman show signed up a new recruit to join the Roman Army who was dressed as his equipment was described to the audience: tunic, segmentata, helm, scutum, gladius, pilum, caligae (worn under the balteus), cloak to carry his loot, pugio to cut up his lunch, the dolabra axe-pick for building roads, and the all-important toilet sponge-stick. He swore the military oath to fight to the death for the emperor and the glory of Rome, then joined our shield charge at the crowd with drawn swords. His training included pilum throwing, gladius sword-fighting, and vallum shield-formation advancing against archery fire, as he trained to shoot the recurve-bow. Finally the ballista field-artillery where the recruit pulled the release-pin to fire the powerful ballista darts at the barbarians. The Roman army is a great career, and we told his mother he'd be back in 30 years.
Our Roman show signed up a new recruit to join the Roman Army who was dressed as his equipment was described to the audience: tunic, segmentata, helm, scutum, gladius, pilum, caligae (worn under the balteus), cloak to carry his loot, pugio to cut up his lunch, the dolabra axe-pick for building roads, and the all-important toilet sponge-stick. He swore the military oath to fight to the death for the emperor and the glory of Rome, then joined our shield charge at the crowd with drawn swords. His training included pilum throwing, gladius sword-fighting, and vallum shield-formation advancing against archery fire, as he trained to shoot the recurve-bow. Finally the ballista field-artillery where the recruit pulled the release-pin to fire the powerful ballista darts at the barbarians. The Roman army is a great career, and we told his mother he'd be back in 30 years.
Our Gladiator show was specially geared toward young families with plenty of audience participation. We had the Roman emperor, his loyal bodyguard, his lictor carrying the fasces symbol of imperial power, the imaginer holding up the image of Jupiter witnessing proceedings, the Priestesses of Fortuna blessing our gladiators for luck, the arena musicians clashing their cymbals, and the official weapons-inspector checking that the swords were real steel.
The first match saw the undefeated champion Marcus the Butcher fighting as a murmillo versus the unknown first-timer Nemo fighting as a thraex. Nemo was dominated by the size and power of the murmillo, but due to his speed and agility put up a surprisingly good counter-attack. Finally overwhelmed, what should have been his death was manumitted by the cheering mob voting thumbs-up for life. The Romans always appreciate courage against the odds.
The wild beast show had two beastiarii fighting against a tiger. The tiger made a valiant effort, but was finally dispatched.
The first match saw the undefeated champion Marcus the Butcher fighting as a murmillo versus the unknown first-timer Nemo fighting as a thraex. Nemo was dominated by the size and power of the murmillo, but due to his speed and agility put up a surprisingly good counter-attack. Finally overwhelmed, what should have been his death was manumitted by the cheering mob voting thumbs-up for life. The Romans always appreciate courage against the odds.
The wild beast show had two beastiarii fighting against a tiger. The tiger made a valiant effort, but was finally dispatched.
The final match saw the victorious Marcus the Butcher versus Petronius the Pict fighting as a retiarius with trident and net. This was a battle for the ages as Petronius deftly avoided the huge murmillo and wrapped him up in the net and trident jabs. However, just as his death was assured, Marcus grabbed a discarded scissor and slashed Petronius. The cheering mob howled to give him another chance fighting as a scissor for their entertainment, much to the chagrin of Petronius cheated of his victory and ultimately rewarded with death. Ghoul-faced Charon checked the corpse and affirmed that he really was dead and not just shamming. Fortunately there was a Greek doctor that knew some amazing medicine learned from Asclepius how to bring the dead back to life. It was a relief to the little ones that Petronius was all okay. So we can kill him again tomorrow. The Emperor handed out Mars Bars to his loyal subjects.
You can watch a video of the fights below.
You can watch a video of the fights below.
The NZ Gladiator School's Marcus and Nemo in training under the guidance of doctore Petronius. Brutus the lanister described the gladiator types to the watching crowd, and offered them the chance to participate, but sadly no takers.
Early morning and the ever-efficient Romans were the first to set up camp. The only ones that beat us there were the Fire Brigade. A funny story, they sheepishly admitted that they had got there especially early just in order to camp in our regular spot (since we had beat them to it last year, when space was at a premium). They didn't know the Military Tattoo had been replaced by the Summer Festival so we were all in different places now anyway!
