Trainingday with Pax Romana
Added 2023-11-06 18:22:21 +0000 UTCSalvete friends,
Last weekend Alain and Floris joined the Pax Romana training day and made an extensive report for you guys!
Since we started making documentaries, we have been affiliated with the reenactment group Pax Romana. This had many advantages for us because firstly we were already good friend with many members of the group, secondly Pax Romana helps us a lot with materials, props and extras in our videos and thirdly because Pax Romana is one of the best reenactment groups in the world.
Due to our private work, but also due to our own project with Imperium Romanum, we were often unable to participate in these training courses. Fortunately, we had no excuse this weekend so Alain and Floris drove towards Museum Castellum Hoge Woerd, the headquarters of Pax Romana.
Once we arrived, we had to quickly unload the shields and the spears and change in Roman gear. Our Centurion Simon was ready and steady with his Vitis (Vine-staff) to give us a tough drill training.
The program was as follows:
- Commands
- Marching
- Formations
- Archer formations
- Javelin throwing
- Archery
Marching and changing formations on Roman commands remained a challenge for us, because we don't practice it enough. But with the help and supervision of Centurion Simon we did very well.
Fortunately, we were able to prove ourselves during the javelin throwing exercises. Our strength and technique allowed Alain and Floris to throw far, from standing position and also with a run-up technique. And during the archery training we did very well and we were shocked by our own skill despite we didn't had any experience at all.
It was an educational, tough, but above all a fun day, which we certainly worth repeating. Simon thanks for the training!
Comments
hey Chuck, there's no way to say definitively how strict they were, but just going by general remarks and the overall Roman military mindset it seems quite safe to assume the Romans were very strict in their discipline indeed. There's multiple examples of soldiers being punished for falling asleep during guard or not having their sword or armor with them while digging trenches for example, so most likely other smaller breaks of discipline would have had proportional punishments for them - like any army would nowadays too, just part of military life one would think.
Imperium Romanum
2023-12-31 11:18:35 +0000 UTCHow strict was the actual training in the Roman Army? Modern armies are fairly strict about the correct ways of marching...posture, how weapons are carried on the march, how one broke ranks, etc...and while i wouldn't expect such from reenactors, I'm curious if there is any evidence telling us how strict the Romans were.
Chuck Sherman
2023-12-03 20:48:52 +0000 UTCThis looked like a blast! Lucky to train in soft kit - well done, gents!
willeichler
2023-11-11 12:13:59 +0000 UTC
