Tessera

Volume I, Number 10 September, 2007

Avete, Comilitiones.

News/Events:

Well, comilitiones, we can certainly say that September was a SUPER month for Legio XI, featuring two really great events.

The first was a Military Timeline event at the Atlanta History Center on Saturday, September 15th. Although the weather was hot and we did not get the level of public interaction that I think we all wanted, we did meet some nice folks and were able to welcome our newest member, Mike Waugh. Thanks to our loaner kit (made possible by everyone’s hard work), we were able to outfit Mike with everything but caligae at his very first event and he looked superb. All in all, it was a good “warm”-up for Kennesaw, and we had 7 members present, which was a pretty good turn-out.

The second was a similar event later in the month, a Military Timeline hosted by the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History in Kennesaw, GA, 28-30 Sep. Fortunately, we were joined by many of our brothers from out of town: our good friends Rusty & Ellen Myers and comilitiones from Legio VI; Saul Cardono and Dave Maxwell from Virginia; Mike Daniels from Texas; and our very own Legate Julius from Louisville, KY. Thanks to all of them (and Rusty’s hard work in bringing down a trailer-load of camp gear and kit) our combined efforts netted the Romans the award for “Best Encampment” for the entire event! This is a superb accomplishment of which all of us can be proud.

We had a total of 15 Roman re-enactors on site: 1 Legatus (Julius); 1 Centurio (Rusty); 11 legionaries; and 2 auxiliaries (Chris Damour and Alex Matras looked superb in our loaner kits). Mike Waugh was able to find himself a segmentata that fit him (thanks to Rusty) and, after making the acquaintance of a box of red wine, learned what being a legionary was REALLY all about. It was great to see both of our brand new, less-than-one-month in the legion, members dressed out and drilling in their kits.

Also present at the event were our great allies, Jesse Bailey and Glenn Kyle, both from Conroi FitzOsbern. Jesse presented his matchless Viking Impression (complimented by his wonderful wife Wendy’s Viking Lady’s impression) and Glenn’s Norman impression was also superb. The really great news is that Jesse has expressed an interest in joining Legio XI and pursuing a Roman Auxiliary Cavalry impression – he is an accomplished rider who owns his own mount – which would really make Legio XI the envy of the Roman world! I really hope that Jesse follows through with this intention since his great re-enactment experience and attention to detail would ensure that this would be a premier impression.

Finally, we had a couple of potential tirones ask about joining Legio XI, and hope to see them at a workshop or event in the near future. I can’t WAIT for Castra to roll around and hope to see all of our brothers who could not join us at Kennesaw in Givhans in November.

September Workshop:

Myself, Alex Kyrychenko, and new member Alex Matras worked on Alex K’s clipeus, adding a brass rim and the umbo. Thanks to this effort (and Jennifer Cook’s superb paint job) we were able to field this shield at Kennesaw. Seeing the kit on display really makes all that sweat worthwhile, and we now have two of our COH I BAT clipei ready for use. New member Mike Waugh’s car broke down, but he was able to come down the next weekend and assist Alex and me with some other projects for the loaner kit. Jennifer dropped off two more of the beautifully painted auxiliary clipei, and says that she’s working the casting of our apron studs and hamata breast hooks. Can’t wait to see them when complete. She also says she’ll be happy to paint our legionary scuta – so you new(er) members that still need a scutum – take note. She wants them in batches of three (bless’er!), so Brian, Andrew and Chris Damour all need to get your woodwork done (if not already) and get the front/back covered with linen and/or leather so they are ready to paint. We’ll start scutum blanks for Alex Matras and Mike Waugh very shortly so they can start on theirs as well.

Member News:

As previously mentioned, we have two new members, Alex Matras of Huntsville, AL, and Mike Waugh of Rome, GA. Alex is a no-kidding “Rocket Scientist” (Ph.D.) who works for NASA and Mike is a Latin teacher (good news for us – we need all the Latin help we can get). Both have already attended their first events! It is wonderful that we continue to grow, and that our new recruits are as knowledgeable and supportive as Mike and Alex. I also fielded enquiries from Justin Evans of Rome, GA while at Kennesaw. Both Justin and his friend Andrew have expressed an interest in Roman re-enactment and I hope that we see them soon.

We have several member projects on-going. Chris Damour recently completed a very, very nice balteus using plates from Albion and buckle/frogs from The Quiet Press and wore it at the Kennesaw event, and has his caligae on order from PAR Fabrica. It’s always good to see guys wear their own equipment. Alex Matras received his caligae from PAR Fabrica and has already completed his legionary tunica, with balteus parts on order from CLANG and The Quiet Press. Mike Waugh is working on making some caligae as well as his tunica – can’t wait to see them.

We have several scuta in the works – Brian Lauthen and Andrew Magee both have blanks complete with the handles and bracing attached. All they need at this point is to have the linen and/or leather coverings and they will be ready for paint, rims, and umboa. We have a blank prepared for Chris Damour, and I was able to find some bendable birch plywood to replace the luan we’ve been using. It’s much easier to shape, and both Alex Kyrychenko and I intend to use it to construct Republican-era scuta. I bought enough of it so that we should be able to start putting birch blanks for all our new guys in the press in short order.

Remember – anytime someone needs help with a project I am usually available every weekend to assist.

Loaner Gear and Financial Report:

More progress here on Loaner Kits #3 and #4. I received a great blade for the seax for Kit #3, as well as some nice antler for the hilt. I also got the Gallic helmet to use as the basis for the Krefeld helmet conversion. Once we get these two projects finished – the seax and the scabbard, then we should be able to field this impression for Castra (I am going to really try my best to get these two projects complete so we can have this impression there – it will really look good). We also made some progress on Kit #4, in that we received two pair of braccae and two more tunics, which gives Kit #3 some more depth and starts us on the road to Kit #4.

Here is what we have on-hand and on-order for Loaner Impressions #3 and #4:

On Hand:

2 x Germanic tunics

2 x Over-tunics

2 x Braccae

1 x Celtic/Germanic gladius

1 x Leather balteus

1 x seax (work in progress)

1 x Krefeld helmet (work in progress)

On Order:

Nothing on order yet – need to make some money!

To complete kit #3, all we really need to do (in addition to the above) are complete a clipeus and a hasta and then it will be ready to go (I have loaner-gear-to-the-loaner-gear for one each clipeus/hasta in the meantime for Castra). My goal is to have these two impressions completely ready to go by the Georgia Junior Classical League Convention in April 2008, meaning that we should be able to field four complete auxiliary/loaner impressions for that event.

Financially, we still owe the fiscus $243.00.

Upcoming Events:

9 Nov 2007: School visit to the Stratford Academy in Macon, GA. Looks like myself, Alex K and Chris S have committed to this one, but everyone is welcome. We’ll give a demo to a large audience and then do some small-group interaction.

Finally, the last BIG event of the year is Castra Romana near Charleston with our Brothers from Legio VI. I know we all want to be there – dates are 16-19 November.

Upcoming Workshops:

Next workshop is scheduled for Saturday, 6 October at Chris Stewart’s house in Whitesburg, GA. The map to his house is posted on the Yahoo! website in the “Files” section. Would suggest that folks bring anything they need help with, and if I can hand off some of the wood and/or scutum blanks I have in my basement then perhaps we can work on those as well.

That’s it, Brothers.

Valete,

Gaius Aurelius Calvus (Edge Gibbons)

Centurio