02-16-2011, 11:52 PM
This is a excerpt from a Yahoo new article, By BJOERN H. AMLAND, Associated Press Bjoern H. Amland, Associated Press (heavily edited):
-In a newspaper op-ed, the (owner of a shipping company) said history shows that fighting piracy requires a gloves-off approach.
"Pirates captured in international waters have always been punished by death, often on the spot," he wrote, arguing that modern navies should deal with the problem like Roman pirate hunter Pompey did more than 2,000 years ago."-
So I interprete this as a need for Roman Marine reenactors. First, we should all need a Quinquereme, and a few fast liburnae. Roman Marines should be equiped with a bronze helmet (to resist rust),the Montefortino, to be correct for the era, a mail hamata, for the flexabiliy, and the oval shield , so as not to catch on thing protruding form the decks. The use of the corvus is up for debate. I doubt there would be any casualties, the shock of the Roman Navy coming down on any pirate would be enough to stop them from anything but astonishment.
I think reenactor marines should recieve the same pay and benifits as was given by Pompey, plus shares of loot. I think a sign-on bonus will help also. Up until the time of Vespasian, Marines recieved "shoe money", so this would be an addition. I will not go into the color of the tunic as this would just cause a debate. I think it would be left up to a vote of the reenactment crew.
Other member thoughts on this are appreciated.
Ralph
-In a newspaper op-ed, the (owner of a shipping company) said history shows that fighting piracy requires a gloves-off approach.
"Pirates captured in international waters have always been punished by death, often on the spot," he wrote, arguing that modern navies should deal with the problem like Roman pirate hunter Pompey did more than 2,000 years ago."-
So I interprete this as a need for Roman Marine reenactors. First, we should all need a Quinquereme, and a few fast liburnae. Roman Marines should be equiped with a bronze helmet (to resist rust),the Montefortino, to be correct for the era, a mail hamata, for the flexabiliy, and the oval shield , so as not to catch on thing protruding form the decks. The use of the corvus is up for debate. I doubt there would be any casualties, the shock of the Roman Navy coming down on any pirate would be enough to stop them from anything but astonishment.
I think reenactor marines should recieve the same pay and benifits as was given by Pompey, plus shares of loot. I think a sign-on bonus will help also. Up until the time of Vespasian, Marines recieved "shoe money", so this would be an addition. I will not go into the color of the tunic as this would just cause a debate. I think it would be left up to a vote of the reenactment crew.
Other member thoughts on this are appreciated.
Ralph
