07-18-2021, 02:57 PM
I too would like to see this forum revitalized and continue, but I have to say IT IS still very relevant to anyone interested in military matters from the start of the Hoplite period all the way to the later Roman period. It is a depository of relatively easy to access "peer reviewed" information, most still relevant, and I check in almost daily still. Some of the information here was digested by youngsters who went on to get undergraduate and then graduate degrees and are now moving into academia or are junior working archaeologists. I know this as I met many of them at the University of Pennsylvania (Ivy League) Museum as a long term volunteer in the Classical Galleries and the influence of this forum is profound on that generation. In fact many are or were "reenactors" or just collected the gear and wore it for their personal pleasure. Almost every young man who studied anything about ancient Rome owned a Deepeeka "Gallic G." If this forum went away it would a great loss to the "lurkers" who make up the majority of every forum, they don't post but they do read.
That said this type of forum has limitations, as does Facebook Reddit. I stay off Reddit as some folks there just like using using foul language and that does nothing to further knowledge. Facebook is awful for presenting ideas coherently as it's so easy for discussions to go off in a dozen directions at once, some relevant and some not. Because it reaches so many folks around the world I now post mostly on the International Hoplite Discussion Group which complements this forum I'd say. For example, I took an old discussion here on sauroters and continued it over there. I added dozens of new pictures of artifacts, references to published works going back a century and old quotes from distinguished members here, and in the end we as a group contracted 20 very high accuracy reproductions of a well published bronze/lead sauroter at Harvard Univ. with a well respected professor/bronze artist in Norway. Via Facebook we contacted over a dozen bronze artists around the world and collected numerous bids before we settled as a group on the most accurate version, it will have lead added to the alloy as the maker wants to be accurate. These pieces will be as exact a copy as exists in the world today down to the surprising hollowness almost down to the tip. It was this forum that brought such details to the reenactment community, but the manufacturers of modern sauroters, a must have item for Hoplites, as exist in the marketplace today did not produce anything close to accurate and the one person who did, was not interested in making them anymore. If I had used this forum only I'm not sure we would would have had more than an academic discussion on the subject, and it is very very easy to post pictures on Facebook. Not all 20 sauroters are committed so if anyone is interested drop me a line at [email protected]. I am simply the facilitator of the group and make no money for my efforts.
So I hope this forum stays alive and not dilutes its core focus on Classical Civilization Warfare and all the subjects like textiles, trade and politics that are as relevant as swords and helmets.
That said this type of forum has limitations, as does Facebook Reddit. I stay off Reddit as some folks there just like using using foul language and that does nothing to further knowledge. Facebook is awful for presenting ideas coherently as it's so easy for discussions to go off in a dozen directions at once, some relevant and some not. Because it reaches so many folks around the world I now post mostly on the International Hoplite Discussion Group which complements this forum I'd say. For example, I took an old discussion here on sauroters and continued it over there. I added dozens of new pictures of artifacts, references to published works going back a century and old quotes from distinguished members here, and in the end we as a group contracted 20 very high accuracy reproductions of a well published bronze/lead sauroter at Harvard Univ. with a well respected professor/bronze artist in Norway. Via Facebook we contacted over a dozen bronze artists around the world and collected numerous bids before we settled as a group on the most accurate version, it will have lead added to the alloy as the maker wants to be accurate. These pieces will be as exact a copy as exists in the world today down to the surprising hollowness almost down to the tip. It was this forum that brought such details to the reenactment community, but the manufacturers of modern sauroters, a must have item for Hoplites, as exist in the marketplace today did not produce anything close to accurate and the one person who did, was not interested in making them anymore. If I had used this forum only I'm not sure we would would have had more than an academic discussion on the subject, and it is very very easy to post pictures on Facebook. Not all 20 sauroters are committed so if anyone is interested drop me a line at [email protected]. I am simply the facilitator of the group and make no money for my efforts.
So I hope this forum stays alive and not dilutes its core focus on Classical Civilization Warfare and all the subjects like textiles, trade and politics that are as relevant as swords and helmets.
Joe Balmos
