Which roman soldier would you have been? (Combatants)

[Steakslim]

I would have been the legate Legion! Maaarrrcchhh!

[Jona Lendering]

I have a repeated nightmare that I am a soldier at the Limes in the Black Forest, fighting against the barbarians out there, only to find, on my return to the Rainau fort, that the commander of the garrison has surrendered and is now drinking tea with the Germanic leader; they are both standing on one of the towers, looking down upon us.

[Steakslim]

Next time dream that you have the forts only ballista with you :twisted:

BTW didn't the germans sacrifice captives?

[Carlton Bach]

Would, should, or have wanted to be?

I probably would have been the guy who genuinely does his best and kind of fits in, despite being visibly unsuited to the task both physically and emotionally. Until I have some sort of stupid accident and die.

I should have been one of Vegetius' "literate men", the interpreters, filing clerks, investigators, planners, scribes, accountants, court recorders and receivers of hefty bribes. A job that involves travel, power, the use of one's brain, and as little actual getting killed as humanly avoidable.

I would have wanted to be in the medical services. It'd mean doing something genuinely useful with the skills I have (I suck at crafts and am an abject coward, but my memory works pretty well, I have a hand for all things that get cooked, mixed and distilled, and everyone says I am good with people).

[Steakslim]

I meant combatants :twisted:

[Fennia]

Most likely a basic legionnaire, nothing fancy.

[Steakslim]

Very well then Bascius Nothingus Fancius Legionarius (God I love qausi-latin) give me twenty :twisted:

[Fennia]

Very well then Bascius Nothingus Fancius Legionarius (God I love qausi-latin) give me twenty :twisted:

Twenty.

[Steakslim]

Pushups! :twisted: oh it's good to be emp- ah Legate :oops:

[gaius marcius1]

Salvete omnes

I would have been with the 9th, the Spanish, LEGIXHISP. And find out if the really did march into the mists never to return? To have been there at the end, according to Rosemary Sutclif, when she writes:-

"They faced outwards all ways, with the winged god upreared in their midst; and when we broke their shield wall, one would step over his fallen brother, and lo, the shield wall would be whole as before. We pulled them down until there were left but a knot - as many as there are fingers on my two hands - and the winged god still in their midst. I slew with my last throw-spear the priest in the spotted hide who held the staff; but another caught it from him as he fell, and held it so that the winged god did not go down, and rallied the few who were left, yet again. He was a chieftain among the rest, he had a taller crest, and his cloak was of the warrior scarlet. I wish that it had been I who killed him, but one was before me. .....

"They were truly warriors, and we left them their weapons as befits warriors.

And the eagle, though lost, was recovered and buried with love and pride.

Who knows what might have happened.

I would love to have had the courage to be there at the end.

Valete optime omnes.

Crispus.

[Steakslim]

If you were actually in the ninth you would have been:

1 Killed along with the ninth at Nigmejin

2 Killed along with your comrades during the Bar Kochba revolts

3 Butchered on the Danube frontier during a Chatti revolt

[gaius marcius1]

Salve Thomas

Yes, I guess I accept that the 9th may well have ended, not in the mists, but in the troubles of Bar Kochba.

I just prefer the theatre of Rosemary Sutcliff!!!

Some time back there were re-enactment groups featuring the 9th. Does anyone know of any still in existence?

Vale optime

Crispus

[Steakslim]

Well they may have disappeared into the mist... only on the Danube not Hadrians wall and they died at the hands of the Chatti not the picts

[gaius marcius1]

Salve Thomas

Yes - I actually spoke to the picts. - There is a really good centre just outside Brechin, called Pictavia. I know it sounds like a Pictish airline, but it is a modern museum about the picts and there are a couple of really knowledgeable guys there who I had a long chat to. They were really friendly considering I favour the romans! They agreed there were no finds of the eagle or weapons that would confirm loss of any part of the 9th, but they also love the Rosemary Sutcliff story.

Vale optime

Crispus

[Gaius Decius Aquilius]

OK...
I would like to have been in the V Macedonica during the early third century. I would have enlisted to get away from being chased by beautiful women, and needed to breath a bit. I would have distinguished myself in some not too strenuous campaign and become a Beneficiarius by marrying a senior Centurion's drop dead gorgeous daughter, and then given a plush assignment policing a resort type town. (No kids, a few cats OK.) I would have then taken my discharge after a memorable term of service and become a respected town magistrate with all the traditional benefits, especially those lucrative gratuities from local merchants. I would have liked to die by having been murdered instantly by a jealous husband while I was crawling out of a bedroom window at age 93.

Ralph I.