Roman shield

[Matthew Amt]

Well, it's a typical Hollywood fantasy brawl! Standing around waiting for a guy sitting down to take away your weapons and kill you isn't really a fighting style. You can't chop off a head with a shield rim, unless it's moving at about the speed of sound. And the whole point of having a shield is to keep it between your enemy's weapon and your tender flesh--Don't wave it around in the classic "kill me" pose. Granted, I wasn't able to watch the whole clip, it was just too agonizing (not just because my Net connection makes it more like a slideshow!), but what I saw wasn't even as realistic as most of the fights in Conan the Barbarian.

Sorry about that! Google up some videos of riot police fighting mobs if you want more realism. Well, in all fairness, there should be some videos around of Roman reenactment groups doing combat of various sorts, and a lot of that is good stuff.

Enjoy the movies and miniseries if you like! Just don't confuse them with reality, in ANY way.

Vale,

Matthew