New Member

[Kindyr]

Greetings, New guy here.

Real Name is Shawn, I live in Springfield Illinois. Do medieval re-enactment mostly as well as play a boffer style combat game which mixes elements of History and Fantasy.

I joined this board primarily to access the wealth of information on armour, specifically the segmentata. I have built some armour previous, much later periods. however it has been on the "to do" list a while to build segmentata. And the church I go to does an annual christmas thing and they include roman soldiers as part of it(I've already discovered that segmentata really wouldn't be appropriate for the time and place) They currently have one set of musculata a friend of mine who goes there bought I believe from MRL. this year they had four actors portraying Roman soldiers and they had to swap the gear each night.

I have the handbook and the books on segmentata, so I'm pretty well set there. And since I'm building this, I'm shooting to build three generic suits at the same time to give them more equipment to work with. The plates will be stainless, both because I don't have to worry about chasing rust, and because I actually have a source of stainless for cheaper than I can get mild steel. The steel plates are roughed out at this point.
In terms of tools, I have a fairly well equiped metal shop(Beverly 2, belt grinder, whitney punches, anvile, stakes, hammers of all kinds, dremel, etc)

Currently I'm working on getting the materials together for fittings.

But this is supposed to be an introduction so I'll leave questions for later once I've had a chance to search the site first.

[M. Demetrius]

Welcome to RAT. Looks like you have more of a start than most folks who make a first set of segmentata.
Congrats on your church's dedication to the cause. Soldiers might not actually have worn armor all the time, of course, as you know, but they would have been armed whenever out of the barracks...maybe when they were in the barracks, too.

[Paullus Scipio]

Shawn wrote:

.....(I've already discovered that segmentata really wouldn't be appropriate for the time and place).....

E.rr.rrrr..... not necessarily !! The so-called 'segmentata' type of armour existed before the supposed lifetime of Christ, and certainly segmentata fittings have been found in Palestine dating from the 66 AD rebellion, or possibly earlier. Interestingly, from a metallurgical analysis, they originated further west in the empire and had been imported rather than made locally.

That just leaves the question of whether segmentata was only worn by Legionaries ( probably, but just possibly worn by auxiliaries too) and if only Legionaries, whether any Legionaries could have been present in Jerusalem at the time.

After Herod's death ( 4 BC) Augustus first appointed Herod's sons as rulers of smaller districts within the larger kingdom, but misrule forced him to change policy. Unfortunately, Judaea offered little benefit to Rome, as it was poor in both agriculture and mineral wealth. However, its position on the eastern Mediterranean placed between the Roman provinces of Egypt and Syria, bordering the Nabataean territory of Arabia, and its unstable political history necessitated firm Roman control in order to facilitate strategic security in the region. Augustus was forced to place Judaea under the direct control of Roman Prefects, who were in turn responsible to the Governor of Syria. Though no legions were directly assigned to the Praefect in Judaea's early formation, there were typically several nearby legions in Syria ready to respond to the numerous revolts of the small province.

Legionaries may well have been seconded ( a 'vexillation') to deal with 'brushfire rebellions' and bandits such as Barabbas ( if he or others like him are historical), and even if not, Pontius Pilate was there and must have had a substantial escort ('singulares') in troubled times - perhaps including legionaries, auxiliaries and cavalry - so you can't really say segmentata is not appropriate for that time and place !!

[Paralus]

The so-called 'segmentata' type of armour existed before the supposed lifetime of Christ...

And right on the dimming lights of Christmas to boot!!!

Careful! There be heathens among us.....

[Paullus Scipio]

I think you misunderstand - my words were in reference to the fact that not only do we not know what time of year the Jesus of the New Testament was born, save that it was all but certainly not Dec 25 ( probably springtime by the way - shepherds generally only 'watch their flocks by night' in lambing season), but also that we don't know what year, save that again it was almost certainly not the calendar year from which our present calendar is derived..........( note that Herod died 4 BC)

[Paralus]

He, he, he...

[M. Demetrius]

Dates I've read range from 4BC to 7BC. The calendar got jostled and bumped around quite a bit during the first few centuries, then wrangled some more in the Middle Ages. If only we'd kept the Roman years, at least, we'd have a better reckoning, but then, the BC/AD part would not fit in. So it goes.