The Fall of Rome - Short Version

On a day off from digging several of us went over to visit another Roman fort site.  They were having some Roman re-enactors over displaying their skills.  And their calves.

Rather fun stuff.  Most of it was what you would expect, slightly overweight guys marching about in rather unmartial fashion.  But there were a couple of interesting things for me.

Here a rather manical fellow is preparing to fire a "scorpion", this being a light siege engine that fires a nasty little pointy thing.

Based on the scary appearance of the weapon, and its operator, I suspect this is the kind of thing that the our Congress would try to ban.

Highlight of the day though was clearly the Roman Army kids battalion.  I think it sums up the rise and fall of Empire rather nicely.

 Raw recruits are issued their equipment.

The centurions instruct them in their drills.

A ferocious fighting force.

Alas, supervision and discipline break down.  And in a world where forging weapons is always the last skill retained....

A quick slide into savage brigandry!

Seriously, I asked the folks selling the foam rubber swords if they got a lot of dirty looks from mums.  You just know that the nippers are going to flail away at each other all the way home!