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Fectio Index

It was a bit of a surprise that we would have a multi-group event this early in the season. But Fort Vechten had attracted a big children's fair and wanted to attract a matching audience. Which meant that, almost like the Open Monuments weekend of last year we not only teamed up with the Minervii again, but also with Corbvlo and Pax Romana (the group formerly known as Legio X Gemina).

Fort Vechten, southeast of Utrecht.

Detailed image of the area.

Day 1 - Saturday

The camp is back under the tower, and present are the Minervii, Pax Romana, Corbvlo and Fectio. The Germans had already arrived the evening before and spent the night in Roman gear like the real thing...

The Minervii were the first to arrive.

Hieronymus has a new spear.

Romilia and Salvia.

New guys on the block: Pax Romana.

Corbvlo was also present with part of the group, the rest arriving later.

Barbara and Hanneke comparing skills...

Minervii arriving back from a scouting operation to the fort.

The other part of the camp: the Cohors XV Voluntariorum Civum Ramanorum.

COH XV guarding the tower.

The predictions for the weekend had been good, and they turned out to be correct - we had extremely good weather on both days, which was very suroprising for late April. The Minervii arrived on late Friday evening, and with a very clear but cold night ahead they set up their tents under the trees, with a big fire to warm the cold feet.. Next morning the rest of us arrived.

Publius' new cingulum! Look at the dolhins on belt and buckle..

Nice and shady, the tents of the Minervii. A good place to hang around.

Maebh, Publius, Romilla, Valerius and Hieronimus.

Jurjenius' hamata.

Salvia cooking with her daughter.

A feast for the eye - and it tasted well, too!

Yummie..

Pax Romana and their part of the campsite.

Hieronmus is guarding the younger visitors.

A quick bite, then into armour!

Chariovalda, proud soldier of the comitatenses.

Time to dress up, we're nearly late for our appointment, a the march to the fort.

Pax getting ready to march.

Publius donning armour..

Ready!

The army on the march! Minervii in front..

..Fectio next, then the civilian ladies, followed by Pax Romana.

The event itself was a bit of a slow affair. Not too many visitors during this time of year, despite the event at the fort and us posting two guards at the main entrance to attract attention to the camp at the tower. To remedy that a bit we marched to the fort - the Minervii in command and in the lead, surprisingly they were the largest group this weekend! So we marched to the fort with the Minervii in front, to releave the guard and show the colours.

The guard at the gate of the fort (Corbvlo in this case) was to be releaved.

At the fort, where they held a big fair about all kinds of activities relating to children. Small wonder that we attracted loads of attention!

It was quite hot, and it's still April.

Back at the camp after a hot march.

Jeroen takes a well-deserved break.

Later that day the remainder of Corbvlo arrived from another event, and Jasper arrived with Christy for a short visit. . We spent the afternoon presenting ourselves to the public, and organising several 'plumbata-shootouts', where we and kids from the public took aim at Roman volunteers.

Cordus arrives...

As it turned out, our firewood came from India - Deepeeka wood!

We had a nice visit from Jasper and Christy - to promote Ancient Warfare Magazine!

The men from Corbvlo: Jean, Gerard, Wim and Jurjen.

Lunch is being served..

Maybe this visitor will soon stop smiling...

The men from the Minervii start a bit of fighting in the afternoon.

And soon they all start - I guess the muscles had to be warmed up a bit.

And when the day is done it's time to relax and put your feet up.

Many of them getting a close look at Roman stuff, or even trying it on.

Corbvlo at the end of a busy day.

Another warm and sunny day in what became a regular drought - no rain for 40 days. For re-enactors that's not so bad.. More visitors today, since evidently many more locals took their bikes for a nice day of cycling. Our 'plumbata-shootouts' became ever so popular, and we had to limit the time in which kids could take part, or else they would surely have been at it the whole day! Unfortunately some darts went missing (but all were found) and some came to grief (but were salvaged). Without a doubt, this was the most popular activity of the day, for both visitors as well as Romans. All in all, we had a very good weekend with good friends and good weather making it perfect. Next time, September!

Day 2 - Sunday

Another great day at the tower. In front are the Minervii, looking for missing plumbatae - a good thing they found them!

Portable gods..

The morning after the day before..

The Minervii used the morning to do some relaxing fighting..

.. with plumbata.

Take that!

Hey, you must find those that miss!

My good-looking son.

A panorama of the 'plumbata-shootout' in the field next to the Marsdijk. We had quite a crowd turning up for this - mostly kids.

What to see under fire - the plumbata graves the shoulder of the man in front.

Publius under attack.

Testudo..

.. and the charge!

Back from the attack..

.. ready for another barrage!

Once more into the breach, once more.

We had plenty of visitors, it was a good day for re-enacting.

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