Late Roman Army
Skills and Crafts
One of the aims of Comitatus is to discover more about everyday life in Late and Post-Roman Britain by experiencing elements of it for ourselves and to present it to others. While our experimental reconstructions increase our technical knowledge of the period, we often feel that we understand it most in the commonplace: the pace of cooking on a wood fire, the satisfaction of eating with a spoon that you carved yourself, the sound made by approaching rain.
The tented encampment that the group sets up at an event is not set dressing, but where we rest, repair kit, cook, eat, socialise and sleep after the public has gone. During the day, members present the craft skills known to have been practised by the people of the day to make ends meet, both the 'civilian' population and professional legionaries and their families.
The legion had a train of joiners, masons, cart makers, smiths, painters, and workmen of every kind for the construction of barracks in the winter-camps and for making or repairing the wooden towers, arms, carriages and the various sorts of machines and engines for the attack or defense of places
- Vegetius, De Re Militari, Book II, XI
The legion should carry with it wherever it moves, whatever is necessary for every kind of service so that the encampments may have all the strength and conveniences of a fortified city.
- ibid, Book II, XXV
We are preparing series of short articles about different aspects of our Living History displays for those who want to know a little more:
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