Post number 300! A morning in one of the museums of Rome. This one is a little underrated because we have so many archaeological remains that waste them. I visited it when I was a child. It is the Museo delle Mura (wall museum), built inside a city door of the late Roman walls. This is now called Porta San Sebastiano, and it is the door where start the Via Appia from Rome.

The opportunity to visit it was a temporary exhibition about Roman armours and helms. The materials are supplied by Archeos, an almost local reenactment and research group. So we haven’t real archaeological pieces but reproductions. It is good to see these things in a natural size shape to understand better what you can see only on books or monuments. My only remark is on some realisation are not so exact, as late Roman helm or other things for gladiators. But these are particulars. Enjoy the spectacle indeed.

Classical imperial helms and lorica segmentata.

Late Romans are a historical period not so represented in actual iconography. Trajan times are used as standard for all the Roman history. But what we generally know about Trajan is his column, while we have evidences about something different even for his epoch.

An armour for commanders. Vitreous materials could be used instead of gems for the helm. A way to save…

The kind of standard dress for foot soldiers. But this one is for a high rank soldier. Watch the crest and the richness of the vest.

On the left a secutor armour. I love this close helm. Near an arbelas, the weapon of the scissor.
On the right a middle Roman armour with a chest protector composed of rhomboidal plates.

The classical duel: on the left a myrmillo, on the right a thraex! In the middle, myself.

Some short graeves, a parmula, a sice supina and a falx.

A highly decorated myrmillo helm. Someone claim that this kind of helms were used only during the pompa magna, the presentation of gladiators to public before the fight. But if they are build to be used for a fight, then they were used for fights. None build a strong helm only for a parade. It is so simple. This is the helm of a champion.

Today is Martedì Grasso, the final day of Carnevale. Following the theme of the last post, this time some erotic gladiatrices from the past. This is a 5 erotic photographic postcards series from France maybe made at the beginning of the 20th century. Probably it was called “Les jeux du cirque”. Here we can see a fight of a myrmillo versus retiarus. These images are resuscitated from oblivion by JulianApostata. He colourised them too.

Today is Giovedì Grasso, one of the two major Carnevale days. So I want to propose this extravaganza about half naked gladiatrices! We are speaking about a comic by JulianApostate. Fighting women are a classic kinky topic and this comic about gladiatrices is setted in the Roman world. You can find the comic here.

From the paper to the screens. If the Avengers and superheroes have got their films so even Ultimate Gladiatrix have got a flick! This one is a 18 minutes production by Amazon Warriors, a photographer and film maker web based and specialised on fighting girls. This time his models staff fight and kill in the arena. You can buy it here. Below some screenshots to admire the technical fighting skills of these young girls.

Another view on the Roma’s dies natalis. This time it is a full video!

I own a great mobile, a Sumsung Wave, with a great camera. I took some photos and some videos. I thought that those images could be over my personal interest, so I showed them to you on this blog. Then I had these small videos but I didn’t know what to do with them. So I bought an app for my iPad, the Avid Studio one, and within an hour I created a video. It was intuitive and simple. In the future I will took more videos for my blog. Enjoy the legionaries march!

The first time I watch the ad I thought: “They have stolen my game!”. I passed a lot of time to find the name “Ferrum et Gloria” and now exists a gladiator game called “Blood and Glory”! What a surprise! For my fortune it is only a computer game and not a wargame, so my name is safe.

You can see on these two promotional shots what kind of wonderful graphic it has, and even that the fighters only resemble gladiators because it is a fantasy version of what ars dimicandi was.

I downloaded this game for my Ipad. It is very nice because of the fighters great design and for the glamorous feel it give. But it is even a simple and classical coded fight between two digital puppets and nothing more. Boring to me. It is a feast for the eyes so I don’t care if I don’t play it, I see only the graphic and it is enough. It seems a free game but you can’t get past a certain point without spending real money to buy special abilities. It is another way to sell games: pay to have more levels, pay to play more. The sad thing is that at the end you will pay to play this game a lot of money little by little.

In the meantime I’m thinking about my gladiator game. Every time I re-take it after some time I find some new idea to improve it, so you are waiting to have something very special…

In Lucca we tried (and bought) this boardgame wrote by two young Italians. It is about the management of teams of gladiators. The fights are decided by series of throw of dices (fun and with a good feel of gladiator style, indeed), but the interesting part is about the interaction with the other players to cheat the fight and to compete to set a spectacle in arenas around the Roman world. It is a simple game complicated by the possibility of interact with the others, to compose temporary alliances and treason to set your spectacle in the best way. Playable only with four players, for 2 or 3 people is lame. Game’s historical feel of the art is very good. Nice box with good materials, but I changed quickly the D10 dices inside with two with Roman numbers!

Here their website: http://www.albepavo.com/en/munera-FG_overview-en.html