Roman Legionary Cohort

The three week break taken this summer to tour Spain and the Peninsular War battle sites, currently featuring in a series of posts, meant taking a break from the painting process, which is not a bad thing, but I was curious to see that the enforced leave of absence from the paint brush only left me feeling keen to feel a brush between the fingertips again, on arriving back in 'blighty'.

Cohort One
Cohort Two
Cohort Three

As followers of this blog will know I, like many others, like to plan out a painting schedule and then set too, working the plan. That process seems to give me a great deal of satisfaction and that sense of progress and achievement each time I take the pen and put a line through a completed unit on the planning list that is pinned to my painting desk.

Legionary cohort number four. Victrix loveliness of course and a break from the painting break

That said, variety is the spice of life, and although a regular diet of similar or the same type of unit seems to speed up the production process, as familiarity has enabled me to practically paint a Victrix legionary in my sleep, I prefer to come at each project with a sense of excitement that I get when painting a set of figures for the first time; and the sheer fun of finding the detail that a sculptor/designer has built into the figure that perhaps escaped the first examination, only to be revealed later, just screaming out for a paint job to bring it to the fore.

So on return from Spain I was keen to complete Roman Legionary Cohort number four to have the enjoyment of painting again after a long break, but the recent start of my AWI collection indicates the other aspect of recapturing the excitement of the new, and a Perry sculpt is a good way of getting that buzz going.

However as the Romans would tell you, nothing can be achieved without discipline and that includes writing a plan and seeing the plan through to completion, so the AWI excursion will be a relatively temporary excursion, before returning to the Romano Dacians to complete the outstanding third of the collection.

So my fourth cohort is using the charging legionary from Victrix complimented with LBM shield decals and I really love the dynamism in these figures which add greatly to the look of a game when seen pressed up to an equally expressive warband of Dacians.

Talking of Dacians, Victrix seem to be pressing on with their development of their new range and my short excursion also adds further method to my madness in that the slight delay might enable me to acquire some of the new Victrix range to mix in with my Warlord collection in time for when I come back to the project, adding yet more to the variety and look of the collection.

It may surprise some of my readers but I actually have friends, Mr Steve you know who you are, who sometimes express doubt that this collection is really growing with scurrilous suggestions that I am taking pictures of the same group of figures and needlessly filling the ether with 'fake news'.

I suppose this is representative of the times we are living in, so to refer back to a famous quote from the Falklands War, "I counted them all out and I counted them all back", to allay any fears of so called fake news, I present the first four cohorts of my Trajanic Legion destined to bring Pax Romana to Decebalus and his Dacian bandits.

The plan will see another three such cohorts added to these with the option to convert one into a double-strength first cohort and attached aquilla and primus pilus with all the added combat bonuses that would imply; thus my collection will represent a fighting legion of just under 3,500 soldiers, probably closer to average fighting strength.

Once the Romano Dacians are done I will produce a similar number of cohorts with red shields that will facilitate some civil war actions I have in mind as well as larger Roman versus the others encounters, with Germans and Sarmatians added to the Dacian collection to counter a larger Roman force.

If you are interested in reviewing the collection as a whole, that I have completed so far, together with other associated posts, you can check them out by following the tab, JJ's Dacian Wars on the top bar of collected links or in the link below.

JJ's Dacian Wars

So onwards and upwards with, next up, a look at my AWI Light Infantry, the Peninsular War history of Badajoz and the parts of the city we looked at this summer and I am in the process of basing some Iroquois Indians to add to the AWI collection, so will aim to put a post together on them as soon as I get my photography room back.

Oh and I have not forgotten the request I have had to put together a painting tutorial on how I do my horses, so I will do something about that once all the building works are finished here at Chez JJ with a PDF and YouTube look at the process.

More Anon
JJ

Roman Legionary Cohort

Roman Legionary cohort number three finishes the first six months of planned work on the Romano-Dacian collection.

Cohort One
Cohort Two

As with my previous two cohorts, these chaps are sporting black shields and will be part of a planned group of seven such cohorts to complete this legion, allowing for my plan to have my legions with seven full strength cohorts at around 3,000 men that allows for the fact that many legions would have struggled to turn out ten full strength cohorts and 5,000 men.

In addition my three base cohorts allow the flexibility to combine another three bases of legionaries with them to represent a double strength first cohort with which I plan to attach the eagle bearer and primus pilus, with all the added punch and raised morale that such an option would imply.

Alongside my seven legionary cohorts will be five auxiliary cohorts to complete my eventual legion, with the plan to build two such legions for civil war match ups.

The Victrix legionaries come with loads of options to create a really dynamic looking cohort and with a change of shield and additional helmet plumes can be transitioned into a Praetorian cohort, one of which I will be adding to my forces in the second half of this year.

The final touch when putting these units together is the addition of LBM shield decals which have revolutionised the way we model ancient and medieval collections and like adding colours to horse and musket units really helps to bring the whole look together.

The theme now moves distinctly Peninsular War Napoleonic, with the first part of our tour underway with the Corunna Retreat, Salamanca and Ciudad Rodrigo visited, so I will be aiming to get some posts up in between the driving.

Roman General Officers

Followers of the blog will know that during my trip to Salute earlier this year I picked up some Roman generals from Victrix which I have been eagerly looking to put together and so, to add in to my collection plans for the first six months, I decided to build and paint half the pack, leaving me another six generals to add a bit later on.

My inspiration for my Roman senior officers came from a Ronald Embleton set of picture cards illustrating Roman troops on Hadrian's Wall that I picked up on a visit to the wall way back in the mid eighties, and the one below in particular illustrating as it does, a Legionary Legate together with his Primus Pilus or chief centurion and a couple of tribunes.

The detail on these new Victrix commanders was a pleasure to take a brush to and they really compliment my growing collection of Victrix Roman troops and will work alongside my Aventine commanders as well.

However my Foundry Roman and Dacian commanders look a little diminutive next to these well fed chaps and so I look forward to Victrix producing a similar set of commanders for their planned Dacian collection of figures.

This chap is painted up to represent a Roman legate with his primus pilus ready to call forward his troops to administer a bit of 'Pax Romana' to the natives.

Next up I have a senior tribune in combination with another senior centurion, swords drawn and ready to lead the men into the fray.

And finally another potential legate in company with one of his tribunes, swords drawn and at the tilt, perhaps bringing forward the cavalry in a charge to end the barbarian resistance.

 Victrix are to be congratulated on producing some very fine figures and I really enjoyed putting these chaps together.

Next up Roman Legionary cohort number three

Roman Auxiliary Infantry

When working through units needed for a project I like to build to play as I go and I like to try and mix things up a bit to add some fun to the whole process.

So although four more units of Dacian Warbands are on the to-do list, I also have my Roman collection to work up as well and I have been really looking forward to working with the Victrix range of figures and in particular the Auxiliary Infantry which I have not built before.

My four units of Auxiliaries that have featured in the games run so far are the Warlord units that I converted over to my Augustus to Aurelian basing system.

The Victrix range compliments them quite well but in my opinion are very much superior in their look and I intend to replace the Warlord figures with these in time.

Auxiliary Infantry formed a significant component of Early Imperial Roman armies and with the plan to build two Roman armies for my collection will see a lot of these cohort type units being put together.

 
The design and look of these figures perfectly compliments the Victrix legionaries and together will really capture the look of a Principate army with serried ranks of both types.

The nice thing is that Victrix builds in plenty of options to allow you to vary the look of individual units with the inclusion of bearskins for the ordinary ranks to recreate the look of some of the auxiliary units pictured on Trajan's Column.

As you will see here I have stuck with a more traditional appearance, but plan to include the other look going forward.

One thing that really characterises the Auxiliaries on Trajan's Column is the depiction of these soldiers taking Dacian heads and in some scenes presenting their trophies to the Emperor himself.

Thus I have included a few of my soldiers with heads carried or impaled on sloped spear-point to emphasise their 'barbarian' heritage as any Roman commentator would note.

As well as a selection of trophies to adorn the unit with I was really taken with the character built into the faces of these soldiers which just seen to cry out for a bit of attention with the brush.

The shield decals are as usual from LBM and I have acquired a good mix of the many patterns they have available to allow easy identification when we get around to a bit of Roman vs Roman action.

Finally the painting of this unit saw me trying out one of a few new techniques that I have been planning to use, which in this case was working with a wet palette.

I have usually mixed my paint, which in the main is Vallejo, with water in a standard dry palette covered in foil to allow the occasional clean up and replacement with a new mixing surface.

For this project I decided to put together a wet palette, for which their are numerous suggestions on how to, all over the net, simply to say mine cost me £2.75 to put together.

I have to say, this has added another level of flexibility to my painting in terms of colour mixing, not to mention the cost saving in paint in finding colours still able to be used hours after they were mixed and still giving good coverage.

Having now got familiar with this way of painting I am surprised at myself for not doing this earlier, but I do know not all painters get on with this way of working, and perhaps I saw no real need to change.

Al I can say is that I am now a convert to this way of working with my colours and I am planning to use this method in conjuction with some added 'flow enhancers' to see what additional effects can be gained.

Finally, a big congratulations to my son Will and his friends who completed the Three Peaks Challenge this weekend which, with a traffic hold up on the Sunday travelling to Mount Snowden, meant that they had to run up stretches of the last peak to complete the twenty-four hour target with just over a minute to spare.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to his charity pot for Parkinson's UK and the Just Giving site remains open for those who might feel compelled to make a contribution to a very worthwhile appeal, by using the link under the banner at the top of the blog page.

Carthago Nova/Cartagena - Punic & Roman Cartagena Part Two

Following on from my first post looking at Roman and Punic Cartagena and specifically the ForumRomana Molinete first century AD complex of buildings our visit shifted to a much earlier part of the city and its establishment as a Carthaginian one rather than Roman.

CarthagoNova/Cartagena - Punic & Roman Cartagena Part One

"It is  by far the strongest of all cities of this region. It has a privileged position, a well built wall and it is provided of ports, a lagoon and silver mines. Here and in the surroundings there are many factories making salted products. It's the main trading centre of these goods from the interior. They have been changed for the others coming by sea and these for those coming from the interior."

(Estrabon, Geografia, III, 4, 6) end 1st century BC

After their defeat in the First Punic War and faced with the challenge of meeting Rome's punitive post war conditions for peace, the Carthaginians focused on an ambitious plan to rebuild their reduced empire by an expansion into Iberia, following a long tradition of Phoenician trade on the south coast with towns such as Gades and Malaka; that predicted an interior rich in precious metals, particularly silver and other important trade items such as lead, salted fish and esparto (a fibrous grass common in southern Europe used for basket weaving, cords and ropes, particularly useful for rigging out ships).

The map below outlines the three phases of this, at first, political invasion led by the Barca family, and Amilca Barca in particular using their network of connections to facilitate control of key towns along the coast by alliances with tribal groups seeing their control leapfrog along the coast via the valley of the River Guadalaquivir and the gradual establishment of Punic armies in the wake of this advance, a process that ended somewhere around 220 BC.

The second phase, led by Asdrubal, sees the alliances established, formally developed into diplomatic relationships with the Punic takeover of the tribal capital of Mastia, renamed Quart-Hadast, gaining control of a large territory providing trade items in sufficient quantity to enable the raising and maintenance of his mercenary army. The new city assumes the role of Punic capital in the Iberian Peninsula similar to its North African equivalent, Carthage.

This second expansion inevitably raised tensions with Rome and her Greek allies in the region which were managed with treaties agreed to limit Punic expansion up to the River Ebro.

Following this foothold being established, the Barca family, finally lead by Hannibal, would lead expeditions further into the heart of the interior and eventually spearhead the war against Rome in the Second Punic War that would see Hanibal's invasion of Italy via Sagunto and the Italian Alps, followed by a Roman counter-invasion of Punic holdings in Iberia and the eventual fall of Quart-Hadast (Carthago-Nova) itself in 209 BC.

As with other major cities of the ancient world from this period, Carthago-Nova was encompassed by a city wall and Punic city walls seem to demonstrate some common design characteristics that have been revealed with the uncovering of a section of the original Punic wall around Cartagena.

The galleried walls of Thapsus in Sicily a design incorporated into the walls of Carthage and Carthago-Nova

The walls are thought to date from 225 to 220 BC and the illustration below shows the construction process with the foundations established for the parallel walls and the positioning of the dressed stone blocks supporting a double floor galleried wall to a height of ten metres, about thirty-three feet in real money, crowned by a patrol platform and crenellated wall.

The gallery design of this style of wall is clearly shown by the top down view of the revealed section in the purpose built hall protecting the revealed wall.

The building that surrounds the revealed wall is a marvellous design in that it allows a descent from the modern day ground level to the Punic wall through a series of stairs that mimic the layout of the original wall interior and in addition the visitor can ascend to the roof of the building that mimics the height of the original wall and gives a view out over the modern day city of Cartagena.

As you can see the wall itself can be viewed close up and a real impression of its construction gained from seeing the different stonework and building techniques used on the exterior and interior parts.

It is quite something to remember when walking around this stonework that this is the remains of the section of wall that Scipio's Roman assault infantry clambered over in their surprise attack that led to the downfall of this Punic stronghold.

Dressed stone blocks seen here front the outer wall 

An interesting though completely separate part of the gallery is the preserved remains (quite literally) of the funeral crypt of the San Jose Hermitage standing adjacent to the Punic wall and whose precise date of construction is uncertain but is known to have been in use in the middle of the sixteenth century with the crypt being the last resting place of the brothers and priests living there.

Built over and almost into the remains of the Punic Wall, the Hermitage fell into disuse and abandonment in the nineteenth century following its damage in an earthquake in 1829 and the below ground crypt was unearthed alongside the excavations of the ancient wall.

As mentioned in the first post, Carthago-Nova went through a transformation in its urban layout following the Roman occupation of the city and its raising to the status of Colonia in 54 BC most clearly demonstrated by the new roads and streets created around the two central main roads that crossed the city.

The two sections of this road network seen in the pictures below show a secondary Kardo (north-south street) over-built by the modern-day Bolulevard Jose Nieto dated to the time of Augustus which crossed the main road into the city or Decumano Via Augustus running east-west across it.

The layout of the city was and is very much dominated by the circumference of its position on the Mediterranean Sea and the five hills that surround it and saw the principle period of construction take place between 27 BC to 14 AD with the Decumano Maximo or Via Augustus very much at its centre.

The majesty of the great central road into the city, the Via Augusta, is emphasised by the never ending Roman road leading to all parts within the wider empire in the picture below, placed at the end of the revealed section pointing in the direction of the east gate.

The roads passage through the city can be gauged from the map below showing its eventual departure from the city via the west gate above the Molinete Hill (top left) and over the causeway between the harbour and the lagoon to the north of the city.

The Via Augustus is marked on this map travelling east west across the city with the lagoon to the top of the map (north) and the harbour to the bottom (south). Other major buildings in black are indicted withing the city limits such as the theatre, bottom left and amphitheatre, bottom right. Note also the five hills within the city limits.

One-hundred and ninety feet of road have been revealed and the width of it varies between fourteen to twenty feet.

It is paved with large grey slabs of limestone laid on a bed of rammed earth, under which a channel has been laid in the centre to capture rain and waste water from the houses that would have stood along it on either side, with the channel leading into the main city sewer.

On each side there are large stone slabs laid delineating the pavement for pedestrians and clearly marking the limit of the roadway.

The eastern side of the city was gradually abandoned through the second century AD later to be reoccupied in the late Roman-Byzantine era with the establishment of a necropolis outside of, as tradition dictated, the populated area of the city.

Below is the smaller Kardo that runs across the Via Augusta at this point and reveals a similar if narrower layout to the main road.

I hope you have found these two posts looking at the Romano-Punic history of Cartagena interesting and I hope to cover off some more interesting historical parts of the city in future posts.