Ben Kane

For those of you who read Asterix, you might remember the oft-mentioned phrase: “Don’t mention Alesia! Why does no one talk about Gergovia?” Alesia is of course the site of one of Caesar’s, and indeed all of military history’s, greatest vicwtories. Perhaps 50,000 legionaries besieged a town with about 80,000 Gaulish warriors inside, investing it with a series of fortifications approx. 15 miles long, with towers everywhere and 3 sets of ditches and mantraps in front of it. When news came of 200,000 Gauls coming to the rescue of their comrades, Caesar didn’t retreat. Oh no! Instead, he and his men built another set of fortifications to complete the circumvallation. They withstood three days of battle, and remarkably, the Romans prevailed. The Gaulish dead were in the most incredible numbers, and there were so many prisoners that Caesar rewarded every soldier with a slave.

Anyway, the site where the battle took places is well worth a visit. I saw it as a child, and can still vividly remember the reconstructed fortifications. The good news is that a brand new museum is opening there this summer. So if you happen to be in the area of eastern France, make sure to take it in.

Hannibal’s famed Iberian infantry were of two main types: the light infantry, often known as caetrati, and the heavy infantry, known as scutarii. The caetrati were known to have dressed in distinctive V necked tunics with crimson edging, worn ‘sinew’ (leather?) helmets, and carried curved falcata swords and round buckler-like caetra shields. The falcata swords looked like giant kukhris, such as those carried by the Gurkhas, and are meant to be absolutely lethal, working like a combination between a sword and an axe.

The scutarii wore some armour – chestplates or even mail shirts, and carried big shields very similar to Roman scuta (hence their name), and short straight swords, which were made of very strong iron. They reputedly wore black cloaks too.

Getting into the Hannibal frame of mind, I’ve been buying some Carthaginian gear. First to arrive was an amazing caetra, manufactured by the Spanish armoury, Armillum. It looks amazing,I think! Next to arrive will be the hand forged falcata sword, made by Armour Class in Glasgow. I got the template for it from a leading Spanish archaeologist, so it will be the real deal. Given that I ordered this weapon 7 months ago, it’s eagerly awaited!

Note: the lens cap is in place to give a sense of perspective!

So, I finally decided to join Facebook. At Giles Kristian’s book launch the other night, I was talking to Michael Arnold, author of the well received Civil War novel, Traitor’s Blood. He recommended Facebook highly. I know that Doug Jackson has been very active on there too, so I decided to take the plunge. Here’s my page, such as it is for the moment. (Sunday 17th: I’ve changed it from yesterday’s link, which didn’t work.)

Those of you who buy and read Roman military textbooks will probably be familiar with the amazing artwork of Graham Sumner. He’s one of the foremost artists around, and has illustrated and/or written such books as Roman Military Dress and Arms and Armour of the Imperial Roman Soldier as well as having his artwork used in the place names of villages such as Haltwhistle in Northumberland. The best news is that he sells his artwork as prints and postcards. If you’d like a look at the wonderful images on his website, click here.

Some of you may have heard of this august organisation already! It was set up in October last year, by the Roman and crime writer, Manda Scott. She very kindly asked me to be the Treasurer and not knowing how much work it would involve, I agreed. The other committee members are Tony Riches, Robert Low , Robyn Young, Stella Duffy and Michael Jecks.

Well, after a few frantic weeks and months, we have a live website, which is all-singing, all-dancing. It looks amazing – and so it should, given its expense. What’s most thrilling about this website, which is to publicise all types of writing about history – both fiction and nonfiction – is that it has a forum where readers/members of the web/curious types can ask questions of their favourite authors. We have nearly 100 members already – authors, publishers and agents. There are people who write books about Rome, Greece, Scotland, England, Tudor period, WW1, WW2, the Napoleonic period, the Victorian period – you name it, it’s there. (Not all the members’ details are up yet, thanks to a gremlin on Thursday, but they’ll be back up within a few days.) Anyway, please go and have a look, and start posting!