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Who
are the Fectienses seniores?
Francus ego cives, Romanus
miles in armis
We are a
Late Roman re-enactment group, based in The
Netherlands. Our period of choice is the 4th and
5th century AD, the time when the Roman Empire
was increasingly beset by aggressive enemies from
the outside and usurpers from within. Strong
Emperors managed to secure the borders, but weak
ones and internal strife brought the downfall
ever closer. This period needed strong soldiers,
and that’s us - the Fectienses seniores.
Who
are we
The short
name for our group is Fectio, named
after the Roman fort on the old Rhine border or Limes,
which is now close to the tiny village
that’s still called Vechten.
The group was started in 1990 by two young living
in Utrecht, when suddenly Marcus
Junkelmann and
his German colleagues trotted through Utrecht on
horseback, on their epic journey as Roman
cavalrymen from the North Sea coast to their base
in Germany. This had quite an impact. So when a
mass of Roman re-enactors from many European
countries returned to The Netherlands back in
1997 during the Roman
Days at Odijk, we
decided that we wanted to set up a group of our
own. The originators are still known as Chariovalda
the Salian and Valerius the Chamavian,
referred to in this age as Andreas and Robert.
Since then the group has seen some expansion with
two children, Ariana and Hieronymus,
and more recently Iannica, an
archaeologist. And here we are.
What do we do
Fectio
is not a in the first place a military display
group, but we portray the life of an infantryman
between c. 250 and 450 through example. Our goal
is to show anyone who wants to find out more
about the Late Roman soldier. At events we show
what these men looked like, and we'll be able to
tell the public about any detail of the equipment
we carry with us. Our main aim is education by
show and tell, to both children and adults alike.
Have you ever worn a lorica hamata/mail
armour? Did you know a plumbata/throwing
dart is thrown further than a spear? Do you like
to know just how heavy a real helmet is? Here's
your chance. (Read
more here)
Fectio often works together with other
Roman groups, but we also do an event at a museum,
a school or at our 'home base', the replica of
the Roman
tower at Fort Vechten.
The 'history'
of the Fectienses
The Fectienses
seniores are a (ficticious) unit of the Late
Roman mobile field army of Gaul. We do not have a
fixed base, but we are billeted amongst the
civilian population, to be called upon either
when the enemy has breached the border in large
numbers, or to oppose usurpers who attempt to
take the Empire by force. In short, we are a fire
brigade.
The Fectienses seniores originally were
a cohort on the Lower Rhine, stationed in the
fort named Fectio. This unit, now long
lost, provided a vexillation to the field army in
the late 3rd century, a detachment which became
an independent unit by itself, the Coh.
Fectienses. This unit, after being stationed
on the Danube, again entered the field army as a Legio
Comitatensis, after which it was split in
two separate units, the Fectienses seniores
and the Fectienses iuniores. And while
the other unit now serves in the field army of
the East, our unit remained in the West,
defending the Lower Rhine frontier.
Join
the group
How do
you join? Contact us, and we'll talk. You don't
need to be a historian, all we ask is that you
are enthusiastic and willing to get 'inside' the
period. We encourage any future member to develop
at least some knowledge about the times, the
clothing, the weapons. Then we'll try it for a
year. We don't ask you to spend lots of money to
get the same equipment that we have right from
the start, but we do ask that you are willing to
get some and make the rest. Getting started won't
be a problem, we'll be glad to help you out where
we can and lend you the material you'll need to
attend any event you want to attend with us. We
have no problem with age or gender, bring your
kids if you have any.
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