Updates on the blog

Greetings!! 


It's been about six months since I've started the blog.

It seems time for a round-up, a few thoughts and lessons learned, and announcements on coming changes. The original plan for this blog was to provide new content regularly in the areas of history, wargaming, historical and non-historical miniature gaming, media reviews, and media reviews.

I'm surprised that more people have not used the tags and scrolled through the older posts. There's some good stuff there. If you like history, use the tags. If you like photos of miniature figures, use the tags.

You may wish to know, I have books on several subjects for sale
 -- Books by Peter Huston at Amazon.

Current projects that I am working on include:

1. Bloody Sands, Cheering Stands --Miniature Wargame Rules and Wargamers Guide to the Roman Gladiators and Arena

2. 18th Century North American Wargaming Miniature Rules (working title is "Flintlocks and Funny Hats" but I hope to find a better one)

3. Chop Sockey!! Kung Fu Miniature Wargaming Rules

The above three will influence the content of this blog.

4.  Holidays at the Ambulance, 1986 --a novel that has been completed but remains in search of a publisher.


Recently released projects include 


Put Your Favorite Picture Here: Awesome Tales of Space Aliens, Vampires, Pop-Stars, Human Beings, And Other Truly Strange, Amazing, Amusing, And Disturbing Things as Written by the Award Winning, World Travelling, Life Saving Author Peter Huston




Since its founding, some of the pieces have gotten hundreds of hits.

For those interested, the top five posts were:







Two of these I'd classify as well-researched pieces (the Smallpox in China and the Uighur Unrest pieces ). The Mary Dyer piece, I'd classify as light but little known history, something else I'd hoped to provide here. The pieces on the Roman arena were both gaming pieces and I suspect they attracted interest because they had nice pictures of interesting models and were shared in popular internet forums.

In the next few months, I hope to include more content. This will include straight pieces on historical subjects, wargaming photo pieces, and media reviews (especially book and film reviews.). These last pieces, the media focused pieces, will include links so that interested people can purchase the items and thus bring provide money and encouragement for the blog. Movie reviews are something I have no included in the past.

A Sampling of Other Blog Posts


In the meantime, should you wish to check out the past blog posts, there were several others that I either consider well done or wish had gotten more attention. You can check them out here. :

1. Iroquois housing and architectural shift at the time of the American Revolution (plus some gaming stuff)

        This one contains some well done research on an interesting question on a little known topic --Iroquois adaption of western housing styles. It also contains information on the subject for miniature wargamers.

2. Ancient Rome - What was the arena and what were “the games”?

3. Confucianism, Communism, and their Intersection in North Korean Symbolology.

4. Did the Chinese discover America? Is Gavin Menzies a genius? Hell, no. Smallpox shows they did not.

5. Did Marilyn Monroe get a rib removed to appear more slender?

        This one, interestingly, is getting a lot of hits at one of my other blogs, but not here.

6,  "Ambulance Dogs" in the German Army, circa 1900

7. Pseudohistory, Creationism, and Dinosaursl

8. South East Asian Cultural Boundaries of the Pre-Modern World and their Continuing Effects on the Modern World

9.  Historical European Martial Arts (H.E.M.A.), the Rondel or medieval dagger, and the Fiore Dei Libri manuscript

10. General Tso's Chicken and Jennifer 8. Lee's Chinese food presentations


Finally, for those interested, here is the least viewed post.



          Fourteen people read this one. I don't know why. I think it's very interesting. It even has links to music videos. How can anyone be unhappy with piece that includes music videos? And personally I think more people should learn the story of Tommy Page. Check it out. Be number 15. Learn who Tommy Page was and why I consider him worth mentioning.


Indians in the American Revolution and Depictions of Iroquois from Fort Stanwix and Oriskany

The American Revolution ( American War of Independence) produced many changes in North America. One of these was the end of the Iroquois Confederacy as an important political entity. 


An exhibit from the Fort Stanwix visitor center showing two Iroquois and a trader from the period.

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The war in the Mohawk River Valley, then a frontier region of New York, was a civil war. The Whites fought each other, loyalists against those favoring independence, and among the Iroquois Six Nation Confederacy, the nations split, some favoring the American cause, others preferring their traditional loyalties with the British, particularly as the British had promised to help them curb the spread of the aggressive, land-hungry American settlers, and others struggling to remain as neutral as possible in what they considered a White man's war. 



Many Iroquois, particularly the Mohawks, left their home region soon after the war. 

Many of these events focused on a fortification called Fort Stanwix. It is now a National Historical Park and located in Rome, New York, a small city located between Syracuse and Utica. ( see: the National Park Service Website for Fort Stanwix. ) 

The Oriskany Battlefield, perhaps the most important battle of this part of the war, is located a little bit to the East. 

I have a strong interest in the history of the American Revolution (War of Independence) and wargame the period. Among my current projects are a large number of half-painted 25mm Old Glory "woodland Indians with rifles" that I intend to use as Iroquois. I'll try to include some photos of them when they are finished, but here's what the looked like a couple weeks ago. Clearly, there's a great deal of detail and color left to be added. 


Therefore, for those with similiar interests, I offer the following photos from the Fort Stanwix visitors center. Apologies for the poor quality of some of the photos. I have come to the realization that if I wish this blog to be its best, I must improve my photography skills and hope to spend some time on that soon. 

Let's begin with some close ups of the above exhibit. After we will follow up with period and later depictions of some of the key Iroquois involved. 

The life size Iroquois models from the exhibit.
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Notice the bead work on the straps and the knife.
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Detail on the bag.
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This and the one below show the headdress detail on the models.







awful picture but does show some more detail from another angle
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Same poor quality but the other Iroquois model in the display.
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 Important Iroquois of the Time depicted in the Museum





This is a fuzzy photo (apologies) of the Seneca leader Cornplanter ( Gy-ant-wa-chia )
You can find a better image of this painting, plus a full biography at either of these two pages Cornplanter on Wikipedia or Indigenous People Net 


OH MY!! An even worse photo of the exhibit on Red Jacket. Although he reportedly fled the battle of Oriskany early in the fighting he went on to become an important Iroquois statesman. See these sites for better depictions and more details: wikipedia or Indigenous People Net

Iroquois housing and architectural shift at the time of the American Revolution (plus some gaming stuff)

If you have looked at this blog much, you will know that I enjoy miniature wargaming, model building, and studying history, among other things. Currently I am looking into local history from the American Revolutionary War era and reading "The Iroquois in the American Revolution," a classic work by Barbara Graymont (1972, Syracuse University Press.) Please note the link to purchase this book and support the blog below.

Which got me to thinking, what sort of houses did the Iroquois live in at this time and what sort of fortifications did they have?

Traditionally, the Iroquois lived in multi-family longhouses in walled villages. Many illustrations of them exist.  I've included several below, but before you look at them, let's think a bit. Did the Iroquois live in the longhouses at the time of the American Revolution?



For the record, Iroquois still live today and today they do not live in longhouses. Even at the most traditional Mohawk and/ or Iroquois settlements today, you are not going to find people living in longhouses. (In fact, my father once helped with a construction project at Ganienkeh, a radical, Mohawk / Iroquois separatist community with both a Mohawk language school and a stubborn insistence that they are part of the sovereign Mohawk nation, not subject to US or Canadian law. He helped build some houses. They were, for the record, of modern design and not longhouses.)

So when did the architectural shift take place? Like so much in Iroquois history and society, the shift, it seems took place in the mid-eighteenth century.But first let's look a bit at the traditional housing and styles of community lay out.



According to Graymont, pages 9-10, while some of the longhouses were single family, most were multi-family, The number of longhouses in a community varied widely, depending, as one would expect on the size of the community. "Small hamlets" might have just four to five longhouses, while the largest Iroquois communities could have over one hundred longhouses, as well as walls and structures for smoking food and other necessities of community life. The smallest longhouses were  "20 feet long, 16 feet wide, and 15 feet high" (about 6m. by 5m. by 5m) according to Graymont, while the average was "60 feet long, 18 feet wide, and 18 feet high" (about 18m. by 5.5m by 5.5m) again according to Graymont. The largest on record, she says, was 334 feet long by 23 feet wide. (about 102m. long by 7m wide). She gives no height but as longhouses were curved in shape, I think it's safe to estimate it was between 18 and 23 feet high ( 5.5m to 7m. approximately).  She also gives detailed descriptions of the construction and other architectural details of these longhouses. As these are easily found through a websearch, I see no need to share them here. 



Again according to Graymont, these traditional settlements were often fortified. As this is a detail of much interest to wargamers, it seems worth quoting the entire paragraph from the book in full:

"The Iroquois lived in stockaded villages located usually in easily defensible high places near a supply of water. The log palisades were from fifteen to twenty feet in height, in single, double, triple, or quadruple lines, interlaced, and then reinforced with heavy bark. A deep ditch might surround the palisades with the dirt being thrown up to form an embankment next to the palisade. A bark battlement might also run along the top and, in time of war, be supplied with piles of stone to hurl down upon the enemy and jars of water to extinguish fires started by burning arrows. After 1600, when the power of the Iroquois Confederacy was at its height, and particularly after 1700, with the end of the Iroquois wars, fewer of the inner villages of the Five Nations were heavily palisaded. A more modest type enclosure was all that was needed to keep the forest animals from scavenging in the village," (Graymont, pp. 9-10)


However, we are talking about the time of the American Revolution (or as they say in the UK, "the American War of Independence" ), a period when Iroquois culture and politics was in great flux, a time when, as one science fiction series says in the prologue, "everything changed."

So did the Iroquois live in such houses at this time? It seems some did but an increasing numbers of others were adopting White housing styles.  Again, it seems worthwhile to include Graymont's entire paragraph on this:

"Toward the end of the eighteenth century, the Iroquois began to build the same type of log houses used by the white frontier settlers. An occasional well-to-do Indian would even build a frame house in imitation of his more affluent white neighbors. Bark houses survived to some extent well into the middle of the nineteenth century but gradually gave way to the sturdier dwellings copied from the whites." (Graymont, p. 10)


This house is a modern reconstruction of a house on the Saratoga Battlefield, a National Historic Park. It is shared merely to show a typical house of the time and place discussed. You may see other photos at https://benedictarnold.smugmug.com/Battles-of-Saratoga/John-Neilson-House/ I did not wish to infringe upon the copyright of those photos but there is one there that includes people and clearly shows the small size of the house, not uncommon in those days.

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Graymont also includes an interesting story about an Oneida church built in the 1770s. While the missionary who promoted the  church in the first place, Samuel Kirkland, followed a school of theology known as "the New Light Principle" which held that churches need not have steeples and Baptism with water was not essential for salvation (Note: I hope to research this more. It sounds like the teachings of the Religious Society of Friends / "Quakers" may have had an influence here.) his local parishners, Oneida felt otherwise and in 1774 when the church was two years old decided, over his objections that it was unnecessary, that their church should have a steeple insisting, in Graymont's words, that "if white people could have steeples over their churches, so could they. Indian religion was worth no less than the white man's religion." (Graymont, p. 46)

While it was not this church, you may see photos of another Iroquois built church (Mohawk-built) from this era here: https://indiancastle.church/


As for Iroquois fortifications of the era, they are mentioned in several places in this work and in the histories of that time. Lacking knowledge to the contrary (at least at this time of writing), I would assume they would have been a mix of the fortifications described above along with the White style of frontier fortifications of the time.




Stillwater, New York Blockhouse Museum ( https://www.albany.org/listing/stillwater-blockhouse-museum/1006/ )




The Old Stone Fort from Schoharie New York ( see https://theoldstonefort.org/our-museums/old-stone-fort/  )

WARGAMING 


I am painting a large quantity of northeastern woodland Indians from that era, a large bag of 25mm Old Glory French and Indian War figures that were donated to me by a friend who never got around to paint them. ( Product ID: FIW-01 Natives Advancing with muskets ) Although in my mind they are supposedly Iroquois, I do not guarantee the details are correct, some of the hairstyles in particular look quite "iffy" but they are good enough for wargaming particularly as I did get them for free.


They will supplement the old RAFM Flint and Feather figures that I bought and painted years, really decades, ago. ( RAFM Flint and Feather ) I'll try to post pictures later. I also hope to do some supplements with figures from other ranges as well. Perry Brothers and Warlord Games both have some nice looking figures for the period but I am sure they are not alone. Bob Murch and Crucible Crush have an exciting looking line called "Flint and Feather" of pre-European and time of European contact Iroquois and Algonquins that while not quite right for this period seems nevertheless definitely worth mentioning.


ADDITIONAL LINKS

A New York State Museum exhibit and presentation on Iroquois longhouses. 
http://exhibitions.nysm.nysed.gov/iroquoisvillage/

Another website with lovely pictures of longhouses and Iroquois architecture.
https://www.hhhistory.com/2016/04/the-iroquois-longhouse.html


Should you wish to purchase one, this company makes resin models of Iroquois longhouses for wargaming. Although I've linked to a particularly nice looking one, there are others on their site, as well as a blockhouse and stockade walls, under the "American Frontier" section. Please note I have not done business with this company or seen their products in person.
https://achesoncreations.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&view=productdetails&virtuemart_product_id=82&virtuemart_category_id=16

A fun website that gives instructions on how to build your own model longhouses for wargaming if you do not wish or are not able to spend money on resin cast models.
https://onelover-ray.blogspot.com/2011/04/how-to-build-no1-fiw-indian-longhouses.html


I stumbled across this while researching this blog, a biography of Samuel Kirkland, the missionary to the Iroquois mentioned above. I have not read it yet but it seemed worth noting and sharing. 
https://archive.org/details/samuelkirklandsm00lenn 



   

martial arts in wargaming

Some time ago, I had an interesting exchange with a European facebook friend, Nuno Pereira, creator of this http://kingscarbinepaintshop.blogspot.com/ and other blogs. Pereira, who is Portuguese, is enthusiastic about the study of Portugual's overseas colonial activities and conflicts over the last few centuries. He posts fascinating information on them in several forums devoted to wargaming and other historical activities. Not too long ago, he had, absurdly, gotten in trouble with the Facebook managers who felt some of his photos of 19th Century African warriors and other tribespeople who had interacted and fought with the Portuguese during that time were not properly clad for facebook viewers and defied Facebook values and he found his facebook privileges suspended for a few days.

I found this both absurd and hilarious and posted this video, partially in response. It dates from 1897 and shows Ashanti warriors demonstrating a "knife dance" at an exhibition that year in France. (The history of such exhibitions and museums, particularly in the pre-modern media world, is fascinating.)




This led to a discussion about whether or not and if so how to factor Capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian dance martial art with roots in Angola, and other martial arts into a miniature wargame. Should units that depict warriors or soldiers that have studied martial arts get higher stats  and ratings in hand to hand combat than those who have not?

Years previously, there was a discussion on this on the Colonial Wargames Yahoo group and I argued furiously over this issue until the moderator cut the thread. It's a topic I feel I know more about than many and have extra insight into --so, my two cents . . .


I believe this figure was produced by Grenadier years ago, perhaps Ral Partha, If someone knows please
let me know. I painted him to look like the character Shang Chi from the Master of Kung Fu comics.



First, "Martial Arts" and "Fighting Skills" are two different but overlapping things. If taught badly and out of context, studying martial arts can make you a WORSE fighter. But if taught well, then they can make a good fighter a better fighter. And to explore the topic more deeply requires an arbitrary defining of terms and splitting hairs. Would, for instance, bayonet drills or training be considered a martial art? I probably would not unless it involved an ever upward path for continuous development but if others disagree, I am not inclined to spend much time arguing with them over it.
A selection of 1980s era figures painted by me. Again the exact manufacturer is long forgotten.

 
Also hand to hand or close combat effectiveness depends on much more than simply knowing techniques and when to apply them. Aggressiveness and physical fitness, for instance, would also be factors that need to be taken into account, along with others.
A more recently manufactured figure from Hasslefree figures.

 Therefore, in my opinion, since people who have studied are martial arts are not necessarily better fighters than many others who have not, I would not give wargames figures a bonus for "knowing martial arts." You should just factor it into their close combat ratings along with several other factors.
These were originally manufactured by Obelisk Miniatures as part of their very interesting "tong" range, a range based on some classic photos of turn of the century San Francisco Chinatown. The range has been bought and is currently available from Tsuba Miniatures .
Additionally few martial arts are designed for mass combat. i.e. in the various Filipino martial arts of Kali, Escrima, and Arnis and different kinds thereof, there are a lot of techniques for knife dueling (this is one of the few martial arts that actually teaches these things) and they are a martial art. However, they are generally focused on one to one combat although less so than many other martial arts. Other martial arts are more focused on things like improving fitness, personal and spiritual development including confidence building, while others are basically contact sports. And there's nothing wrong with any of this. However, it does not mean you should automatically rate units that have studied martial arts as being more effective in hand to hand or close combats.


So, no, don't give your Angolan warriors a bonus because they study Capoeira. Give them a bonus because they are awesome fighters who happened to have studied Capoeira.

Seriously, there are many, many people out there walking around with martial arts credentials, convinced in their own minds that they are awesome superhuman killing machines who have no idea how to fight or what real violence looks like.


Another interesting thing along those lines is Wim Demeere, a prominent Tai Chi teacher in Belgium, wrote a blog post comparing martial arts and military combat. One key idea in it was "Military units are trained to fight as a team. Martial artists are trained to fight as individuals."You can read the whole essay HERE if you'd like. It's long but quite good. The part on teamwork is near the bottom of the page.

Similarly, there used to be a former US Navy SEAL who was selling instructional videos on hand-to-  hand combat and related things to the civilian market. (I forget his name. The videos came from Panther Productions.) In an interview he admitted, "Actually the Navy SEALS often don't focus much on unarmed combat. In the Navy SEALS they feel if you find yourself in combat unarmed you screwed up big time somewhere."   

Image result for panther productions martial arts US NAVY SEALS Frank Cucci



Most who know about the connection between martial arts study and military effectiveness will admit that one of the biggest reasons to teach modern soldiers martial arts is that it raises their morale, not that it raises their direct combat effectiveness. As Nuno Pereira pointed out in our discussion, "If they are Elite they are trained for unit combat and stay cohesive. They are individually better than other troops but their strength is both psychological and physical."
More Hasslefree Figures miniatures
Having said that, I enjoy studying martial arts. It has many side benefits one of which is that it helps encourage me to stay active (not that it works too well for that as you can tell from my recent photos . . . but I recognize there is a problem there and occasionally engage in token exercise and other efforts to fix it. --eating two pieces of pizza instead of four, for instance. ) :-)

Great people of history, Tommy Page, lived 1967-2017

One of the joys of history is discovering people who had extremely interesting lives. And with that I present Tommy Page (lived 1967-2017), an obscure American pop singer who somehow managed to gain a big following in Taiwan around 1990 when I was teaching English and living there. For those who wish to truly understand the . . . um . . . incredibleness of this historic East-West relationship, let me offer this incredible video. 

Here we see Tommy as he appears on Taiwanese TV where they praise him as someone whose star is shining so bright it is making all the other American pop stars disappear. Then they demonstrate. 


Now the truth is I was never a fan of Tommy Page's singing or his lyrics. I always felt that they were much improved if one spoke Mandarin or Taiwanese as a native language, had a few years of high school English, and were not only translating the words of his songs into your native language as you listened but also were thrilled to pieces to realize that you were able to do so. To illustrate I offer these fine videos.  




Tommy Page, I'll be your Everything (reportedly a Billboard #1 Hit. Ouch!!) 

Despite the fact that I really did not like Tommy Page's music, I did envy him.  Believe it or not, there are people out there who have thought I was famous. (Something I wrote more about in my short story collection in the section on pop stars -- see 
here for details on this fine, fine, fine publication. ) and I've never been quite comfortable with it. Therefore I envied the way Tommy Page could travel to Taiwan any time he wanted, have a few shows, do radio interviews, be met by cheering crowds and adoring fans, and then go home and back to anonymity and a normal life. To me, that would be the perfect set-up, a far away country where I was famous matched by anonymity at home. 


Another Tommy Page hit, one I always felt was much more appreciated 
by people whose brains were translating the lyrics into Chinese as they listened.
He appeared on an episode of the American TV sitcom "Full House" in 1992 where he sang at a character's 10 year old birthday party and reportedly was also on the cover of many magazines as a teenage heartthrob. 


Later in life, Tommy Page when on to become an executive at Warner Brothers Records, and a co-publisher at Billboard Magazine. 

He reportedly died at age 49 (although some reports say 46) of suicide (dumb way to go IMHO) and was survived by a husband (yeah, that's right) and three children. 



Sources and Links for more Information






[From Singapore and gives an Asian perspective on his career and overseas, Asian success. Includes links to several videos where he sang with Asian Pop-stars of the time. ] 

If you like this post, please tell your friends and leave a comment. 

Ancient Rome - What was the arena and what were “the games”?

PREFACE --I'm a writer, That means I write stuff. Please check out my newest release, a short story collection called "Put Your Favorite Picture Here" at https://www.amazon.com -However, that's not my only work. This post is an excerpt from my current project, a guide for wargamers to Roman Gladiators. Taking a tip from Cory Dotorow, I've decided to share this work in progress chapter by chapter on my blog.

If you wish to support this blog, well, at the moment there's no Patreon button, but feel free to show your enthusiasm and support by browsing the blog, checking out the other posts, sending links to friends and sharing through social media, and leaving comments and asking questions or starting discussions. Thanks.

Ancient Rome-What was the arena and what were “the games”?


No automatic alt text available.

The “Roman Games” consisted of several kinds of events. In this section, we will look at the events and discuss what they were as well as look at their potential for gaming. 

1.                   Gladiatorial Combats
Of course, one of the most common and popular events at the Roman Games were Gladiatorial Combats. These consisted of staged fights between individuals or small (perhaps less than ten at the most to give an estimate) groups of fighters. These fights were staged and scheduled. The fighters, although usually not volunteers, could be considered professionals in that they were trained, drilled, and kept in shape for the purpose of appearing in events such as these.
The fighters were classified into different types. Each type was equipped in a certain way to fight and trained to fight in a certain style that fit their armor and weaponry as well as the mythology and background behind the type of fighter they were supposed to be portraying. These different types will be discussed in a later chapter. Suffice it to say that there were customs and traditions and expectations surrounding the gladiator battles of this time.  There were referees and other workers expected to maintain these traditions and ensure that the fights were done in the proper manner.
Although these combats were forced, and thus morally questionable at best, from our safe perspective two thousand years later, give or take a few centuries, there is a lot of potential for small scale historical gaming. Games featuring conflicts between individual gladiators or small groups of gladiators can make good games. Campaigns that follow the ups and downs of an individual or perhaps a gladiatorial “ludi” can also be interesting. (A ludi is a school or troupe of gladiators usually under the ownership of a particular individual,)
This book will focus on such gladiatorial combats and providing the information needed to game them in a  satisfying and reasonably historically correct manner.

2.                   Animal shows
The ancient Romans loved animal shows. As the empire expanded they went to great expense and effort to bring large quantities of exotic animals to Rome in order to parade them before the Roman citizenry. Animals used ranged from ostriches to elephants; hippos and lions also being favorites.
Once the animals were exhibited, however, it was customary to kill them in front of the crowd for the amusement of the spectators.  [1] Sometimes this was done by letting the animals kill and then eat each other. Other times it was done by letting hunters or others shoot them with bows.  The result was a gory spectacle.
 It takes a bit of a stretch to see how these could make good games, but it is possible. Perhaps one could have a game where animals fight each other or archers compete to see who can kill the most animals? It would be an unusual but not impossible game.  

3.                   Venatio
The Venatio were sort of a mixture of gladiatorial contests and animal shows.
Animals were put in the arena and then trained animal fighters called venatores would enter and fight them.   The venatores were trained to do this. Like the gladiators (who fought humans only) many venatores were slaves or people who otherwise were forced to do this.
It should be mentioned that venatores and gladiators were separate categories and people generally did not belong to both or cross back and forth. (Although many gladiator game rules encourage them to do so, for better or worse. If it makes you happy and harms no one, we’re not going to make any effort to stop you. Just please understand that it is not historically correct according to current understanding. )   
The animals were generally dangerous animals that were able to fight back against the venatores, thus ensuring an exciting show for the spectators.
For better or worse, however, this was not always the case.
On one occasion, the Emperor Commodus entered the arena himself and killed a large number of ostriches and other large necked birds in an effort to display his prowess to the crowds. The crowds reportedly cheered although as it would have been dangerous for them not to, they seem to have cheered under duress.
This booklet will only discuss venatio in a superficial manner.

4.                   Chariot races
The Romans loved chariot races, and they were a major part of activity in the arena as well as spectator sports throughout the Roman Empire. 
Although Roman chariot races make a wonderful subject for exciting games, we will not deal with them here. There are, however, several good games that cover Roman chariot races. Not only that, but some Roman gladiator rules include rules for chariots and in some cases extend them to chariot races.

5.                   Mock land battles
Gladiatorial combat involved individual or small groups of highly trained fighters.
By contrast, the Romans occasionally held much larger battles, consisting of small virtual armies and have them fight for the entertainment of the crowds. Like the gladiator fights, the combatants were usually slaves and not willing participants. When compared to the the gladiator contests however, these fights were  much more bloody and the risk of death much higher.
Although a slave, a gladiator was a highly trained, highly specialized, and well fed slave, with the capacity to earn its owner great wealth and prestige and thus highly valuable. Although he, or in some cases, she, might not have much value as a human being, they did have a high value as a commodity and thus a gladiator’s life would not be thrown away casually. Therefore most gladiatorial battles did not end in death for the fighters. (Exact casualty rates will be discussed later.)
By contrast, the fighters in the large scale battles were also slaves but were not trained and did not have as high a monetary value. Therefore, as they possessed less value, it did not matter so much if they died.  So for that reason these battles were not just larger, but also had a high rate of fatalities.
Of course, these could make interesting wargames, particularly as a variant on the more common ancient miniatures battle. A good set of medium size battle rules would be required. However, as the size of the battles and rules required are very different from those of the better known, more common gladiatorial battles these mock land battles will not be discussed in much depth here either.

6.                   Naumachea
Not only did the Romans have mock land battles in which large numbers of slaves were forced to fight one another to the death, but they also had mock naval battles using real ships on artificial lakes, again for the amusement of spectators.  These, too, resulted in large numbers of deaths and casualties.
Again, these could make interesting games. However, as the rules for small scale naval battles are very different from those for small scale gladiatorial battles, they will not be covered except in a cursory manner here.
Romans did not like to see themselves defeated so the battles they recreated rarely involved Rome itself. (Nossov 2009, 41-43) (Junkelmann 2000, 74) (Auget 1994, 1972, 68-71)

7.                   Noxii
The Roman legal system tended to be both brutal and public. For many reasons, including showing that justice was swift and harsh and that the bad would be punished it was considered appropriate for condemned people to be killed in front of a crowd of enthused spectators.  There were several ways in which such condemned people were executed. These included being bound to stakes then fed to or mauled by animals, bound to stakes, then lit on fire (sometimes after being covered with enough pitch and such so that they would be able to function as a torch and light the arena) or put in the arena free, and then mauled and eaten by animals.
The victims of such executions, the people condemned to die, were called “Noxii.”
I cannot imagine that such events would make a good game, and therefore will not discuss them much here. 
Along similar lines, the Emperor Claudius, one of several emperors known for decadent and elaborate spectacles, arranged one in which the sack of a British town or city was simulated for the entertainment of the crowd with he taking the role of commanding general of the sacking army in the event. (Auget 1994, 1972, 70-71)

8.                   Mythological dramas held in the amphitheater (were these the executions?)
In some cases, the Romans put extra time and effort into these executions in order to provide a better spectacle and more entertainment for the audience. Sometimes these executions would take the form of a drama, often from legend or myth, with a condemned person taking the central role. For instance, many know the tale of Icarus, the man who built wings and flew only to fly too close the sun, have the wax on his wings melt, the wings collapse, and then fall to earth and die unable to fly anymore.
The Romans might act this out in the arena in front of a crowd. They might get a pulley system and a rope, take a condemned prisoner, then put wings on him, hoist him up and swing him around for the amusement of the crowd while the audience “oohs” and “aahs” and cheers. All the while someone would narrate the story of Icarus, and then, at the key point where the wings falls off and Icarus plummets to his death, the arena workers would release the rope from which the condemned man hung, causing him to fall to his death.
Gaming possibilities? Not many, and therefore this subject also will not be covered much here.

9.                   Ordinary, by modern standards, performers

Finally, it’s worth mentioning that ordinary dramatic performers would perform in the arena.
These would include dramatic troupes that would perform theatrical presentations such as dramas and comedies. Trained animal acts would also perform. There were a wide variety of such performers.
For better or worse, however, it’s difficult to imagine them as subject of a wargame and therefore they will not be dealt with much further here.



[1] Someone once commented that one of the keys to understanding ancient and medieval history is to realize that many adult type decisions, including “what do we do with the animals at the animal show, once the show is over?” were being made by teenagers or even adolescents.


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