by Aldus Marius on Sun Feb 13, 2005 2:59 am
Ave iterum, amica!
Actually, a long time ago I had a Truly Fiendish Evil Grin of an idea which I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned here before. I was going to buy some land...well, a lot of land...in Southern Oklahoma and build a Roman living-history park. I had the spot all picked out; seven hills near a bend in the Red River... >({|;-)
There'd be my domus, of course; a reconstructed Legionary fortress with attached reenactor unit; a theater for putting on Classical plays; an ancient-Roman restaurant; a library/museum complex that'd bear more than a passing resemblance to the Temple of Iuppiter on the Capitoline; maybe a hippodrome for chariot-races; and a big open area (Campus Martius) for the kiddos to play Little Legion in the summertime.
The coolest part, as far as I was concerned, would be the staffing: The park would be peopled with full-time reenactors, classical-studies interns, and really anybody else who'd like to take a stab at bein' a Roman for a season or a semester. They'd be housed in proper insulae, good sturdy ones like the ones at Ostia. We'd host SCA and reenactor events, live wargames, live roleplaying games, and maybe a Roman 'Renaissance Faire' once or twice a year. The whole feel of the place would be much more Colonial Williamsburg than Disneyland (the latter phenom I'd wish to avoid entirely if at all possible).
Well, I was broke when I cooked this up, and have been broke and homeless since, and now that I am neither I am entirely too old to get something like that off the ground. But what if it had come to pass? And what would you give to see the looks on the archaeologists' faces when they dig the whole thing up a thousand years from now...?
Talk about 'Romans Everywhere'!
Exiit Laughing,
Aldus Marius Peregrinus.