Roman Legionary Clothing

[Jim Patrick]

This is more of continuation of a discussion started by myself (by asking questions of which, apparently, I'm not well educated on) and continued by Harry Ford of Amsterdam. A VERY good discussion started there. To read the discussion, look here:

http://www.planetfigure.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40319

I would like for those that know more than the average modeler/painter to help the rest of us out by explaining the clothing (mostly colors) worn by roman legionaires.

To start off, I have several questions.

1- The research that shows/proves these colors of tunics worn by the Roman Legionarie. Not that I'm trying to discount anyone's opinions. It's just that so I, as well as others, are more educated on this subject.

2- What about the cloaks (capes?) seen worn on so many figures? What were these normally made of and what color were these?

3- Trousers. Same as #2.

4- When on campaign, what would the colors of the aforementioned items be? I guess I should say "marching order" as I'm sure before a major battle Legionaries would have time and could put the best clothing on to present their best appearance on the battlefield. For instance, at Teutenberg Wald, it's my understanding the Roman columns were not expecting a battle and therefore did not deploy into any type of formations. What would the Roman clothing look like there?

Lets get a discussion going on this subject as there are litteraly tons of Roman figures on the market and this could help us all to render a more accurate figure.

Jim Patrick

My thanks to Harry Ford for giving me the inspiration to start this thread and setting me straight on several things I was grossly mistaken on.

 

[Jim Patrick]

To show everyone what was discussed by Harry and I, here are the posts...

Very nice looking figure! Only knowing very little about Roman armor and weapons, I can only state what I do know vs. what I don't know.

Starting with the figure as a whole, everything seems to be correct with only a few things, of which I'm not sure of. Mainly, the Javelin (or Pilum). Is this correct for this time period? I'm not sure and hopefully someone else will come along and educate me. I know there were 3 "main" types. I only know of what 2 look like (see the picture below). The third type had a spike head. Could this be it? I just don't know. The shield looks beautiful and while it may not fit our view of "popular" Roman shields, keep in mind they were painted differently, especially during this early period. The chain mail, while it does seems to be lacking the detail that we have grown used to, I personally don't find it too off the mark. It's also nice to see this Roman wearing the correct colored tunic as this color was the norm vs. the red that Hollywood has made us believe to be correct.

Without a doubt, I will buy this figure and hopefully someone who is more knowledgeable on things Roman will come along and set me straight if I am incorrect on anything.

Jim Patrick

Quote:
"...Mainly, the Javelin (or Pilum). Is this correct for this time period? ..."
Originally Posted by Jim Patrick

He is holding a thrusting spear. This makes him one of the older veterans who formed the third line and the tactical reserve. The Romans called them triarii or pilani. So, yes, it's completely correct.


Quote:
"It's also nice to see this Roman wearing the correct colored tunic as this color was the norm vs. the red that Hollywood has made us believe to be correct."
Originally Posted by Jim Patrick
It's also nice to see this Roman wearing the correct colored tunic as this color was the norm vs. the red that Hollywood has made us believe to be correct.

Red and white tunics are both correct. There's good evidence for both of these colours. Red tunics are not a "Hollywood" invention (in fact, if you look at the old big sword and sandal epics many of the Roman soldiers wear white tunics!).

Thanks Harry. I thought the red tunics, while they were worn, were not worn normally by the rank and file due to the cost and dyes that were needed at the time to produce red tunics. It was my understanding the red tunics were normally worn by officers and senior centurions (NCO's). Is this correct or incorrect?

Jim Patrick

That's an old theory that really isn't supportable any more on the basis of the evidence. There's been a lot of research done on this in the last few years. Unfortunately a few academics haven't caught up yet and you still see this old "red for centurions, white for legionaries" rule referenced; the recent Osprey books on the Roman Legionary are a case in point.

This forum isn't really the place to go into it in great detail, but to summarise the large corpus of evidence that exists: "white" (most likely un-dyed wool), dyed red and un-dyed red-brown wool (called "poor man's purple" by one of the Roman authors) were all commonly worn. Some Roman literary sources say that red was regarded as especially suitable for battledress. There's plenty of other evidence that the Romans certainly regarded red as a "warlike" colour. There are also a few examples of blue and green tunics on soldiers. The only common colour not attested for Roman soldiers' tunics is bright yellow. Sure enough we read of characters who liked to wear yellow being derided as effeminate by Roman writers, and one even says it wasn't popular for men's clothes since it was the colour that Roman brides wore.

Officers weren't distinguished from other ranks based on the colour of their clothes (taking into account more expensive cloth and dyes probably worn by officers. Pure bleached white is mentioned once being worn by officers on a formal parade.). Red wasn't an expensive dye. The Romans used madder or a common plant called "bedstraw" to produce the dye. They could get anything from a good blood red to a pale greyish-pink out of it.

 

[megroot]

Good discussion.
I hope dr Mike is dropping in for this.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

At Teutoburger Wald the formations could not be held due to the small trails through the woods. But its true they didnt expect to battle.

Cheers
Janne Nilsson

 

[renarts]

Hey Jim. Great idea.
One of the reasons red was a popular color for the romans, much like it was for the british army...madder....is inexpensive, relatively available and good for dyeing lots of wool/linen.
If you look at some of the evidence you'll find red and white(off white or natural linen) seems pretty popular. Frescoes of battle scenes from the National Museum in Rome, apparently dating to the 1st cent. BC, show roughly the same number of red and white tunics, plus other tunics in the scenes reflect the use of other colors but there is no distinction as to whether these are military or civilian.

The Barberini Nilotic mosaic from Palestrina shows a number of soldiers whose tunics are visible and are white. One figure with a helmet but no body armor is wearing a reddish tunic. Scorpion emblems on their scuta may indicate that these troops are Praetorians. The entire scene has been dismissed as showing non-Roman Hellenistic soldiers by some authorities, but this may be debatable.

A number of wool fragments were recovered from the pre-Hadrianic fort at Vindolanda. Fifty of these were analysed for dye traces, and 8 contained some or all of the chemical components of madder, a common red dye. One, a checked piece, had traces of a purple lichen dye; a few had traces of dye but not enough to identify the color; and the rest (apparently nearly 40) had no detectable dye traces at all.

A number of tunics were found in the Cave of Letters at En Gedi, including one red and at least three white or off-white. All had clavi (2 vertical stripes).

Regarding cloaks, these are pretty varied. The sagum was the name of the cloak worn on top of the armor by members of the Roman military during the periods of the Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire. The sagum consisted of a simple rectangular segment of heavy material, knee length, open in the front and fastened by a metal or leather clasp or safety-pin-like “fibula”. The sagum symbolised a garment of war as opposed to the toga which symbolised a garment of peace. The sagum cloaks also doubled as bedrolls for the soldiers. A shorter version of the Sagum was called the Sagutum. The color of the sagum worn by common soldiers was usually a dull red, whereas the cloaks of higher ranking officers were dyed in a more expensive bright scarlet. Cloaks of brown-yellow and blue-gray were also worn. Usually made of wool.

A lighter leather cloak would be used for rain or inclement weather. This was called the The paenula was a very simple type of Roman cloak consisting of a piece of material with a central hole allowing the wearer to slip the cloak over the head. It was worn by both men and women, generally used as protection against bad weather. The paenula was made of either leather (paenula scortae), or very heavy felt (paenula gausapina). Only the cheapest materials were used for slaves and laborers which were made in the plainest of colors. Felt was one of the cheapest materials to produce by matting, condensing and pressing fibers, predating weaving and knitting.

The paludamentum was an expensive ankle length cloak, like a semi-circular cape, fastened on the right shoulder with a gold or jewelled clasp or brooch, which was worn on state occasions. The paludamentum was a bright red cloak first worn during the period of the Roman Republic by generals over their armor or consuls and dictators. The paludamentum was presented as part of the ceremony of inauguration on the Capitoline Hill in Rome. During the period of the Roman Empire the paludamentum was worn at state occasions as a symbol of imperial power by the Roman Emperors. The paludamentum worn by the Roman Emperors was usually colored purple but they also wore other expensive colors such as red, violet or dark blue. The shape of the material used to make the paludamentum was at first rectangular but as time passed the top corners of the material were cut to fit the shoulders in a more snug fashion.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

What colour where the stripes in on the red tunica?

Cheers
Janne Nilsson

 

[renarts]

Janne, the info I have says purple or a dark red, but it does not distinguish whether this is on a red or white tunic. The best it does is say if its equestria or senator depending on the location and width.

 

[Jim Patrick]

VERY enlightening Mike! Hopefully this doesn't end here but keeps going.

What about the trousers Mike? Any info on these or was this just more an after thought? After thought meaning more of a "whatever works" approach.

A question. Would I be incorrect in saying that the tunics ( considering the time and hygene at the time) would wear to a grungy-ish color? For instance the white or off white could turn to a dirty khaki color or the red could turn to a faded, more worn red? I only ask this because I am not even close to being familiar with dyes and their tendency to fade over time and with exposure.

Thanks,
Jim Patrick

 

[renarts]

Braccae (trousers) were usually made of wool. Depending on where they were deployed (the legions) would determine how long or short. In the first century AD, Roman auxiliary soldiers took to wearing the tight-fitting knee-length breeches called either braccae or feminalia (the terms seem interchangeable, although some modern scholars think feminalia refers to knee-length breeches, while braccae refers to full-length trousers). Their use started with the auxiliary cavalry (Equestrian units likely used leather because of the advantage of the "close" seat that leather provides in a saddle. Kind of like wearing chaps, and the chaffing that can result.) and spread to the infantry, until, by the time Trajan's Column was erected, they were ubiquitous among all types of auxiliaries, or non-citizen soldiers. Legionaries eventually adopted the fashion as well, despite the longtime Roman bias against any kind of trousers as being fit only for "hairy barbarians or effeminate Orientals". Praetorians on a monument erected for Antoninus Pius ca. AD 148 are shown wearing both the lorica segmentata and breeches, as are legionaries on a monument of Marcus Aurelius. The Historia Augusta, a collection of Imperial biographies composed in the fourth century AD, records that the Emperor Severus Alexander wore "white breeches instead of the normal red ones." From this we can deduce that red was the normal color, although whether this applied for all soldiers or just officers and/or emperors is an open question

Legionaries were given a clothing allowance and would have regularly replaced their clothing as it got nasty. Though while on a long campaign and infrequent supply stops would of course render the clothes "worn". As they became unwearable, they would most likely be turned into leg wrappings, focale (scarf) to protect neck chaffing from armor, Udones (socks), or useful rags and patches for other garments.

As an addendum to my previous post, the use of clavii, vertical stripes woven into the tunic, usually in pairs, was apparently not restricted to senators as once thought. And no real evidence to show that they were worn in the red military tunics.

 

[marius'mules]

The debate of what color was Legionaries tunics is a ongoing one. There is good contemporary evidence that the color of the tunics for the rank & file of the ordinary Legionary while on campaign, was a off white/un-dyed/natural color and, that only centurions "may" have worn red tunics.

However, it is possible that un-dyed tunics were worn in peacetime or off-duty by the rank & file legionaries and centurions, while red was worn by both for going to war or going to battle--but, again this is based on conjecture.

Nothing in the debate has been proven either way, and every thing is still based on logic & conjecture.

The best information is in Graham Sumner's book Roman Military Dress, he presents a logical argument for the tunic color i.e; un-dyed, but he makes no solid conclusions. Essential reading!

 

[Jim Patrick]

Thanks Steve. Following your advice, I found Roman Military Dress at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Roman-Militar...5766/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1305403087&sr=8-1

I also found two other titles that seem interesting.

ARMS AND ARMOUR OF THE IMPERIAL ROMAN SOLDIER: From Marius to Commodus

http://www.amazon.com/ARMS-ARMOUR-IMPERIAL-ROMAN-SOLDIER/dp/1848325126/ref=pd_sim_b_1

Legionary: The Roman Soldier's (Unofficial) Manual

http://www.amazon.com/Legionary-Soldiers-Unofficial-Manual-Manuals/dp/0500251517/ref=pd_sim_b_4

Steve or Mike, (or anyone else) do you have any information on these other two books? Interesting looking books....

Jim Patrick

 

[renarts]

Jim,
Sumner's book is a good one and if you're going to start building a reference library of this period, essential as a foundational addition to that library. It is geared more to the student of history and has plenty of primary documentation to back up his conclusions and information. It does have some very good references and is a good scholastic work. I'm not familiar with the other one but from those I've talked to it is more of a logistical and organizational reference to the roman army and is written in with some humor and supposedly a good read with some good information.
D. Petersons book from Window and Green of "The Roman Legions recreated in color photographs" is a pretty good reference and definitely a must have in your library. Gives a feel to the hang and drape of cloth and equipment better than reference illustrations. Some great detail photos and essentially a good walk around of the legion.
Some other good titles:
Excavations at Dura Europos 1928-1937 - Final Report VII, by S. James
Roman Military Equipment - by M. Bishop and J. Coulston

Here are some web links that might help you out as well.
http://www.romanlegions.info/
http://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat/

 

[marius'mules]

Thanks Steve. Following your advice, I found Roman Military Dress at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Roman-Militar...5766/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1305403087&sr=8-1

I also found two other titles that seem interesting.

ARMS AND ARMOUR OF THE IMPERIAL ROMAN SOLDIER: From Marius to Commodus

http://www.amazon.com/ARMS-ARMOUR-IMPERIAL-ROMAN-SOLDIER/dp/1848325126/ref=pd_sim_b_1

Legionary: The Roman Soldier's (Unofficial) Manual

http://www.amazon.com/Legionary-Soldiers-Unofficial-Manual-Manuals/dp/0500251517/ref=pd_sim_b_4

Steve or Mike, (or anyone else) do you have any information on these other two books? Interesting looking books....

Jim Patrick

Jim, Yes I have a copy of "Roman Soldier's: unofficial manual" it's very informative but, geared more toward the daily aspect of the Legionaries routine.

I have "Arms and armour of the Imperial roman solder" which is also by Sumner. Very good information covering the accoutrements and other items of the Legionary from the late Republic era to the late Imperial era.--very informative. I like Sumner's style; because he offers very good logical arguments based on sound archeological & anthropological research--but he admits that it's not definitive.

Mike is right; If you want to build a good reference library of the Roman legionary, two books by Sumner "Roman Military Dress" and "Arms and Armour of the Imperial Roman Solder" should be the first books you buy.


Also, You may consider shooting Matt Amt a email, and picking his brain about tunic color, or anything else pertaining to Roman legionaries of the Imperial era---He is the C.O. of Legio XX-"Valeria Victrix" i.e; A very authentic Imperial Roman reenacting unit on the east coast. Mat was also a consultant for "Arms and armour of the Imperial Roman solder".

matthew_amt@ yahoo.com

Also here is a link to his unit website...there is a plethora of info on the Roman Legionaries equipment and other trappings.
http://www.larp.com/legioxx/index.html

 

[Jim Patrick]

and this just keeps getting better and better....

Jim Patrick