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As I´m busy with getting a gladiator impression together, I´m now planning making the subligaculum and linen arm- and leg guards.
Now, in modern gladiator impressions I see subligaculum in different colors, but the linen arm- and leg guards are always done in white linen.
Why not use linen in the same color as your subligaculum?
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Don't know why, but all the mosaics I've seen have white for the arm and leg pads. I don't see why you couldn't make them however you want, though, the rule book didn't survive. :lol:
M. Demetrius Abicio
(David Wills)
Saepe veritas est dura.
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well, my guess is that a gladiator didnt care much about what he looked like. He fought to live another day, as long as his equipment was well maintaned and in good shape i think that color was the least of his worries
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The lanista took care of the equipment of the gladiators and when looking at the richly decorated helmets and armor from Pompeii they were equipped with lavish stuff. Hence the material of the subligacula might be colored and maybe even gold threads woven into at least the fringes etc.
As for the manicae and leg protections made out of material and not metal they are of rough linen, at least that's what we use in our group. It should not be a soft material but a rough one so it gains some stability esp. when stuffed with horse hair or sheep wool etc.
I hope I remember it correctly from the textile experts among my reenactor friends that linen is much harder to dye than wool. Also as for the leg guards of the murmillo and those of the thraex/hoplomachus they are underneath the greave so why bothering with died material.
But that's just an assumption.
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Quote:I hope I remember it correctly from the textile experts among my reenactor friends that linen is much harder to dye than wool.
Quote:when looking at the richly decorated helmets and armor from Pompeii they were equipped with lavish stuff. Hence the material of the subligacula might be colored and maybe even gold threads woven into at least the fringes etc.
That is my understanding too. Gladiators could have lavish equipment with gold and silver decorated arms and armour. There are several images of gladiators with fringes and tassles decorating both their tunics and legs. even decorated hose appears on some sources.
Graham.
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe.
"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.
"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
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Quote:I hope I remember it correctly from the textile experts among my reenactor friends that linen is much harder to dye than wool.
That is correct. But also linen that's dyed is a lot weaker than undyed linen. The chances that dyed linen survives a long time in the soil are very small. So the lack of archaeological finds of coloured linen is caused either by the fact that dyed linen was uncommon, or because dyed linen is very prone to deteriorate...
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The leggings of the thraex and hoplomachus are often shown brightly colored and patterned, possibly embroidered. They are usually depicted as so tight-fitting that I doubt they were protective, but rather were trousers, the high greaves providing sufficient protection.
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Quote:The leggings of the thraex and hoplomachus are often shown brightly colored and patterned, possibly embroidered. They are usually depicted as so tight-fitting that I doubt they were protective, but rather were trousers, the high greaves providing sufficient protection.
I only know of one depiction where the leggings of the thraex appear colored and that is a mural from Pompeii of the tomb of C. Vestorius Priscus where the leggings appear in a dark red decorated with circles and squares in white. This dates of course in the 1st century AD.
The mural from the villa in Mechern (Saarland, Germany) shows also tight fitting leggings of the hoplomachus but they are white. His subligaculum is also white decorated only with a fancy seam in red. This dates most likely to the second half of the 2nd century AD.
But when looking at some reliefs e.g. the one of the monument of Lucius Storax from Chieti, Italy or from Pompeii they show that the thraeces/hoplomachi wear padded leggings. Sometimes these might have been kind of shorts but on other depictions also padded leggings worn beneath the greave.
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The Zliten mosaic shows thraeces and hoplos wearing colored leggings. One thracian wears blue, another seems to be patterned. Plus, the oddly-helmed provocators seem to be wearing a single colored legging on the greaved leg.
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I found a colored picture of this mosaic in the Junkelmann book. When having a close look all leg and arm guards of all gladiators depicted are colored, even the manica of one eques appears in red with blue stripes. The thraex and the hoplomachus wear leg and arm guards in the same color as their subligacula in this case some bluish-grey. Even the greaves have in their middle part bluish-grey colors and not the golden as on the lower and upper parts of the greaves. But also the manica of the murmillones and of the only depicted provocator on the right are shown in this bluish-grey. Usually one would assume it indicates metal instead of cloth, but the leggings made out of metal... :roll: So do all the gladiators wear colored leg and arm guards :roll: Or is it just an artistic expression playing with the colors and not depicting the real colors worn by the combatants :roll:
Coming back to Jurjen's original question (we concentrated too much on the thraex/hoplomachus leggings) I would say depending on the century you, Jurjen want to do your impression and the gladiator type and if representing a gladiator from an Imperial or provincial ludus you could use either natural linen or colored one.
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Given the purpose of the show, white would be a good colour - it would soak up and show bloodstains from wounds very well, for the crowd's edification. Remember also that 'white' was not a natural colour, and had some significance in Rome ( think 'candidates' wearing white).......
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Okay. I'm now concentrating on flavian times and both secutor and retiarius impression. For the secutor I think I will make all the clothing in the same color. Hopefully I could put some pictures of my new impression online in a couple of months.
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Quote:Okay. I'm now concentrating on flavian times and both secutor and retiarius impression.
Do you wanna fight against yourself? :mrgreen: Don't worry, I'm just kidding... 
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Quote:Do you wanna fight against yourself? :mrgreen: Don't worry, I'm just kidding...
If I could, I would like that! But for now my friend would like to be the retiarius, so I gonna fight as secutor, but would like to know to fight with the trident too. (and because most of the gear would be mine, I'm also doing and retiarius impression)
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When using the trident, don't overlook "forking" the opponent's blade and twisting it out of his hand...also, use the square back edge of the trident to pull his shield away from his body and quickly thrust into the torso. Nice move if you can manage it.
As secutor, consider how to prevent those two things.
M. Demetrius Abicio
(David Wills)
Saepe veritas est dura.
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