04-24-2006, 04:20 PM
Hi Jef
After spending nearly twenty seasons wearing the same mail shirt I was quite impressed that I could still fit in it but towards the end of that period I know exactly what you mean by the Michelin man effect! :oops: It was all blousing around the waist, honest! However I was not suggesting that your mail shirt needed to be exactly the same width as your tunic but perhaps just squaring off the 'T' shape as you yourself have suggested.
However you raise other interesting points which in all probability will possibly never be answered. Work around archaeologists long enough and your vocabulary picks up lots of possibles, maybes and probables!
The Roman military tunic in the Egyptian papyrus document BGU1564 is even larger I imagine than your tunic supplied by Cacaius. So something we are not quite sure of yet must be going on. Was this size of tunic altered in some way, common sense would suggest it was as does the number of surviving Roman tunics which have been adjusted by means of tucks around the waist testifies. (See the 'Snappy soldier tunic pleat' thread for further discussions and experiments)
I have pointed out elsewhere that Roman soldiers owned more than one tunic with at least an undress tunic (white?)and perhaps a battledress tunic (red?). One could also add a dress tunic as suggested by the dining tunic mentioned in the Vindolanda Tablets perhaps even better quality undyed linen or fine undyed wool than the undress tunic.. Was the battledress tunic different for wearing under armour? Perhaps, we just do not know for certain. Most re-enactors I guess have looked at and interpreted the tunics on Trajan's column and have already arrived at that conclusion, although the balance of archaeological, literary and iconographic evidence suggests wider tunics were far more common than 'T' shaped ones.
One wide tunic from Mons Claudianus is quite short. At first glance this would probably be classed as a child's or young adults tunic as modesty would suggest it is too short for an adult male. However put bracae on and it makes an ideal shape for an Auxiliary tunic worn under hamata and looks just like those on the Column. The Garrison at Mons Claudianus was Cavalry roughly contemporay with the Trajanic period so that seems perfect but is this putting 2 and 2 together and coming up with 5? Who knows!
Graham.
After spending nearly twenty seasons wearing the same mail shirt I was quite impressed that I could still fit in it but towards the end of that period I know exactly what you mean by the Michelin man effect! :oops: It was all blousing around the waist, honest! However I was not suggesting that your mail shirt needed to be exactly the same width as your tunic but perhaps just squaring off the 'T' shape as you yourself have suggested.
However you raise other interesting points which in all probability will possibly never be answered. Work around archaeologists long enough and your vocabulary picks up lots of possibles, maybes and probables!
The Roman military tunic in the Egyptian papyrus document BGU1564 is even larger I imagine than your tunic supplied by Cacaius. So something we are not quite sure of yet must be going on. Was this size of tunic altered in some way, common sense would suggest it was as does the number of surviving Roman tunics which have been adjusted by means of tucks around the waist testifies. (See the 'Snappy soldier tunic pleat' thread for further discussions and experiments)
I have pointed out elsewhere that Roman soldiers owned more than one tunic with at least an undress tunic (white?)and perhaps a battledress tunic (red?). One could also add a dress tunic as suggested by the dining tunic mentioned in the Vindolanda Tablets perhaps even better quality undyed linen or fine undyed wool than the undress tunic.. Was the battledress tunic different for wearing under armour? Perhaps, we just do not know for certain. Most re-enactors I guess have looked at and interpreted the tunics on Trajan's column and have already arrived at that conclusion, although the balance of archaeological, literary and iconographic evidence suggests wider tunics were far more common than 'T' shaped ones.
One wide tunic from Mons Claudianus is quite short. At first glance this would probably be classed as a child's or young adults tunic as modesty would suggest it is too short for an adult male. However put bracae on and it makes an ideal shape for an Auxiliary tunic worn under hamata and looks just like those on the Column. The Garrison at Mons Claudianus was Cavalry roughly contemporay with the Trajanic period so that seems perfect but is this putting 2 and 2 together and coming up with 5? Who knows!
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.
"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.
