Ave,
Does anyone have information they would share or could direct me to concerning wet weather clothing worn by the Romans.
I have a hard time thinking, especially in Britain, that a Roman soldier would stand on duty, or off duty, in the rain of Europe without some type of covering to protect his armor, weapons, ect... Surely they would have rain proof clothing that would exclude the elements.
Thank you in advance...
Gracillis ~
For the body, wool. It insulates even when wet. Wool and wool/linen blend paenula, sagum, and such "cloaks" and possibly wools socks (udones) and closed-toed boots in provinces like Brittania. campaign season was late spring to fall so most inclimate weather was spent at a permanent fort during winter.
Wool to keep warm, and a heathly dose of oil (like almond which does not go rancid like many food oils do) to protect metals and you're good to go. Regardless of oiling your metal, I think one thing legionaries did during winter was to tear apart and/or repair & clean metal components of their kits for the next campaign season. I've dribbled enough water on my segmentata while drinking to know that oiling that metal is crucial.
Also, tin and silver plating on pugios, gladius scabbards, military belt parts, etc. would also help prevent oxidation and rusting on steel and iron. Leather papillio tents would keep out lots of moisture and rain at night. Boiled flax oil (Linseed) would bead water off your wood components (pilum shaft, etc.). And brass and bronze don't rust like steel and iron do, so a little oil is all they need.
Rain or shine, you're ready for conquest.
Most probably leather garments as well, but we don't know much about that in terms of actual finds. There are some that I know of, but they tend to be so fragmented that sometimes it must even remain doubtful whether they were clothing at all or something else. I guess Graham knows more about what there is in terms of finds of leather garments?
Anyway, I have little doubt something like the cucullus (look here:
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/R ... ullus.html (direct linking not working because of the * in the URL, copy and paste please)) was frequently made of leather and used throughout society.
Found this in Osprey's Romans Military Clothing (2) AD 200-400 illustrated by Graham Sumner:
Thanks for the information Martin and Peter.
There is mention of a garment called a thoracomachus that is described as a leather protective outer garment that was worn over armor. The Sumner book made a little mention of this clothing but are there other period accounts or surviving relics that would better describe this garment.
Also, does anyone have notes or better photos of the petasus hat on page 38 of the same book. It mentions it is made of woolen felt. It is interesting that this hat is so very similar to a cloth quilted hat worn by General R. E. Lee during the US Civil War. With the exception of the brim, the crown and construction appear very close...
I would really like to reproduce this hat but would like to gather more notes before attempting the project...
Any information would be more than welcome...
The Chancelleria Relief shows some Flavian Praetorians wearing paenula. A clsoe examination of the paenula edge show what appears to be two layers. A thin outter and thicker inner layer. By conjecture the outer layer couls be thin leather or water resistant canvas like material, and the inner, a thick wool layer for insulation.
Gaius Decius Aquilius
(Ralph Izard)
Salvete omnes,
I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.
I believe what you're seeing is the paenula and sub-paenula. I've read,I'm sure,Graham Sumner speak on occasion of a sub-paenula which was thinner and helped to bolster the warming effect of the paenula.
The wool, itself, would have natural lanolin which woul be resistant to water.
Valete,
Wool is also pretty waterproof. If you brush the knap of the fabric in a downward direction the water will roll off. It has natural oils (lanolins) which keep the sheep dry and you can buy this as a spray to apply to the fabric.
Check out this website in Australia..
http://www.lanotec.com.au/
The product in the 'ready-to-use' trigger spray bottle on the far right of the picture is fantastic stuff! Great for leather, wool, metal etc etc..
Wool that has not been dyed with modern dyes or processed with modern techniques retains its lanolin, and, is water repellant.
To summarise some of the useful comments above and to add one or two of my own, wool is definitely the material to use (it would have been the normal material in use anyway). The Romans also had a much larger range of clothing available to them than most people nowadays would normally assume, even without having to go 'native'.
As has been pointed out, as well as paenulae there were also subpaenulae - cloaks and undercloaks if you will. Some cloaks could also be of oiled leather, although as has been pointed out already, undyed wool retains a good degree of water resistence and might account for the yellow brown colour that Graham Sumner says most paenulae depicted in frescos are shown as being. There was also the sagum, which was a very voluminous and presumably warm cloak.
Then there was also the fact that it was normal practice to wear more than one tunic when it was cold (Augustus reputely habitually wore as many as four tunics at any one time). When you take into account how big tunics actually were (elbow to elbow should be seen as an absolute minimum width and shoulder to calf should be seen as an absolute minimum length, with many tunics apparently being more or less square), a tunic already contains a lot of warm wool. Wearing more than one tunic doubles or triples the insulation.
As has been noted above socks were worn, both woven and made from sprang work, as were leg bindings similar to the puttees used in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is quite possible that soldiers also adopted locally produced items such as the leg wrappings being worn by the figure in Graham Sumner's painting. I use these myself in cold weather and can attest to the warmth and insulation they provide. Added to this are enclosed boots such as the one from Mainz and various types of enclosed locally available footwear. Locally aquired long sleeved woollen tunics may aso have been used in cold weather (quite possibly in conjuction with Roman type tunics to produce the same layering that a soldier would normally get when wearing more than one tunic. The Roman tunic contains a lot more wool than a Germanic or British tunic (as far as we know) but the British and Germanic tunics are likely to have had sleeves which the Roman tunics lacked, although the width of some tunics means they end up effectively having sleeves anyway without any tailoring being necessary.
Paenulae seem normally to have been provided with hoods, as subpaenulae may also have been and saga were big enough that plenty of woollen material was available to be pulled up over the head to form a pseudo hood. Straw hats were almost certainly used in hot weather and it is quite possible that felt and or leather hats of similar brimmed design were used in wet or cold weather.
To this collection of clothing we can also add scarves. These almost certainly resembled modern scarves (even down to the tasselled ends)although it is possible that they may have been somewhat wider.
Regarding the thoromachus, I think that that is normally assumed to be a padded garment worn under armour and thus techically armour rather than clothing, hence Graham not mentioning them. I think the garment you were thinking of was the coat of Libyan hyde, although the jury is still very much out on what this actually was.
I hope this helps.
Crispvs
Hi
Quote:Regarding the thoromachus, I think that that is normally assumed to be a padded garment worn under armour and thus technically armour rather than clothing, hence Graham not mentioning them. I think the garment you were thinking of was the coat of Libyan hyde, although the jury is still very much out on what this actually was.
Not much to add on winter clothing as it has been neatly answered by Paul Crispus. However I did in fact illustrate a reconstructed Thoracomachus in vol 2 of Roman Military Clothing.
Quote:There is mention of a garment called a thoracomachus that is described as a leather protective outer garment that was worn over armor. The Sumner book made a little mention of this clothing but are there other period accounts or surviving relics that would better describe this garment.
I do not think there are any ancient accounts which describe the Thoracomachus as leather but perhaps as Paul has mentioned you have confused it with the other garment supposedly worn over it which was made of Lybian hide.
Overcloaks and undercloaks are mentioned in ancient sources, such as the Vindolanda writing tablets, they would most likely be made of wool but the leather cloak from Denmark illustrated above shows that such garments existed and they may have found their way into the Roman armies. The third century Caracalla is essentially a long Paenula which itself continued in use and was still worn by soldiers in the fifth century AD although it is often said it disappeared from use in the military.
I too would favour the use of leg wrappings, especially as I suffered a badly torn calf muscle during an Ermine Street Guard display after standing around for a while in the cold and then suddenly moving. If wearing a piece of wool wrapped around the lower leg would have prevented that I am sure old salts in the Roman army would have thought it a sensible idea too. Certainly gladiators, hunters and other outdoor laborers seemed to have used them as a matter of course However the idea of soldiers wearing them was totally rejected by Bishop and Coulston in their recent updated book on Roman Military Equipment.
Graham.
Quote:Certainly gladiators, hunters and other outdoor laborers seemed to have used them as a matter of course However the idea of soldiers wearing them was totally rejected by Bishop and Coulston in their recent updated book on Roman Military Equipment.
And not just for warmth either, they certainly stop your legs getting torn to pieces in bracken and undergrowth! :wink:
And worn in agricultural circles until recently. For example, from an Italian wine web-site:-
"NERO BUONO DI CORI
The variety appears to be cultivated almost exclusively in and around the territory of Cori, a township located in the province of Latina some thirty five miles to the south of Rome. The town is in the area of the Latium region known as "Ciociara", whose inhabitants took their name from the "cioce", or sandals with leg wrappings which resemble puttees, once worn by the agricultural laborers of the zone. "
http://www.montecastelli.com/tmplt.cfm/ ... to_eng.htm
Leather leg wrappings (below the knee) were also used in the British army (IIRC) before WW2. I even own a pair that were bought on ebay and are too small for me!
Cheers
Caballo
Gentlemen,
Thanks so much for the information. This was more than I expected. The most interesting is the idea of wearing several tunicas, using the layering principle.
I live in a part of the US where it can be above 100 degrees in the summer and as we are now experiencing, have 4' of snow in the winter. So I want to expand my impression to accommodate the seasons so I can be involved in more outdoor types of living history.
Again thanks to all....(laudes for all who gave me information)
Respectfully,