Cohort of British Auxiliaries on Hadrian\'s Wall

[Peroni]

Feminalia or braccae? or doesn't it matter? - just want to look very rough round the edges.

Most, if not all of our reconstructions come from archaeological and sculptural evidence. Scant though the finds are, there have been long trousers preserved in peat bogs. The Angeln trousers that most of our braccae are modelled on for example. The rest is sculptural evidence.

Trajan’s Column depicts auxiliary soldiers, both infantry and cavalry wearing femenalia, but one Germanic auxiliary has most definitely got on a pair of long braccae. This depiction is used in ‘Roman Military Clothing 1’ by Graham Sumner. As for long sleeved tunicae, the tombstones of Titus Flavius Bassus, and Longinus Sdapeze, both auxiliaries, though cavalrymen, definitely dated to the first century AD both show the soldiers wearing the same type of long sleeves with turned-back cuffs.

generally speaking we don't really know for certain. The Mainz pedestal shows no leg coverings, neither do the Rhineland tombstones. Trajan's Column shows femenalia.

For parade order, certainly a more Romanised look would apply, particularly post 70AD. Braccae could well have been worn in the field or on campaign.

In 99AD, the new emperor Trajan brought the equites singulari Augusti to Rome. He saw to it that they looked as ‘Roman’ as possible. Like frontier troops of the line, they wore sleeveless or short-sleeved tunics and knee-length breeches. (Femenalia). This suggests that when the troops were on campaign or in the field that they wore un-Roman clothing, namely long sleeves and long trousers.

In the writings of Tacitus (Histories book 2.20) we find…

“Caecina, who seemed to have left his cruelty and profligacy on the other side of the Alps, advanced through Italy with his army under excellent discipline. The towns and colonies, however, found indications of a haughty spirit in the general's dress, when they saw the cloak of various colours, and the trousers, a garment of foreign fashion, clothed in which he was wont to speak to their toga-clad citizensâ€