Winter Clothing in 1st century AD legionary re-enactment

[Titvs Statilivs Castvs]

"What would the citizens back in Italy think..."

"Are we forgetting that the Romans may be some of the most arrogant people? "

"They are also some of the most practical people"

"If it worked, they used it."

Not a very scientific way of putting it. I see this kind of assumptions far too much on RAT to justify an opinion or being used to declare a hypothesis as truth. Some of these assumptions present themselves as answering questions which might only be answered by a methodology of a history of mentalities; some of them are just plain wrong (e.g. "if it worked, they used it" - the ancients knew of the steam engine, yet did not use it).
If anyone who uses these assumptions can back up those statements with sources and/or scientific literature, I would be happy to see them and learn something new (no sarcasm intended).

I do not say of course that they are completely wrong - I only question the 'method'.

[spoiler]In addition, however it might seem like that, this is of course not a personal attack. It's just that we don't get any further in finding answers to our questions using non-scientific non-referenced assumptions. Comparable remarks have been given in other topics.[/spoiler]